Colorado State Rams Volleyball Classic - Sept 8, 10 and 11

[1972Shocker]

Shocker non-con opponents results for this weekend:

Iowa State goes to 6-2 with sweeps over Iowa, North Dakota State and Montana at home. Iowa State's losses are to Creighton and Nebraska. Iowa State heads to Cedar Falls on Tuesday to take on Northern Iowa.

Creighton lost a 5-setter to #5 Kansas on Thursday in Omaha but picked up sweeps over TCU and Chattanooga to even their record at 4-4. Losses are to the Shocks (2-3), #23 Kentucky (0-3), Southern Cal (2-3) and #4 KU (2-3).

Cincinnati fell to 4-5 after losing to Michigan State (0-3), Western Kentucky (0-3) and to Valley member Southern Illinois (2-3) in Bowling Green, KY this weekend. Cincy's other 2 losses were 4-setters to Tennessee and to Marquette.

IUPUI lost to #12 Ohio State (0-3) but picked up wins over Green Bay (3-2) and McNeese State (3-0) in Springfield, MO. They are finishing up the weekend tonight at Missouri State. MSU currently leads that match 2-1 (14, 23, -18) but are lucky to be up as IUPUI could not hold on to a 19-12 lead in the 2nd set.

Good weekend for Marquette as they picked up wins over St. Louis (3-0), #23 Kentucky (3-1) and Virginia (3-0) in Lexington.

[1972Shocker]

From Laramie on Saturday:

Samford 2-3 Eastern Washington
22, (25), (20), 23, 13

Samford 3-1 Cal State-Northridge
18, 21, (23), 22

Samford is now 6-4 but wins have been over Nicholls State (3-2), South Alabama (3-0), Tennessee Tech (3-1), Northwestern State (3-0), and Radford (3-0) in addition to the aforementioned CSUN. Losses have been to Indiana State (0-3), Alabama (0-3), and Wyoming (0-3) in addition to the aforementioned EWU.

[1972Shocker]

Looking at the Shocks opponents booked for next weekend:

Texas Tech extended its win streak to 9 in a row this weekend after opening the season with losses to Colorado (2-3) and to Long Beach State (0-3) in Portland, OR. The 9 wins have been @ Portland State (3-1), vs South Dakota State (3-0), @ North Dakota State (3-2), @ North Dakota (3-0), and the last 5 at home over UTEP (3-0), Abilene Christian (3-0), Stephen F. Austin (3-1), Texas-Rio Grande Valley (3-0) and Oral Roberts (3-0).

Texas State is 6-5 and they play at Texax A&M-Corpus Christi on Tuesday. They played in Portland, OR this weekend picking up wins over Cal State-Bakersfield (3-1) and Portland (3-1) but they were swept by Utah. Their other 4 wins are over North Texas (3-1), Stephen F. Austin (3-1), Kennesaw State (3-0) and Sam Houston State (3-1). Their other 4 losses are to #12 Ohio State (0-3), Nevada (0-3), Baylor (1-3) and Tulsa (1-3).

UTSA is now 6-3 after 3 wins in Norman, OK this weekend over Oklahoma (3-2), Lamar (3-0) and Ohio (3-1). Their other 3 wins were over Little Rock (3-0), SMU (3-1) and Montana (3-0). Losses were in Austin to #3 Texas (0-3), Miami (2-3) and to Army (0-3).

[1972Shocker]

Missouri State finishes off IUPUI in 4 sets (14, 23, -18, 20). As previously mentioned MSU was very fortunate that this did not go to a 5th set but they deserve credit for making the big comeback in Set 2.

[1972Shocker]

UNI lost in straight sets to #4 Kansas tonight but the Jayhawks had to work hard for the 26-24, 25-17 and 25-23 sweep.

Was surprised to see that UNI is pushing $1 tickets for their home match with Iowa State on Tuesday. I would think that would be the one match on their schedule they would want to get full price for.

Should be a good match. I like UNI's chances in that one.

Despite Drake's 8-3 record, which is mostly a relection of a weak schedule, Wichita State, Missouri State, Northern Iowa and Southern Illinois appear to be the class of the Valley again this year. WSU, MSU and UNI in particular have played very challenging non-conference schedules. SIU played a tough tournament at Western Kentucky this weekend and picked up a nice win over Cincinnati. However, overall their non-con schedule does not quite stack up to the other 3 schools.

However, the 8 Valley matches among these 4 teams will be the key matches of the Valley season. I would think going 5-3 in these 8 matches would put you in pretty decent shape in the Valley.

[WuDrWu]

Reloaded the audio and I have it for the time being in the third set.

And now it is gone. What was I thinking about even mentioning the good fortune.

Very, very frustrating. We've asked and offered and been kind of brushed aside. Must aim higher.

[1972Shocker]

Very, very frustrating. We've asked and offered and been kind of brushed aside. Must aim higher.

That frustration is amplified even more when its a match against the #3 ranked team in the country. Can't believe the broadcast's advertisers are too thrilled about it either.

[1972Shocker]

On the pre-game show today Lambo said that if they had performed better in the serve-receive error they may well have come out with a win against Texas. However, he said if there ever was a team you want to try to serve tough against it is Texas because they are so powerful and efficient on offense. So he wasn't too upset with the service errors but wished they could have found the court a bit more frequently with some of their tough serves. He more or less said that they really did miss Dani's not only because of the quality of her passing but because of the volume of passes she makes.

I would add the Dani is also a very good secondary setter out the the Libero position when necessary and that is a skill that's valauble when Emily is getting double digit digs.

Lambo said that the girls were not very pleased about losing the Texax match which he thought was a good sign.

And at that point I lost the audio stream.

[1972Shocker]

Audio is back. Shocks leading 10-5 in Set 1.

[1972Shocker]

Shocks had a 20-12 lead but Samford has now run off 6 straight points to pull to within 2 at 20-18.

That is something that we should not let happen.

A Samford service error finally breaks the run.

[1972Shocker]

Shocks right the ship and finishes Set 1 strong to win 25-19 behind 6 kills on 8 attempts by Abbie Lehman.

[1972Shocker]

Shocks trailed 9-10 in the 2nd set before going on a 10 point run (Hanna Shelton on the service line) to take a 19-10 lead and went on to go up 2-0 with a 25-16 win.

[flyingMoose]

Any update on Dani? We lost Mikaela for an extended period in a similar situation.

[1972Shocker]

Any update on Dani?

Nothing that I heard.

[1972Shocker]

Shockers finish of the somewhat expected sweep with a 25-15 win in Set 3. Shocks out hit Samford .429 to .152 for the match.

A little surprised that Lambo did not do more subbing late in Set 3 but Emma Tynan did get into her 1st match as a Shocker.