2017 Volleyball 101 Dinner - Saturday, August 19th

[1972Shocker]

Don't forget to get your tickets to the 2017 Volleyball 101 Dinner to be held Saturday, August 19th beginning at 5:30 in the Aetna Multi-Purpose Faciity. $40 per person and well worth it IMHO.

http://www.goshockers.com/news/2017/6/7/volleyball-101-dinner-set-for-aug-19.aspx

A great way to mark and celebrate the beginning of a new season of Shocker Volleyball and Shocker athletics in general.

Bought my tickets today.

[boyshocker]

Got ours too, fun event to attend!

[1972Shocker]

Believe it or not the 2016-17 academic year and collegiate sports year is sneaking up on us.

Last year the American Conference issued their preseason coaches' poll on August 15th. So hopefully we will have that prior to the VB 101 Dinner on Augst 19th.

First action for the Lady Shocks will be the following Saturday, August 26th in Nasvhville at the LUV Invitational against host Lipscomb. This is a bit of an odd Tournament as the Shockers play Lipscomb, ETSU and Belmont. However, Arizona is also in the tournament and they play ETSU, Lipscomb and MTSU. The WSU-Belmont match and the Arizona-MTSU matches are on Sunday and those are the only matches involving Belmont and MTSU in the tournament. Why they didn't just match up Wichita State and Arizona on Sunday I really can't say although we did hire Lambo off of Arizona's head coach Dave Rubio's staff 18 years ago so perhaps they just don't want to play each other.

The following two weekends in Indianopolis and Eugene before the Shocks home opener against Creigthon on Friday, September 15th.

[1972Shocker]

It will be interesting to see which road trip or trips they include in the live auction this year and what kind of bucks those might bring. They have a bit more exotic destinations to offer this season.

Pre-Season Tournaments in Nashville, Indianapolis and Eugene.

Philadelphia - Storrs on September 22-24

New Oreans - Houston on October 6-8

Orlando - Tampa on October 27-29 (This one has to be front and center doesn't it?)

The Greenville - Cincinatti swing, Tulsa - Dallas swing and Memphis trip perhaps not the top choices but better than anything the Valley offered.

[1972Shocker]

VB101 Dinner on deck for tomorrow evening. Tickets are available at the gate or you can buy your tickets thru the ticket office today and pick them up at the door.

I hope the Koch Arena court is available for the instructional portion of the program. Would like to see how the new lighting looks and how it will impact viewing and play.

[ShoxMTXE]

Unfortunately, Maggie and I won't be in attendance this evening. She is still pretty shaken up from the accusations a few weeks ago. I plead with her to let her guard down and go but she is relentless in her ways. I know a few bad apples can ruin an apple pie but she always had a hard time getting over things. She still harbors some trust issues stemming from her late Father. As much as I'd love to be in Wichita with my fellow SN'ers, listening to to the Gospel of Volleyball, we just won't be there. Happy wife, happy life. Am I right fellas?

[1972Shocker]

Looked to be another successful VB 101 Dinner with over 500 in attendance per goShockers.com. Not sure what Table Sponsorships go for these days but I would guestimate that the event raised at least $60,000 for the Volleyball program. Nice job Shocker fans and a big thank you to all the Sponsors and those who donated items to the silent and live auctions.

I was a little disappointed that they did not actually have a VB 101 educational session at the end of the event this year. I can think of a couple of reasons why that might be the case. For one the event went 3 hours as it was. Also Lambo may have to manage how this event impacts the NCAA time limits on the amount of time the student athletes can be engaged in this kind of activity. However, the session was on the schedule. But obviously that changed sometime after the schedule was printed.

I assume the Koch Arena floor was available because the new lights were on in the arena and I had asked Mikaela if they have played in the arena with the new lights. She said they had and that they really liked the change. But it's possible it wasn't available for play. I liked the way it looked. Yes it will be a bit dark in the upper bowl. Not so much in the lower bowl. The 3 to 5 sections in the lower bowl on the ends of the court will have the most light.

Mike Kennedy and Brent Kemnitz handled the MC duties. No problem in hearing Brent. Mike mentioned that he had taken 77 trips to Terre Haute and was looking forward to visiting the new American Conference venues.

Lambo gave his usual entertaining speech at the podium. He said the team will have a different look this year to take advantage of some things they have discovered with some players this year. However, he didn't say what that would be but challenged the fans to see if they could detect what those were once matches start. I assume he will probably give hints of that in his pre-game and post-game interviews with Mike Kennedy.

I still SMH in amazement at the size of this roster and the ability of Chris and Shannon to keep such great team chemistry going. During the player self-introductions 5-2 senior Hannah Shelton received her usual chuckle with having to pull the microphone down as she always seems to follow, intentionally I'm sure, one our taller players (I think this year it was 6-3 Abbie Lehman). However, I think Maddy Freund, a 5-9 freshman from Cheney stole the show during the intros with her turkey call.

Some lively bidding on most of the live auction items this year. As suspected they selected the UCF and USF road trip to auction the opportunity to be an official member of the Shocker travelling team for 4 fans. IIRC that went for $3,500 or thereabouts.

One of the smaller items in the live auction in terms of money raised, going for $650 I think, but one of the more interesting was a private tour of the WSU campus for 6 people given personally by Dr. Jim Rhatigan. Followed by lunch with Dr. Rhatigan and AD Darron Boatright.

Perhaps one of the more unusual items was 5 custom Sheffield windows including installation from Integrity Siding & Windows. That went for $2,700. Brent commented that he had just replaced 5 windows in his house at a cost of $5,300 so this was probably a pretty good deal.

I bought two scoops in the Diamond Dig. My daughter scooped up one of the large diamonds and won me a WuShock flag. It's about 3' by 5'. It has images of the WuShock logo from 1920, 1948, 1959, 1964, 2002 and 2009 (current version) with WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY across the bottom. Got my money's worth on that scoop.

Photo Gallery

[1972Shocker]

@wichshock65 I checked on the autographed 1994 Shocker Baseball Poster you donated with about 30 minutes left in the auction. At that point it had a bid of $80 on it, Not sure what it ended up at. With the silent auction folks usually go through and see what is available and they may or many not enter a bid on an item of interest. But what they will do is make a note of the items they are most interested in and then close to the end of the auction they go back and try to get the final bid in.

Thanks for donating that item. There were around 167 cash and silent auction donors.

I thought one of the neatest things in the silent option was a metal art piece, probably laser or machine cut, of WuShock holding a Volleyball. Probably about 24" x 30". Bidder #61 apparently thought so too because they had already made the guaranteed winning bid of $350. Also I really liked the 2013 Final Four commemorative hardwood floor placque was pretty neat as well.

[1972Shocker]

BTW, Mike Kennedy is still not over the inexplicable treatment of the 2005 team at the hands of the NCAA Tournament Selection committee. Not eve a lit bit over it.

[WuDrWu]

@wichshock65 I checked on the autographed 1994 Shocker Baseball Poster you donated with about 30 minutes left in the auction. At that point it had a bid of $80 on it, Not sure what it ended up at. With the silent auction folks usually go through and see what is available and they may or many not enter a bid on an item of interest. But what they will do is make a note of the items they are most interested in and then close to the end of the auction they go back and try to get the final bid in.

Thanks for donating that item. There were around 167 cash and silent auction donors.

I thought one of the neatest things in the silent option was a metal art piece, probably laser or machine cut, of WuShock holding a Volleyball. Probably about 24" x 30". Bidder #61 apparently thought so too because they had already made the guaranteed winning bid of $350. Also I really liked the 2013 Final Four commemorative hardwood floor placque was pretty neat as well.

That was an exceptional piece, and Lambo wanted it for himself although I don't think he got it. However, I expect more of those to show up in future auctions.

I was slightly disappointed at the lack of actual Volleyball team items. One of the great things about the basketball auction is the seemingly endless combos and variations of highlights. I wonder if someone needs to work with the Dock 410 folks and create some framed signed items for sale/auction?

Maybe those are just things that interest me. I thought it was a hit as usual. Lambo's comments extolling the virtues of the Valley were heartfelt and interesting to say the least. Haven't heard anything like that since hearing about the AAC.

[1972Shocker]

Maybe those are just things that interest me. I thought it was a hit as usual. Lambo's comments extolling the virtues of the Valley were heartfelt and interesting to say the least. Haven't heard anything like that since hearing about the AAC.

I've heard those comments several times from Lambo and he is clearly sincere in those comments. You can tell he really feels a kinship with MSU's Melissa Stokes and UNI's Bobbi Peterson. I hope these coaches can perhaps work out a way to compete on the court again going forward.

I see that Lipscomb, the Shock's season opening openent played a pre-determined 5-set match against Tennessee yesterday. If nothing else perhaps the Shocks could play the Bears and the Panthers every other year in an Exhibition Match although I have no idea how Lambo feels about those. Apparently, this is the 1st year the NCAA has allowed a true pre-season exhibition match for Volleyball.

[WuDrWu]

I see that Lipscomb, the Shock's season opening openent played a pre-determined 5-set match against Tennessee yesterday.

And won 4 of the 5 sets against a Vols team picked 6th in the SEC. Side note, apparently Vanderbilt doesn't play volleyball. I guess they don't get enough of that SEC football pie.

The Bison are going to be a difficult opening match for the Shocks.


I think Lambo referred to some future RPI/scheduling formula that pointed to WSU finishing 13th in the country. No doubt non-conference schedules that have predicted conference champs and ranked or near ranked teams has a lot to do with that.

Lipscomb picked to win the ASUN.
ETSU picked to win the SOCON.
Belmont is picked to win the OVC.
IUPUI no idea.
Marquette picked 3rd in the BigEast
Miami was in the tourney last year
Duquesne unknown
Oregon picked 3rd in the PAC12 (and ranked)
Cal Poly picked 2nd behind ranked Hawaii in the BigWest
Creighton picked to win BE and top 10 ranked
Iowa State picked 4th in the Big12 and is getting votes

I think we're pretty clear dogs in 4 matches and maybe just a shade better than 50/50 in 3-5 other matches.

[WuDrWu]

I see that Lipscomb, the Shock's season opening openent played a pre-determined 5-set match against Tennessee yesterday. If nothing else perhaps the Shocks could play the Bears and the Panthers every other year in an Exhibition Match although I have no idea how Lambo feels about those. Apparently, this is the 1st year the NCAA has allowed a true pre-season exhibition match for Volleyball.

Looking through the various schedules it appears that exhibition matches were more popular than not this season. Almost every team I looked at played one.

[1972Shocker]

IUPUI tied ORU for 5th in the Summit League and they were 12-20 overall. IUPUI has moved from the Summit (25th in RPI) last year to the Horizon (11th in RPI last year). By comparison the Valley was 13th in RPI last year.

[boyshocker]

Agree with Wu, wish we could have had a few more action shots to bid on. Also the food was great but sure did miss my Hogwild! I also agree that the girls on the court might cut into the allowable time they can be together working on vb.
Out of my budget but I think the round of golf with Lambo would have been the most fun and interesting of the auction prizes. Jody Larson won one of the raffle ticket prizes and Mike announced that she was leaving for France soon to continue her volleyball career. Wish her the best and thanks for being a Shocker! Overall a another great night, hoping the $$ totals were a success too.