Shocks Host Loyola (Friday), Bradley (Satruday) and SIU (Monday)

[flyingMoose]

Following are end-of-season RPI projections:

34 Shockers
56 Northern Iowa
63 Southern Illinois
72 Missouri State

This suggests the Valley is way down from last year ...

The RPI of the four Valley teams in last year's NCAA Tournament:

28 Shockers (AQ)
34 Missouri State
40 Southern Illinois
45 Northern Iowa

[JayJ79]

best of luck to the Shockers against the Salukis.

[boyshocker]

SIU goes to 6-1 with a 4-set win of over Illinois State in Carbondale tonight setting up a showdown with the Shocks at Koch Arena on Monday. That one should be a battle with 1st place on the line. Shocks needed to protect their home court.

I have to admit I am a little concerned about how the new lineup will hold up against a Valley contender.

I agree 72, tabitha and Mikeala are playing all around but doing hardly no serve receive and little digging. Danny and Jody are picking up the slack for now. One thing for sure the littles should be rested.

And thank you Emily, seemed that in third set nobody wanted to finish it off so she just said
here Jody do your thing and let's go home.

[flyingMoose]

I have to admit I am a little concerned about how the new lineup will hold up against a Valley contender.

Perhaps it was Friday's post-game, but somewhere Lambo noted that he was going with a "firepower" lineup. I think you are right, Southern Illinois may out bring any resulting defensive deficiencies, but his hope is that the additional firepower will compensate.

[flyingMoose]

SIU match article from the Eagle

[1972Shocker]

SIU Match Notes from goShockers.com

[flyingMoose]

From the NCAA RPI of October 10 with last week's RPI in parentheses:

40 (42) Shockers
50 (59) Southern Illinois
64 (65) Northern Iowa
74 (67) Missouri State

[Shocker3435]

Really high quality vball being played tonight.

SIU hit .600 in the first set and lost.

[flyingMoose]

Shockers 3-0 Southern Illinois
21, 15, 18

The Shocks answered the call on defense but even more so on offense: .461 v .294, blocks 8 v 4 with the Salukis being one of the better blocking teams in the Valley and ace/error ration of 3/2 v 0/6.

Katy was 11-0-13 for .846, Abbie was 7-0-8 for .875, Jody was 10-3-18 for .389 (I think her three errors were on consecutive swings), Mikaela was 11-3-22 for .364 (and she started off with some bad errors) and Tabitha was 7-1-24 for .250. Emily was 3-1-4 for .500.

[1972Shocker]

I have to admit I am a little concerned about how the new lineup will hold up against a Valley contender.

My obviously ill-informed concerns were addressed tonight in an ultra affirmative fashion.

Shocks sweep 21, 15 and 18.

Alls I can says is just Wow! Shocks were terrific tonight. Perhaps the best they have been this year. Terrific play throughout the lineup and the Shocks play at the net was just stellar.

Katy seems to be getting things figured out. 11-0-13 = .846 for Katy tonight. The Salukis hit a very good .294 tonight but could not keep up with Shocks as the home team hit a sizzling .461 for the match.

Mikaela and Tabitha look to be settling into their new roles as 6 rotation players and Alex Koon is doing a very nice job as a designated server. Mikaela had a match high 14 digs. Twice as many as any other player in the match. I suspect that is probably a career high for Mikaela in a 3-set match

Hopefully, the Shocks can sustain this level of play althouth that is an awful lot to ask for or expect.

[flyingMoose]

The Other Monday Match

To the surprise of no one,

MISSOURI STATE 3-0 Evansville

[flyingMoose]

Amazingly, the Bracketology Preview thread on Volleytalk is up. Here are his comments about the Valley.

MVC
----
2014 Champion: Illinois State (lost in 2nd round)
2015 Champion: Wichita State (lost in 2nd round)

RPI
40 Wichita State
50 Southern Illinois
64 Northern Iowa
74 Missouri State
114 Illinois State

Shockingly, this could be a one-bid league. Wichita State is the only
team right now with a decent chance at an at-large bid. Southern Illinois
doesn't even have a top-50 RPI win yet. Missouri State started the season
off promisingly, but then has drifted away. Their opponents are not doing
as well as expected, something that sometimes you can't control in RPI
scheduling.

Northern Iowa snuck into the NCAA Tournament last year and I'm not quite
sure they deserved it. I've missed two at-large predictions in four years
of doing this Bracketology, and they were one of my misses. I am
convinced having a committee member played into that even though she was
not in the room when UNI was being discussed... Anyway, UNI lost too many
matches this year. They played a decent schedule.

This 6-team conference tournament is the only one to play matches on
Thanksgiving Day. Loyola of Chicago or Drake look to be the team to take
the #6 spot, but anything can happen. Drake nearly upset Mo State before
beating Illinois State (sweeping!)

Predicted NCAA Teams: 2


To support those comments, I also offer the RPI Futures values from another Volleytalk thread that I have introduced before, The current RPI values are in parentheses.

33 (40) Shockers
57 (64) Northern Iowa
58 (50) Southern Illinois
69 (74) Missouri State

[flyingMoose]

Here are the RPI Futures values from another Volleytalk thread with the current RPI in parentheses. These do not include tonight's matches.

33 (40) Shockers
57 (64) Northern Iowa
58 (50) Southern Illinois
69 (74) Missouri State

And you are correct - I have way too much time on my hands.

[1972Shocker]

This Shocker lineup continues to satisfy Lambo's desire for at least a .70 aces to error ratio. Tonight the Shockers were +1 with 3 aces to only 2 errors. SIU was a -6 with no aces and 6 errors.

The Shocks out-blocked SIU 8 to 4 but it seemed like a lot more as the Shocks rejected many shots that SIU was able to keep alive. I recall one point where the Shocks blocked 4 consecutive attacks by SIU with the final block finding the floor. That had to be quite frustrating for SIU. Abbie Lehman has 5 block solos and 1 block assist.

[JayJ79]

way too early to do Bracketology, IMO. I mean yeah, you can see who still has at-large chances (WSU has decent chance, UNI and SIU could maybe creep back into the discussion if they win out, but even then there is no guarantee).
But the conference race is still pretty wide open, and the conference AQ even more so