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

[1972Shocker]

Congratulations Shocks!

MSU looked like the class of the Valley when they played and defeated the Shockers earlier in the year but then they kind of fell apart for about a month. Now they seem to be playing well again. They could easily win the Valley Tournament especially since they will be at home.

[flyingMoose]

Other Saturday Matches

Northern Iowa 3-1 Loyola
(19), 25, 24, 18

Drake 3-0 Bradley
15, 20, 14

[1972Shocker]

Shockers sweep Evansville 15, 19 and 4 (yes, 4) in a match that was never in doubt.

A few interesting take aways:

1. Shocker seniors shared their night with the Evansville seniors. The Evansville seniors were recognized over the PA system and Katie, Masher and Jacklyn presented each of them with a flower. Very classy gesture IMO but not surprising from this group of Shockers.

2. In the dominating final set most of the scoring attacks came from Katie, Masher and Jacklyn. Very cool way to finish of their home careers.

3. I wasn't really aware that Evansville had such a Puerto Rican flavor to their team. Seemed like all but one of their starters was from Puerto Rico with the other starter from Argentina. Nothing particularly wrong with that but it is pretty unusual.

[wusphlash]

Congratulations to Coach Lamb and the volleyball Shox.


I'm not disappointed that SIU will be on the other side of the bracket.

[flyingMoose]

Valley Tournament eligible teams in seed order

15-3 Shockers
14-4 Southern Illinois
13-5 Missouri State
12-6 Northern Iowa
12-6 Illinois State
9-9 Loyola

The results of the Panthers and Redbirds are the same working from the top of the conference until you get to their Loyola matches. There Northern Iowa beat them both times and Illinois State split with them. And then my recollection of how the tie-breaker works could be "majorly" faulty. Feel free to correct it.

[flyingMoose]

scoring attacks came from ... Masher

Shimen did not play at all in this match with Jody taking her spot. By the middle of the third set, Evansville had rolled over, but Mash nonetheless had a very nice 7-0-9-.778 line. Maybe she has a role in Springfield.

[JayJ79]

1. Shocker seniors shared their night with the Evansville seniors. The Evansville seniors were recognized over the PA system and Katie, Masher and Jacklyn presented each of them with a flower. Very classy gesture IMO but not surprising from this group of Shockers.

3. I wasn't really aware that Evansville had such a Puerto Rican flavor to their team. Seemed like all but one of their starters was from Puerto Rico with the other starter from Argentina. Nothing particularly wrong with that but it is pretty unusual.

1) didn't the WSU seniors do something similar last season at their last home match (giving a flower or something to the visiting team's seniors)? A very nice and classy tradition to start.

3) Evansville's coach is from PR, so I guess they've set up a "pipeline" to the island.

It was UNI's senior night tonight, too. Though this season is kind of odd in that there are three seniors on the team, but none of them play very much. Only one of the three even saw playing time tonight, and that was for a total of maybe 5 points in the whole match.

[JayJ79]

Valley Tournament eligible teams in seed order

15-3 Shockers
14-4 Southern Illinois
13-5 Missouri State
12-6 Northern Iowa
12-6 Illinois State
9-9 Loyola

The results of the Panthers and Redbirds are the same working from the top of the conference until you get to their Loyola matches. There Northern Iowa beat them both times and Illinois State split with them. And then my recollection of how the tie-breaker works could be "majorly" faulty. Feel free to correct it.

yes, UNI's "extra win" on the road over 6th place Loyola is 4 "power rating" points better than Illinois State's "extra win" on the road at 8th place Indiana State (Sycs finished with the same record as Drake, but Drake won both their head to heat matches, so I consider the Bulldogs 7th and Sycs 8th, but even if they are both considered "7th", the result is the same).

Not that it REALLY matters who wins the tiebreak between 4th and 5th seed, as the only thing it changes essentially is what color uniforms the teams wear on Thursday night (and I suppose what bench they start at, and who calls the coin toss, but anyway)

[WuDrWu]

One of a MILLION reasons to support this program:

Jaclyn Roddy entered the match with 14 kills in her 4 seasons at WSU. Every player on the WSU bench went nuts when she went in the first time. She got a couple of swings at the end of the 2nd set but didn't score.

She was in tears leaving the court for the break.

Late in the 3rd she's called in again...I think she was a bit surprised by it. The kids go crazy for her yet again. Every time she touched the ball they went crazy...a tip, a dig...and finally a couple of kills. She was in tears again, fighting it, trying to hold it together.

It meant every bit as much to see Roddy have success, if not more, than it did to be Valley champions. If that doesn't move you as a sports fan, as a person, then I can't help you.

[1972Shocker]

Wichita Eagle Match Report

[flyingMoose]

Not that it REALLY matters who wins the tiebreak between 4th and 5th seed

Yes, I figured that out later in the evening. Oh, well.

And, yes, I think we have done flowers for the opposing seniors on our Senior Night before. And I think the flowers are an approximation of the opponent's school colors.

[flyingMoose]

The RPI from the NCAA of those having at least a faint chance of an at-large bid:

34 Shockers
39 Southern Illinois
40 Missouri State
52 Northern Iowa

The Shockers have dropped back a few spots from last week and both Southern Illinois and Missouri State have improved a few spots. It still appears that three Valley teams will make the NCAAs. The Bracketology thread from VT should appear by tomorrow.

[1972Shocker]

I think the Shocks should probably be in regardless of what happens in the Valley Tournament. However, a win on Friday over the winner of the UNI - ILS match would IMO make an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament a lock.

[flyingMoose]

The RPI from the NCAA of those having at least a faint chance of an at-large bid:

34 Shockers
39 Southern Illinois
40 Missouri State
52 Northern Iowa

The Shockers have dropped back a few spots from last week and both Southern Illinois and Missouri State have improved a few spots. It still appears that three Valley teams will make the NCAAs. The Bracketology thread from VT should appear by tomorrow.

The RPI Futures thread from VT does not have much change from the current RPI:

33 Shockers
38 Southern Illinois
39 Missouri State
52 Northern Iowa

[flyingMoose]

Okay, I have too much time on my hands. The following is the RPI from the second week that the NCAA published it (after our @UNI/@Drake weekend), the projected RPI at that point and the current RPI.

39-37-40 Missouri State
55-38-34 Shockers
60-58-39 Southern Illinois
65-64-52 Northern Iowa

The improvement in RPI by the Shocks was anticipated, but not so much for the Salukis.