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The Shocks head back out on the road as they travel to Des Moines for a 7:00 pm Friday match against Drake and then move on to always tough UNI for a 7:00 pm match in Cedar Falls on Saturday.
Drake is 10-6 overall and 1-1 in Valley with a win at Evansville and a loss at Southern Illinois. However, their non-conference schedule was not a real tough one. Drake had to go 5 sets to subdue an Evansville team (26-24, 19-25, 24-26, 25-16 and 15-13) that the Shocks and UNI pretty much dominated.
Clearly the Shocks' focus will be on UNI this weekend although they need to be careful to not totally take Drake for granted especially on the road. UNI is also 10-6 but against a much tougher schedule including losses to Michigan, Creghton, Southern Cal and Kansas. They have good wins over Kentucky (3-0) and Iowa State (3-2). The Iowa State match was a true marathon with UNI winning 2 of the first 3 sets by a combined 92-90 (27-29, 40-38, 25-23) in Cedar Falls. The Shocks were swept by Iowa State in the opening match of the season.
UNI is off to a 1-2 start in the Valley losing a 5 setter at home to Illinois State and on the road to Southern Illinois before blasting Evansville on the road.
Make no mistake this is a dangerous, well-coached and competitive UNI team. UNI does have the disadvantage (as do all Valley teams) of facing the WSU-MSU travel partner pair. So UNI does not really have the luxury of focusing its preparation mostly on the Shocks. With the Lady Bears already saddled with 2 home losses the MSU-UNI match on Friday evening will be very important to both of those teams and should be a real battle as well.
I suppose the best result for the Shocks would be a UNI win over MSU on Friday coupled with a WSU win over UNI on Saturday. Of course, 1st things 1st. The Shocks need to take care of business against Drake and not get anyone hurt in the process. The latter having been a bit of bug-a-boo this year.
The Shocks will have played 11 of 15 matches on away from home after this weekend.
Shocker Match Notes
Drake is 10-6 overall and 1-1 in Valley with a win at Evansville and a loss at Southern Illinois. However, their non-conference schedule was not a real tough one. Drake had to go 5 sets to subdue an Evansville team (26-24, 19-25, 24-26, 25-16 and 15-13) that the Shocks and UNI pretty much dominated.
Clearly the Shocks' focus will be on UNI this weekend although they need to be careful to not totally take Drake for granted especially on the road. UNI is also 10-6 but against a much tougher schedule including losses to Michigan, Creghton, Southern Cal and Kansas. They have good wins over Kentucky (3-0) and Iowa State (3-2). The Iowa State match was a true marathon with UNI winning 2 of the first 3 sets by a combined 92-90 (27-29, 40-38, 25-23) in Cedar Falls. The Shocks were swept by Iowa State in the opening match of the season.
UNI is off to a 1-2 start in the Valley losing a 5 setter at home to Illinois State and on the road to Southern Illinois before blasting Evansville on the road.
Make no mistake this is a dangerous, well-coached and competitive UNI team. UNI does have the disadvantage (as do all Valley teams) of facing the WSU-MSU travel partner pair. So UNI does not really have the luxury of focusing its preparation mostly on the Shocks. With the Lady Bears already saddled with 2 home losses the MSU-UNI match on Friday evening will be very important to both of those teams and should be a real battle as well.
I suppose the best result for the Shocks would be a UNI win over MSU on Friday coupled with a WSU win over UNI on Saturday. Of course, 1st things 1st. The Shocks need to take care of business against Drake and not get anyone hurt in the process. The latter having been a bit of bug-a-boo this year.
The Shocks will have played 11 of 15 matches on away from home after this weekend.
Shocker Match Notes
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