Shockers Playing For Valley Title (SIU on Friday - Evansville on Sat)

[1972Shocker]

Final weekend of the regular season and the Shockers (23-7, 14-2) need 1 win to secure a Missouri Valley co-championship. That win is highly likely to happen against Evansville (8-22, 2-14) on Saturday night although nothing is guaranteed.

However, I am sure the Lady Shocks don't really want to share a title so the match with SIU (22-7, 13-3) on Friday night looms large. A win over SIU on Friday coupled with a Shocker win on Saturday over Evansville will secure an outright Valley regular season championship for the Shocks. Alternatively, the Shocks could lose to SIU and still win an outright title if they beat Evansville and SIU loses to MSU on Saturday. However, I'm sure they would prefer to take care of business on their own.

Lambo mentioned on his weekly radio show on Monday that they had very little time to prepare for SIU when they lost to them recently in 5 sets on a Monday in Carbondale. They had spent most of their time preparing for MSU who they played on the preceding Saturday. They could not practice on Sunday prior to the match because that was their mandatory off day for the week. Hopefully, having more time to focus on and prepare for SIU will prove to be the difference in the Shocks favor this time around. Furthermore, SIU's attention will need to be divided between WSU and MSU this week. The Shocks will be able to focus mostly, if not exclusively, on SIU as Evansville is not too much of a threat.

The Evansville match will be Senior night for two terrific young ladies, Katie Reilly and Mary Ashton Floyd. Also Jaclyn Roddy, a volleyball junior, will be graduating and moving on. Looking forward to giving all 3 of these young ladies a fond farewell in their final Koch Arena appearance.

It would be great to get a huge crowd out for both these matches but especially for the SIU match on Friday. I will have 6 in my group. Sure would be nice to finish off the week on a high note after the struggles of the basketball teams this week.

Shocker Match Notes

[The Mad Hatter]

Actually, if WSU beats SIU on Friday, they are outright champions regardless of what happens against Evansville on Saturday (since it would move SIU to 4 Valley losses and even with a loss to Evansville, WSU would be a 3 Valley losses).

[JayJ79]

Lambo mentioned on his weekly radio show on Monday that they had very little time to prepare for SIU when they lost to them recently in 5 sets on a Monday in Carbondale. They had spent most of their time preparing for MSU who they played on the preceding Saturday. They could not practice on Sunday prior to the match because that was their mandatory off day for the week.

that is a rather foreign concept for WSU during the conference season (having to face two tough opponents in a short span. Where as the rest of the conference (other than MSU) tends to have to deal with that situation twice each year (and possibly more with the new addition of midweek matches)

[Cdizzle]

that is a rather foreign concept for WSU during the conference season (having to face two tough opponents in a short span. Where as the rest of the conference (other than MSU) tends to have to deal with that situation twice each year (and possibly more with the new addition of midweek matches)

Meh. WSU and MSU also enjoy long bus rides for all of their road matches save each other.

[1972Shocker]

Actually, if WSU beats SIU on Friday, they are outright champions regardless of what happens against Evansville on Saturday (since it would move SIU to 4 Valley losses and even with a loss to Evansville, WSU would be a 3 Valley losses).

Yes, I stand corrected. The magic number vis-à-vis SIU is 2. So yes, I win over SIU would take care of that.

[1972Shocker]

that is a rather foreign concept for WSU during the conference season (having to face two tough opponents in a short span. Where as the rest of the conference (other than MSU) tends to have to deal with that situation twice each year (and possibly more with the new addition of midweek matches)

The only thing WSU can control is how good they are. They have no control over how good or bad MSU or any of the other Valley schools are. This year is the 1st year I can remember that the Valley appears to be moving towards a high degree of parity in their Volleyball programs.

[flyingMoose]

From the Afternoon Headlines of the Eagle, a blog post by Bob Lutz about Lambo. Maybe it is the Lutz column for Friday's paper.

[WstateU]

From the Afternoon Headlines of the Eagle, a blog post by Bob Lutz about Lambo. Maybe it is the Lutz column for Friday's paper.

Fantastic! One of Bob's best. Sounds like coach Lamb and coach Marshall are cut from the same mold.


Bingo!

“Every year I go back there now, there’s less pull to that notion of going back there to live,” Lamb said. “I’ve come to realize it’s kind of easy living in Wichita. It’s not crowded, not busy, the people are great. People want to talk and hang out here. People back home seem like they’re insanely stressed and busy.”

[1972Shocker]

From the Afternoon Headlines of the Eagle, a blog post by Bob Lutz about Lambo. Maybe it is the Lutz column for Friday's paper.

Very good work by Mr. Lutz. And it also points out a couple of things. One is that Shocker fans should not take Lambo for granted. Even if the games are available on ESPN3 it is still important to get out and support this program physically, fiscally and spiritually. Also I was surprised to find out the Jody Adams makes significantly more money than Lambo does when I checked on that last year. Hopefully, the WSU athletic administration will eliminate that unwarranted discrepancy.

[WuDrWu]

Thank you for mentioning that. I realize I have no say, but I will be mentioning that to people that matter, if for no other reason than so they hear it one more time.

[flyingMoose]

Nice article by Sully about Katie and Mash in today's Eagle.

[WuDrWu]

Amazing young women.

There will be a lot of friends, parents and family here supporting these young ladies this weekend. It sure would be nice to show them we appreciate them allowing us to borrow their kids for 4 years and celebrate what they've accomplished.

Katie has had a strong year, but I know it's been a struggle for Masher, especially since coming off an All MVC season last year.

I hope she'll be able to remember and celebrate those great times like last year's All Valley team or as a seldom used freshman, being tossed into the white hot fire with zero notice against Arkansas trailing 21-23 and firing an ACE on her first swing.

Maybe all the wonderful impressions they've left on the hundreds if not thousands of young girls that have looked up to them during Fast Fours, camps, club volleyball and the games.

Enough good things cannot happen to these young women.

[1972Shocker]

Amazing young women.

There will be a lot of friends, parents and family here supporting these young ladies this weekend. It sure would be nice to show them we appreciate them allowing us to borrow their kids for 4 years and celebrate what they've accomplished.

Katie has had a strong year, but I know it's been a struggle for Masher, especially since coming off an All MVC season last year.

I hope she'll be able to remember and celebrate those great times like last year's All Valley team or as a seldom used freshman, being tossed into the white hot fire with zero notice against Arkansas trailing 21-23 and firing an ACE on her first swing.

Maybe all the wonderful impressions they've left on the hundreds if not thousands of young girls that have looked up to them during Fast Fours, camps, club volleyball and the games.

Enough good things cannot happen to these young women.

Outstanding post Doc.

[RoyalShock]

We're getting badly out-blocked and it's the difference in the score.

[RoyalShock]

And ESPN3 goes out.