Shocks Host Drake (Fri) and UNI (Sat)

[JayJ79]

UNI looked like a team chock full of freshmen in both matches this weekend. ick.

[1972Shocker]

This time I didn't bother - the "kids" were doing the Internet broadcast. The one other time I listened to post-game in that circumstance, I was disappointed - Lambo had to guide them through what they had seen.

On the match, we have to get Shimen going on the left (2-2-14-.000 tonight). Last night, Mash and Jenny also had a go at that spot in the "new" rotation, but they didn't do much better. But yes, there was enough there tonight to get pretty excited about the next few weeks.

Yes, Shimen seems to have hit a bit of a wall. She played very little, if at all, last night after they switched to the 5-1 after halftime. She played a bit more today but still struggled a bit. I do like to see her on the service line as she probably has the toughest serve on the team but like the rest of her game she can be a little erratic at times.

Jody Larson seems to have backtracked a bit a well although I think her defense is keeping her in the back row rotation.

Mikaela (15-1-32 = 0.438), Abbie (11-1-13 = 0.769) and Katie (9-1-14 = 0.571) hit a combined 35-3-59 = 0.542 in tonight's match. That will win you a lot of matches. Katy Dudzinski at 4-1-10 = 0.300 had some nice swings as well. Nice to see her getting some action.

The Shocks out-dug UNI 50-35. I doubt that has happened to UNI very often as they hang their hat on outstanding defense.

[ShockerFever]

UNI looked like a team chock full of freshmen in both matches this weekend. ick.

Or WSU just looked that good.


I think there's a new sheriff in town.

[1972Shocker]

No sweeps last night. Mostly sweeps tonight. All the home teams won tonight.

SIU over Evansville 3-0; 16, 19, 13

MSU over Drake 3-0; 19, 18, 16

Indiana State over Bradley 3-0; 6, 19, 23

Illinois State over Loyola 3-1; (26), 14, 20, 15

[flyingMoose]

Whereas it seems Shimen just tries to hammer the ball through the double block, Mikaela seems to see the court better and finds some open spots. I think she has more variety in her shots too. But maybe Mikaela is typically hitting against the setter in the block - a distinct advantage.

[JayJ79]

Or WSU just looked that good.

I think there's a new sheriff in town.

mixture of both. Shocks played well, but Panthers had way too many errors.

[1972Shocker]

I thought Mikaela made a lot of lemonade tonight out of quite a few out of system lemons. Even when Mikaela seemed to be stuck on the bench early in the year Lambo consistently said he needed to find a way to get her on the floor. Once she got her opportunity she has not disappointed. Being a long-armed 6-2 is very helpful to Mikaela.

BTW, congratulations to Lambo for extending his streak of 20 win seasons to 13 this weekend.

[1972Shocker]

Eagle Report on UNI Match

To summarize: KISS

[WuDrWu]

UNI looked like a team chock full of freshmen in both matches this weekend. ick.

They sure did in the one match I saw, but to be fair, WSU was very, very good. I don't think they could have turned the tables playing at full bore.

[WuDrWu]

I thought a BIG difference was in the passing game. Dani, Jody and Jenny set up Emily time and time and time again in great spots with multiple options.

You give a good, big setter like Emily the ball in the middle of the court all the time and she's going to find girls to put the ball down. Really proud of these ladies getting better late in the season.

They've essentially turned the regular season into a 1 match event. With four left, even if they lose at Loyola (they won't lose at BU or at home to UE) they can beat SIU on November 20 for the outright regular season crown.

Not sure it was mentioned (thanks to @WuShock16:), but incredibly, even given UNI's strong program, the win last night was the FIRST win over UNI in Wichita since the undefeated regular season of 2008.

2009 2-3
2010 1-3
2011 0-3
2012 0-3
2013 0-3
2014 1-3

'Bout time...that **** was getting old. :yahoo:

[ShockerFever]

'Bout time...that **** was getting old. :yahoo:

You can say that again. In dominating fashion too.

[WuDrWu]

mixture of both. Shocks played well, but Panthers had way too many errors.

The Shocks DID play well, and turned the tables by playing defense the way UNI plays defense (which is outstanding) but UNI's biggest problem was just not having enough ways to score.

That's something WSU has struggled with too. When you simply cannot put the ball down, it's tough to beat anyone, least of all a good team. UNI's scoring options are limited.

[flyingMoose]

A teaser from the RPI Futures thread:

As for bubble (bid) teams: Biggest drops are Villanova, Ohio, Idaho State, and Virginia. Biggest risers; Miami (FL), Missouri State, Southern Illinois, and Wyoming.


A projected-RPI site has the following for Monday's numbers (the official NCAA RPIs do not come out until early afternoon tomorrow):

32 - Shockers
40 - Missouri State
50 - Southern Illinois

There are matches to play, but a scenario where three Valley teams make the NCAA tournament is appearing on the horizon - something like the Salukis winning the post-season tournament against the Bears and the Shockers losing in the semis of the Valley tournament. Whether the tournament seeding will allow such a scenario is, of course, unknown. And did I say there are matches yet to play?

[1972Shocker]

I thought a BIG difference was in the passing game. Dani, Jody and Jenny set up Emily time and time and time again in great spots with multiple options.

Good observation Doc. Our passing and defense was outstanding especially in the 1st two sets.

The most exciting thing to me was that pretty much all phases of the Shocker game were clicking at a high level and it was done with a minimum of errors.

Not sure I totally understand why we clicked so well after switching back to the 5-1 at halftime of the Drake match but at this point I assume Lambo will stick with what is working well until it doesn't.

[flyingMoose]

The current non-speculative RPI rankings from the NCAA with last week's ranking in parentheses.

33 (34) - Shockers
40 (44) - Missouri State
52 (54) - Southern Illinois
55 (55) - Northern Iowa
58 (61) - Illinois State
108 (95) - Loyola