Final Home Stand vs Evansville (Friday @ 5:00 pm) and SIU (Saturday at 7:00 pm)

[1972Shocker]

The Lady Shocks convincingly swept an improving SIU team tonight 11, 18 and 19. I thought the 1st set was the best set of VB the Ladies have played this year. They were hitting on all cylinders and simply overwhelmed SIU. The weren't quite as good in Sets 2 and 3 but they were still very solid and were simply the better team in pretty much all phases. A great time of the year to start playing their best volleyball. At worst the Shocks will be alone in 3rd place at the end of the day.

The Shocks had a very good kill % of 48.3% and only had 10 attack errors on 83 swings. Half of those attack errors belonged to Masher although she did not play badly by any means. Everyone else were simply very sharp. Emily and her attackers seemed to totally in sync and Emily helped the cause with 4 kills and 4 aces. I thought Emily had a great match moving the ball around.

Perhaps Lambo is getting his machine where he wants it for the MVC Tournament.

Most competitive set of the of the night was the alumni scrimmage. Black 25 - White 23. Enjoyed seeing many of our former Shockers on the floor enjoying themselves.

2,456 in the house tonight. Shocks finish the season averaging 3,078 per match. Nice to get our average back above the 3k mark again.

[1972Shocker]

Other Saturday Scores

Northern Iowa 1-3 Illinois State
17-25, 15-25, 25-19, 16-25 - the Panthers could not make their losing sets particularly close

Missouri State 3-0 Evansville

Drake 3-0 Indiana State

Bradley 2-3 Loyola

Illinois State plays at Drake tomorrow to complete the weekend.

I believe that will move the Shocks into a second place tie with UNI although I think UNI my own the tiebreaker for the #2 seed and the 1st round bye in the Valley Tournament.

Drake sweeping Indiana State was a bit of a surprise.

[JayJ79]

I believe that will move the Shocks into a second place tie with UNI although I think UNI my own the tiebreaker for the #2 seed and the 1st round bye in the Valley Tournament.

Drake sweeping Indiana State was a bit of a surprise.

UNI won both head-to-head matches against WSU, so yes, they own the tiebreak.

And UNI finishes the regular season at Bradley and Loyola, which should be a slightly easier finish than WSU's weekend roadtrip to Indiana State and Illinois State. I suppose the Redbirds could mail it in at that point, having clinched the #1 seed, but I would think that they would still be fighting to keep their NCAA at-large potential alive (their RPI is right in the bubble range) in case they should get upset in the conference tourney.

I wonder if the Redbirds end up struggling at Drake tommorrow, given how Drake took them to 5 sets in Normal, and considering the match starts only 17 hours after tonight's match ended (and they still had to make a 125 mile drive over snowy roads)

[1972Shocker]

UNI won both head-to-head matches against WSU, so yes, they own the tiebreak.

And UNI finishes the regular season at Bradley and Loyola, which should be a slightly easier finish than WSU's weekend roadtrip to Indiana State and Illinois State. I suppose the Redbirds could mail it in at that point, having clinched the #1 seed, but I would think that they would still be fighting to keep their NCAA at-large potential alive (their RPI is right in the bubble range) in case they should get upset in the conference tourney.

I wonder if the Redbirds end up struggling at Drake tommorrow, given how Drake took them to 5 sets in Normal, and considering the match starts only 17 hours after tonight's match ended (and they still had to make a 125 mile drive over snowy roads)

Yeah, just slightly tougher. Shocks could easily lose both matches next weekend although they really are playing their best VB of the season IMHO. At this point it may not really make any difference as the regular season goes because I expect UNI to win both of their remaining matches and secure the #2 seed.

The main goal for the Shockers will be to lock in some consistency of high level play and gain some confidence heading into the Valley Tournament. The Shocks have shown over their last 8.5 sets that they are certainly capable of winning the Valley Tournament as a 3rd or 4th seed. They just need to get that level of play locked in.

To me the main advantage of the #2 seed is that you know you won't be facing the #1 seed until the Tournament final. I'm not totally convinced that playing a 1st round match is all that much of a disadvantage, especially for non-hosting teams. It gives you an opportunity to get another match in the road venue and to work out some kinks and perhaps gain some momentum (of course, you have to win that match).

[flyingMoose]

To me the main advantage of the #2 seed is that you know you won't be facing the #1 seed until the Tournament final.

The same thing holds for the #3 seed, of course. The only difference between the two seeds is the extra game for the #3 seed which you correctly point out is an advantage/disadvantage situation.

[flyingMoose]

Sunday Score

Drake 0-3 Illinois State

[1972Shocker]

I have to say I was a little disappointed we didn't get any post-match coverage of the SIU match on Kansas.com (Wichita Eagle). It was a very busy sports weekend so I suppose they just ran a little thin on resources. Plus since we don't have radio coverage I did not hear Lambo's post-game comments (not that I can hear them anyway on the internet streams).

Looking forward to listening to Lambo's comments on his radio show this evening. I think he is on at 6:30 this evening since 3G and Jody are traveling.

KNSS 1330 on the AM dial.

[flyingMoose]

... (not that I can hear them anyway on the internet streams).

I am told that the issue was Coach Lamb would push his mic away from directly in front of him, and we were only hearing what was picked my Mike's mic. I only heard that explanation over the weekend, so I have had no chance to confirm whether the problem is resolved, of course.

[1972Shocker]

hutchnews.com thought the Shocker win over SIU was worth reporting on. Top notch reporting to boot (by Tony Adame of the Wichita Eagle no less - maybe it was in the Eagle but I could not find in the digital version):

http://www.hutchnews.com/ap/sports/wichita-state-hits-target-in-sweep-of-southern-illinois/article_eb255391-f1d0-5b11-af3c-7ef1bdb57c2f.html

[1972Shocker]

Lambo's Radio Show - November 17, 2014

RPI has climbed 30 spots in a few weeks. Doesn't think they can get it high enough for an at-large bid though.

Ashlyn, Jenny and Masher have all improved nicely in the 2nd half of the season.

No real shortcomings this past weekend.

The difference between UNI and ILS and the Shocks is that UNI and ILS hold teams to lower hitting percentages. However, over the last couple of weeks the Shocks have improved significantly in that area.

Kara Maleski is playing great in practice. Mikaela still not all the way back from her concussion.

Great teaching going on in the gym as he complimented Matt and Sean. Said that he and his assistants really think the game.

Abbie Lehman gets Freshman of the week again. Abbie putting up 1st team All-Conference numbers and still has a lot of upside.

Jenny Whitledge was surprised when Lambo was interested in her. In the past Jenny was probably too hard on herself and had a hard time dealing with her failures. However, she has come a long way in that regard. A year ago she was behind expectations and now she is ahead of expectations.

Emily Heibert starting a year ahead of schedule. Lambo wasn't sure Emily could get the job done this past spring (said she wasn't that clean nor as accurate as he would like) but now he doesn't even think about that and considers her a top 3 or 4 setter in the league.

Katie is the motor of the team and is playing better after a little slump mid-season.

Masher dealing with a very difficult family health issue while at the same time her VB has never been better and is playing with great joy.

Wants to continue to grow and prepare for the Tournament. Hard to get yourself up to play your best at Terre Haute. Small crowds and small, dark gym. Indiana State very tough at home this year and are capable of beating the Shocks.

Lambo thinks his offense can score enough to beat Illinois State but they have to bring the Redbirds attack % down. He said the Shocks were a mess when the played Illinois State in Koch Arena. Perhaps an advantage that we get Illinois State on Saturday as they will have their hands full with MSU on Friday. Can't look past Indiana State however.

Shane pointed out that the Shocks need 2 wins to continue their streak of consecutive 20 win seasons (which I believe is at 11). Lambo said he didn't schedule for 20 wins but for RPI and that streak was fun to talk about but not that important to him. Now getting to a 7th consecutive NCAA appearance would be very significant for this young team.

[flyingMoose]

RPI has climbed 30 spots in a few weeks. Doesn't think they can get it high enough for an at-large bid though.

We have an RPI of 67, second behind the 44 of Illinois State. So yes, ISUr is the only Valley team with a hope for an at-large bid.