Shockers at Iowa State Challenge

[flyingMoose]

11-4 and Creighton takes the TO.

[WuDrWu]

11-4 Shocks and CU is out of timeouts

HUGE

[flyingMoose]

Set 5

Shockers 15-7 Creighton

We used a 5-1 in this set.

We hit .476 for the set v .056. For the match, .225 v .222. Minus three on aces-errors v -8 for the Jays. Blocks are even at seven.

Abbie was 10-2-21 for .381, Mikaela was 14-2-37 for .324 and Jody was 19-4-47 for .277.

[shocks02]

1-1 makes for a successful weekend in my book.

[ShockerFever]

Hahaha. F*** sCUm.

Nice job ladies.

[DwShock]

Anytime sCUm loses to our Shockers it makes for a good day! Congrats ladies.

[flyingMoose]

Who is volunteering to listen to Lambo's show on Monday? (I am unavailable.) Since the Shocker-oriented audio was useless (no pre-game or post-game - or in-game for that matter), that will be our shot at finding out what went on this past weekend.

[WstateU]

Who is volunteering to listen to Lambo's show on Monday? (I am unavailable.) Since the Shocker-oriented audio was useless (no pre-game or post-game - or in-game for that matter), that will be our shot at finding out what went on this past weekend.

The lack of audio for WSU volleyball is simply unacceptable, disgusting and embarrassing; I expect our new AD to make this a priority. I can't imagine how upset a parent would be. 

#8000

[ShockTalk]

The lack of audio for WSU volleyball is simply unacceptable, disgusting and embarrassing; I expect our new AD to make this a priority. I can't imagine how upset a parent would be. 

#8000

And what a good post for #8000!!

[WuDrWu]

I'll make every effort to be there and report back.

Mixed results around the Valley so far. (conference affiliation then preseason rankings).

SIU went 3-0 at the IUPUI tourney including 2 sweeps of Duquesne (A10, 5th) and Central Michigan (MAC, 8th) and a solid 3-1 victory against the future Shocker opponent IUPUI (Summitt, 3rd). Good start for the Dawgs.

Evansville went 0-3 while being swept by Northern Kentucky (Horizon, 4th) Marshall (CUSA, 8th) and Indiana (Big10, 13th). When you can't win a single set against that group, you're probably pretty bad.

Illinois State had a tough start losing to #21 Loyola Marymount (West Coast, 4th) #12 UCLA (PAC12, 2nd) and beating Niagara (MAAC, 6th). They were somewhat competitive against Marymount but were dismantled by the Bruins (9, 19, 17).

Missouri State is off to a great start. After dropping a heartbreaking 5 set match, 16-14 in the 5th to Xavier (BigEast, 3rd) the Bears went on to sweep Arkansas (SEC, 5th) and then beat the host #14 Illini (Big10, 5th) in 5 sets.

Drake went 3-1 in Florida against 4 crappy teams I won't bother listing.

Indiana State went 2-1 in Alabama against similar competition.

Bradley looks to be vastly improved. After taking the first 2 sets against Milwaukee (Horizon, 1st) they dropped the last 3. They then swept Akron (MAC, 12th) and Western Illinois (Summit, 9th last). Yes bad teams, but Milwaukee is solid and they were that close to being 3-0.

UNI looked good sweeping Miami (MAC, 1st) and St. Louis (A10, 2nd) before being swept @ Michigan (Big10, 8th) in 3 competitive sets.

Loyola lost 3-1 to DePaul (BigEast, 9th) Iowa (Big10, 12th) and Northern Illinois (MAC, 2nd).

[WuDrWu]

Remaining Shockers schedule (same listings as above)

Cincinnati (AAC, 1st)

IUPUI (Horizon, 3rd)

Marquette (BigEast, 2nd)

#25 Colorado State (MW, 1st)

#2 Texas (Big12, 1st)

Samford (SoCon, 3rd)

Texas Tech (Big12, 8th)

Texas State (SunBelt, 3rd)

UTSA (CUSA, 2nd)

Not many dogs there.

[JayJ79]

Just out of curiousity, I compiled the average RPI of each MVC team's OOC opponents (based on last season's final RPI, and I actually used RKPI because it was easier, but RPI and RKPI are roughly the same)

UNI: 65
WSU: 71
MSU: 82
SIU: 118
ILS: 129
LUC: 133
INS: 181
UE: 194
BU: 201
DU: 222

And the overall average for the MVC ended up at 140
Panthers, Shockers, and Bears (oh my) set up challenging non-conference schedules.
Salukis, Redbirds, and Ramblers don't have all that shabby of a slate.
The rest of the league, though.......

Also found it interesting how different teams have scheduled different numbers of games.
Bradley and Wichita State have the fewest (11 OOC matches), while Drake, Missouri State, and SIU have the most (14 OOC matches)

[WuDrWu]

Just out of curiousity, I compiled the average RPI of each MVC team's OOC opponents (based on last season's final RPI, and I actually used RKPI because it was easier, but RPI and RKPI are roughly the same)

UNI: 65
WSU: 71
MSU: 82
SIU: 118
ILS: 129
LUC: 133
INS: 181
UE: 194
BU: 201
DU: 222

And the overall average for the MVC ended up at 140
Panthers, Shockers, and Bears (oh my) set up challenging non-conference schedules.
Salukis, Redbirds, and Ramblers don't have all that shabby of a slate.
The rest of the league, though.......

Also found it interesting how different teams have scheduled different numbers of games.
Bradley and Wichita State have the fewest (11 OOC matches), while Drake, Missouri State, and SIU have the most (14 OOC matches)

As usual, great information from @JayJ79:, many thanks. You've got 4 weekends to get in as many as 14 matches. 2 of those have to be 4 team tourneys (which likely means 2 matches at some point in one day unless you're hosting, AND likely bad competition willing to be on the wrong end of a 4 matches in 3 days schedule) or mid week games which are becoming increasingly rare, especially when in state teams refuse to play you.

Which by the way, ku and kstate, you guys all suck.

[WuDrWu]

1-1 makes for a successful weekend in my book.

Excellent observance. You're exactly right. Creighton should win the BigEast and they will have a gaudy RPI. Now the ladies aren't forced to win at CSU to prove they belong. There's no chance they beat Texas (sorry, it's just that way) and going 0-4 against the best 4 teams on the schedule can give the selection committee a reason to exclude you if you need an at large.

8-3 is now possible, if not slightly probable, and so is 9-2. But so is 5-6 or worse. There are NO gimmies on this schedule.

One thing though I see as different than many previous years....I think this team has a LOT of upside. The 6-2 didn't go that well, but I hope we are not abandoning it because it can be effective.

Tabitha Brown will get better, a lot better. Alex Koon can be a monster. Katy will get better. You know Lambo will clean things up. I'm really excited where this team can go.


So yes, this was a successful weekend for sure!

[1972Shocker]

I was unable to follow the Creighton match so I appreciate the running commentary by @flyingMoose and @WuDrWu. Helps provide some context to the game write-ups.

Quite frankly I was surprised to see tht the Shocks won this match especially coming from two sets down. From the commentary it sounds like the Shocks were still not clicking on ll cylinders. Coming back to be very good team like Creighton without your A game and after having played poorly against Iowa State does say something good about the resilience and toughness of this team. In his post game comments after the Iowa State game Lambo was particularly critical of his team's lack of competitveness. Sounds like that was largely resolved against Creighton.

Sorry to hear abourt the continued technical difficulties with the audio stream. Same thing happened Friday with the Iowa Staate webcast although Im gld to find out it wasn't a problem with my computer.

As other have commented the win over Creighton turned the weekend from what wss looking like a disaster after the Iowa State game (losing 2 and playing bad) to a what should prove to be a very good RPI and confidence buidling weekend. Still the Shocks really need to clean up a lot of things to be consistently good.

I really like the 6-2 when you hve the right pieces. The key to me is having to quality setters. Not sure we have had that since the Andee Hartig - Abby Harsh duo. But Lambo loves to tinker so I am sure he will continue to expiriment.

Looking at the Box Score the stats certianly reflect how tight this Creighton match was. Looks like the big improvement vs Friday may have been the serving.