Shockers at Iowa State Challenge

[1972Shocker]

Very brief write-up in the Eagle today: http://www.kansas.com/sports/college...e98381432.html

Who the heck is Kenzie Crawford and Jess Bird? Not sure but glad they somehow managed to contribute those two key aces for the Shocks.

Much better match write-up at goShocckers.com

[Play Angry]

The Creighton match was a blast to listen to (tech difficulties notwithstanding). Super proud of our girls.

[flyingMoose]

Who the heck is Kenzie Crawford and Jess Bird? Not sure but glad they somehow managed to contribute those two key aces for the Shocks.

They are Creighton Bluejays. They were on the receiving end of service aces by Emily and Mikaela. It took me awhile to understand the LiveStats descriptive methodology, too.

[1972Shocker]

They are Creighton Bluejays. They were on the receiving end of service aces by Emily and Mikaela. It took me awhile to understand the LiveStats descriptive methodology, too.

I understand, but you would hope your home town reporters at least have a rudimentary knowledge of the hometown team's players.

[xazshox]

CU Game

It was interesting to compare the stats for the IA State game with those for the CU game. WSU went through a transition during that time. When the Shox fell behind by 2 sets in the 2nd game, I'm sure we were all getting worried. I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall to listen to what Lambo said to the team at the break then.

Am looking forward to listening to Lambo's radio show tomorrow night.

[boyshocker]

[QUOTE=WuDrWu;667657]I don't think Emily is setting Abbie, and it shows. If that's the case, I understand the thought process but I think I'd change it. Emily to Abbie is as good as it gets.

"I'm not giving up on Katy, but we need to find another middle and we can't set Larson 3 times as often as Lehman and beat anyone good. Sorry, it's just not going to happen.[/. "

Looks like JL must have read your post between steps. Have to believe CU was trying to shut AL down so the outsides have to produce. I have enough faith in JL and MR that can happen...and it did!

Sounds like Alex did a fine job on front row.
Thanks to whoever shared the CU feed!
Would like to see KD with a few more blocks .
The Wichita Eagle sucks, pathetic coverage of the second most successful and popular team at WSU.
Like DM ability to come in and produce.
Ready to see the Shocks at Koch, this seems to be one tough bunch...hope for a big crowd Friday night!

[flyingMoose]

I understand, but you would hope your home town reporters at least have a rudimentary knowledge of the hometown team's players.

Sorry. I thought a "missed assignment" in the article was what you originally had reference to, but I missed their names in the article and assumed otherwise. That is what Edit/Find is for. Sigh.

[WuDrWu]

Not that it matters a great deal, but ISU is easily handling CU so far. About to go up 2 sets and it hasn't been competitive yet.

[WuDrWu]

Well I spoke too soon (don't say it).

After trailing 12-18, the Jays ran off 13 of the next 17 points to take the 2nd set 25-22. Tied at 1 now going into the break.

I bet the Cyclones don't know what happened. Creighton had done nothing to that point to even bother ISU.

[WuDrWu]

Well let's see if I can jinx a team again.

It's pretty much been all Creighton since I started paying attention and they're about to close out the Cyclones in 4 sets if they can seal the deal.

The Jays took set 3 25-21 and lead 22-18 in the 4th.

22-19

22-20

22-21

Hahahha

[WuDrWu]

23-21

24-21

24-22

25-22

Bluejays win 3-1 and all three teams finish the tourney 1-1.

[flyingMoose]

23-21

24-21

24-22

25-22

Bluejays win 3-1 and all three teams finish the tourney 1-1.

Thanks for the report - and your mailbox is full.

[JayPak]

Congratulations to the Shockers for a gutsy win over Creighton and dominating the 5th set. Credit Wichita for hanging in and seizing momentum at the end of sets 3 and 4, winning the big points when Creighton had chances to close it out, and hitting aces at opportune times. While stats were even, Wichita made all the big plays when it counted, and Creighton responded by falling apart in the 5th. The biggest difference late was that Wichita tracked Creighton's hitters better and got touches on almost everything, whereas early they didn't have a block until the end of the first set. Wichita also dug seemingly everything in the latter half of the match. They took some of Winters's and Wilkinson's best hits and dug them up. The 5-1 worked much better for Wichita than the 6-2. Creighton had all kinds of problems with Larson and Lehman.

Creighton started slow in 4 of the 5 sets, which Coach Booth suggested was due to a lack of focus. Someone mentioned Bird's serve receive... Bird has been inconsistent throughout her career. She struggles with float/knuckleball/hybrid serves and we might see more DS substitutions going forward when she is in back against certain servers. Part of the problem was communication with the new libero.

This match was the 6th of the past 11 between WSU and CU to go 5 sets. To give you an idea of how rare it was for Creighton to lose 3 straight sets yesterday, the Bluejays had been 167-2 under Coach Booth when winning the first 2 sets. They had won all 3 previous season openers under Booth that had gone to 5 sets. So congratulations again to the Shockers for what was a rare type of victory over Creighton. Wichita also snapped a 6-game losing streak to Creighton.

Wichita and Missouri St. look like the class of the Valley. Missouri St. took 3 close sets from Illinois while getting blown out in the other 2 sets, i.e. they know how to win as does Wichita, obviously. Creighton will have work to do to get by Marquette and Xavier in the Big East, but we will be fine once the new setter and libero are worked in.

With Creighton's 3-1 road win over Iowa St. today, Wichita's victory over Creighton becomes more of a feather in your cap going forward. All three teams finish the triangular 1-1, with a victory to feel good about and a defeat that exposed weaknesses. Here's to hoping the coaches schedule the tournament again next year (in Omaha)!


Read more: http://volleytalk.proboards.com/thre...#ixzz4IfFLxIn8

[flyingMoose]

My assumption was this was deemed to tough of a first-weekend tournament for some fourth team to come onboard - thus, just three teams. Or was this never going to be more than three teams? Anyone have any insight?

[JayJ79]

Wichita and Missouri St. look like the class of the Valley. Missouri St. took 3 close sets from Illinois while getting blown out in the other 2 sets, i.e. they know how to win as does Wichita, obviously.

I fully expect SIU and UNI to be in the mix as the season progresses, though it was clearly WSU and MSU that had the biggest wins this first weekend.