Shockers vs. Bradley

[ShockdaWorld]

Tomorrow night's game against Bradley expected to be a good one?

[WuDrWu]

Tomorrow night's game against Bradley expected to be a good one?

Should be a rout. Bradley is still trying to build a program. At least they won a few non conference matches but they are 0fer in conference.

Anything more than 90 minutes of pain for the Braves would surprise me.

[ShockdaWorld]

Should be a rout. Bradley is still trying to build a program. At least they won a few non conference matches but they are 0fer in conference.

Anything more than 90 minutes of pain for the Braves would surprise me.

Thank Doc. 90 minutes is about the outside of how long I'd hope for it to last with two 8 year old girls with short attention spans tagging along. :)

[WuDrWu]

Saturday with Loyola will be good. Reardon is one of the best players in the league. The Ramblers have been on fire since opening slow in a tourney at home and they are tied with WSU for first as of today.

[WuDrWu]

Thank Doc. 90 minutes is about the outside of how long I'd hope for it to last with two 8 year old girls with short attention spans tagging along. :)

My guess is that they'll love it. My daughter was locked in at that age.

[1972Shocker]

This weekend's schedule is a good example of why the WSU - MSU road swing is traditionally the toughest in the league for the other 8 Valley teams. MSU and WSU can focus their preparation primarily on Loyola, while Loyola has to pretty much divide it's attention between both WSU and MSU in its preparation.

I do think it is a slight advantage to the Shocks to get Bradley on Friday and Loyola on Saturday (as opposed to the opposite). Loyola will have a very difficult match on Friday with Missouri State. The Shocks should have a much easier time of it with Bradley (although it doesn't always work out as expected).

Even if Bradley doesn't prove to be much of a challenge those matches can still be enjoyable. The main thing is to see continued improvement and development by the Shocks. The best way to decide between attending the Bradley match or the Loyola match is to simply eliminate the question and attend both. :biggrin-new:

:poster_shocks:

[JayJ79]

This weekend's schedule is a good example of why the WSU - MSU road swing is traditionally the toughest in the league for the other 8 Valley teams. MSU and WSU can focus their preparation primarily on Loyola, while Loyola has to pretty much divide it's attention between both WSU and MSU in its preparation.

Been saying that for years. It's a big advantage for both MSU and WSU.

[flyingMoose]

Been saying that for years. It's a big advantage for both MSU and WSU.

And even if, for example, Drake developed a quality program year in and year out, the bus ride between Wichita and Springfield is still a Shocker, it is a Bear! :)

[flyingMoose]

Shockers 3-0 Bradley
13, 16, 21

The Shocks finally broke out the 6-2 that Lambo has threatened all year long. McKenzie Fyfe was the second setter. Although there were a few more errors (12 on 83 swings) than he would have liked, he seemed pleased overall. Even if he uses the 6-2 again, it may not be this 6-2. The setter subbed in for the left-side hitters, when (I think) subbing in for the middles is more typical. He noted that they had practice time to work on the Shockers rather than preparing for an opponent, so it was time to see what the 6-2 could do for them. Another of his comments was that the 5-1 was never quite the right scheme for this roster, but the 6-2 was (and still remains) a WIP, so he did not feel he could put it on the court until now.

Jody had 11 kills and hit .632 with only one error, Katie had 10 kills and hit .533, Shimen had 9 kills but hit only .250 with her five errors and Mikaela had a 8-0-12 line for .667. Abbie hit negative for the match, but Lambo said the 6-2 is Abbie-friendly. He credited Bradley for the approach they had for her.

The Shocks hit .410 for the match versus .157. Bradley had 8 blocks for a large part of our 12 errors. The Shockers had 5.5 blocks. We won the serve-receive game. There were more ball-handling errors called tonight than we normally see in the entire season. (Well, there were only 7 called, but it seemed like a lot more than that. And maybe bad sets are not part of BHE.)

[flyingMoose]

Other Scores

Bradley 1-3 Drake (Tue)
17, 23, (22), 16


Missouri State 1-3 Loyola
21, (20), 21, 16
The Ramblers appear to be for real. Tomorrow night will be most interesting. Will we use the 6-2 again?

Indiana State 1-3 Southern Illinois
9, (22), 20, 24

Illinois State 3-0 Evansville
21, 14, 15

[1972Shocker]

Missouri State 1-3 Loyola
21, (20), 21, 16
The Ramblers appear to be for real. Tomorrow night will be most interesting. Will we use the 6-2 again?

That is an impressive win for Loyola. After seeing MSU in Wichita I certainly did not see them being 4-3 at this point. The Valley may not have the one or two really strong teams at the top this year but this is probably the deepest and most balanced the Valley has ever been. I think any of the top 8 teams are capable of knocking off any of the other teams off on a given night with only Evansville and Bradley as perhaps relatively easy touches.

The encouraging thing for the Valley is that there is a lot of young teams in that group and so it would appear things are looking pretty decent for MVC Volleyball for the next couple of years.

[1972Shocker]

Jody had 11 kills and hit .632 with only one error, Katie had 10 kills and hit .533, Shimen had 9 kills but hit only .250 with her five errors and Mikaela had a 8-0-12 line for .667. Abbie hit negative for the match, but Lambo said the 6-2 is Abbie-friendly. He credited Bradley for the approach they had for her.

No doubt Jody, Katie, Mikaela and Shimen were the beneficiaries of Bradley's decision to focus on Abbie. However, earlier in the year when team's successfully dealt with Abbie the Shockers did not seem to be able to come up with a good response elsewhere. Granted this was Bradley, but I still think it is encourgaging to have our other weapons come through when Abbie has been neutralized.

A little while back I opined that I thought the key to the Shockers fortunes would be the play of Mikaela, Shimen and Jody. Mikeala has come on strong for the past 3 weeks, Shimen for the past 2 weeks and Jody Larson probably had her best match as a Shocker last night. Not only was Jody solid on the attack but her defenses was good and her serving was very tough. If those ladies can continue to play at a high level the Shocks will be very tough.

[flyingMoose]

Game article from the Eagle. There are a couple of comments about the pros and cons of the 6-2, in particular, that it may be a good matchup against some teams but not against others.