IUPUI Hampton Invitational

[1972Shocker]

Lambo mentioned that this tournament was put together when Marquette's HC called Lambo a few years ago about scheduling to build RPI. Lambo told him they need to be playing each other. They just needed to find another team or two to join up. Preferably teams that commonly win 20 matches per years. At the very least teams that are 0.500 or better. The Marguette coach said the IUPUI coach was his buddy and they usually had a good record.

So in 2015 Marquette hosted the Shocks, IUPUI and Albany. The Shocks went 2-1 in that tournament losing 3-1 to IUPUI. They beat Margquette in 5 tough sets and knocked of Albany in 4 sets.

Last year the teams rotated to Wichita with Cincinatti replacing Albany as the 4th team. The Shocks lost to Cincy 3-1 but swept both Marquette and IUPUI at Koch Arena.

This year is IUPUI's chance to host with Miami (OH) filling out the tournament field.

First up for the Shocks will be IUPUI at 6:00 pm on Friday. IUPUI finished 6th in the Summit League last year and finished with an RPI of 199 with a record of 12-20. IUPUI has moved from the Summit over to the Horizon to replace some team that moved to the Valley to replace a team that left the Valley. Not sure who that could have been. In terms of RPI the Summit ranked 25th last year while the Horizon ranked 11th. IUPUI is picke to finish 6th in the Horizon this year. Hopefully, the move to the Horizon will help IUPUI's RPI a little bit this year.

IUPUI opened up the season last weekend in Ft. Myers, FL with wins over Georgia Southern (3-1) and Florida International (3-2) before losing to host Florida Gulf Coast (0-3).

IUPUI plays in-state rival Ft. Wayne (formerly IPFW) in the traditional Ooey-Pooey/Ooey-Fooey matchup tonight in Ft. Wayne. I have no idea why IPFW decided to rebrand as Ft. Wayne.

Saturday will most likely present more of a challenge to the Shocks. The Shocks will rise and try to shine early agaisnt Marquette at 9:00 am. Marquette finished 2nd to Creighton in the Big East last year finsihing the year at 23-9 (#44 in the RPI) after losing in the 1st round of the NCAA Tournament to Washington State (1-3). Marguette is again picked to finish behind Creighton this year in the Big East.

Marquette opened the season this past weeend in Honolulu with a very tough schedule facing three ranked teams. They upset host Hawaii (ranked #20 at the time) 3-2 but they lost to #13 UCLA 3-1 in a petty competitive match. They closed out their weekend being swept at the hands ofs #22 San Diego 20-19-18. Hawaii has dropped to RV/30th while UCLA moved up to #11 and San Diego to #17. This will probably be the toughest match of the weekend. Marquette brings some good height to the fray. In their opening weekend 6-5 So. OH Allie Barber had 53 kills in 3 matches and 6-6 RJr MB Jenna Rosenthal had 16 block assists.MIami

The Miami Redhawks won the MAC-East last year at 16-2 and went 24-7 overall losing to Oregon 3-1 in the 1st round of the NCAA Tournament finsishing with an RPI of 42. They are picked to win the MAC-East again this year and are projected to be the top team in the MAC this year.

Miami went 2-1 at home this past weekend losing to #24 ranked Western Kentucky 3-1 in a very competitive match before picking up a sweep over Southern Illinois and a 3-1 win over Northern Arizona. I expect that Miami will be very comparable in talent, if not a bit better than what we faced this past weekend in Nashville.

Miami has a road match with Xavier tonight. The Shocks and Redhawks face off at 4:00 pm Saturday.

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks non-con opponents have a 60.6% after the 1st weekend of play. Lambo shoots for something in the 63% to 65% range. That's doable I think especially once teams like ETSU get into conference play.

IUPUI is a match the Shocks could win. A loss there would hurt them badly. The Shocks should be favored to win the Miami match but not heavily favored. Last year Miami beat Missouri in Columbia, beat Xavier at home and beat Cincinatti on the road. So they would seem quite capable of upsetting the Shocks. I see the Marquette match as a toss up.

In the remaining 5 non-con games only Duquesne seems to be a safe win. Cal Poly and Iowa State will be toss ups at best and the Shocks will be clear underdogs to Oregon and Creighton.

So the Shocks have a great opportunity to put together an outstanding non-con resume but it won't be easy as this schedule is full of land mines for the most part.

Going 4-4 over these remaining 8 non-con matches might not be that bad. That would equal last year's 7-4 non-con record. Anything better will set them up pretty well heading into AAC play. I think we need to go at least 2-1 this weekend.

[flyingMoose]

Miami has a road match with Xavier tonight.

Miami (OH) 3-1 Xavier
26, 24, (21), 18

[1972Shocker]

IUPUI falls to Ft. Wayne in straight sets 22, 22 and 23.

[1972Shocker]

Shocker Tournament Notes

Again it is either listen to Mike on the Internet or Live Stats. Links are on the Tournament Notes link.

Schedule:

IUPUI - Friday @ 6:00 pm
Marquette - Saturday @ 9:00 am
Miami (OH) - Saturday @ 4:00 pm

IUPUI Tournament Preview

Marquette Tournament Preview

Miami Tournament Preview

[flyingMoose]

Friday Score

Marquette 3-0 Miami (OH)
14, 24, 16

[1972Shocker]

Only two days to practice this week. Mikaela has been out not feeling well. Mikaela did work with the team this morning.

Had been thinking about moving Mikaela to the right side and using Chase Jackson and Alex Koon on the left.

Megan Taflinger, a Fr 6-0 OH, is coming off of a minor procedure on her knee and has played well in practice.

Still juggling some things and will use the weekend to learn even more. Sounds like Lambo wil be moving Abbie back to the M-1 against UIPUI.

Gotta go. Good luck Shocks!

[flyingMoose]

Shockers at IUPUI

Pre-game

Travel constraints made for only two practices. Still working on the "Abbie issue." Mikaela not feeling that well, so could not train some possibilities.

IUPUI still has a nice lefty. Will have to defend the right side better than last weekend.

Abbie will start as the M1 (I have no idea). Melissa and Bobbie (in chit-chat this week) both thought that is where she would be in the Valley this year - until, of course ... .

Oops. Yours is better. :)

[shocks02]

Lots of errors from the Shox in set 1. Tied 12-12.

[flyingMoose]

Set 1

The Shockers were off to a very early 3-0 lead. The Jaguars recovered to lead 4-6. The set went back and forth (no lead greater than two) until an error, kill by Abbie and a service ace by Gabi brought the score to 17-13 and brought an IUPUI timeout.

The score rolled to 22-14, and the Jaguars took their second timeout.

Two kills by Tabitha and a block close out the set.


Shockers 25-15 IUPUI

Shocks hit .188 v -.258.

[flyingMoose]

Set 2

A different starting lineup (Abbie Pugh) in this set.

Sidearm and Mike disagree on the score in this set pretty quickly. Mike has Emily under the net - Sidearm has a kill for the Shocks on the same play.

Several five point leads by Sidearm have not resulted in timeouts, so I suspect the three point leads reported by Mike are correct.

At 13-9, IUPUI takes a timeout. I think everyone agrees on the score now.

At 22-15, IUPUI takes their second timeout and the score is off by one again. *Sigh.*

To no avail ...


Shockers 25-15 IUPUI

Shockers now hitting .342 v .000 (For the match, another deficiency in Sidearm - no set-specific stats.)

Mike says .463 in the second set. For the match, Abbie and Mikaela have nine kills and Tabitha has eight.

[flyingMoose]

Set 3

Kara Maleski gets her first start and appearance of the year. A senior scholastically, Mike says this is her final year.

Trailing 2-5 and 4-7, the Shockers rally to 7-7.

The Shockers eventually build a 16-12 lead. When the score becomes 16-15, Lambo takes a timeout. Emma Wright has three kills earlier in this set.

Kill by Abbie, kill by Mikaela and a block make it 19-15, and IUPUI take a timeout.

At 22-18 after creeping up to 20-18, IUPUI takes their final timeout.

Kill by Emma and kill by Tabitha to close out the set.


Shockers 25-19 IUPUI

Shockers hit .350 for the match v .091. Kills are Abbie 14, Tabitha 10, Mikaela 10 and Emma 8. 12% errors and 47% kills.


Post game

Need another middle to get their hand on the ball. Marquette and Miami (OH) know what to do and Lambo knows what they will do. Maybe they will take the red shirt off of Brooke Smith.

Won the serve and pass game. Tabitha served better after some adjustments in practice.

[1972Shocker]

Thanks for the set reports.

It appears the Shocks were able to get Abbie back on track as well as Mikaela despite her not feeling well this week and not practising. Nice match for Emma Wright as well. Need one of the other MB's to step up. Some time it take a while to adjust to the speed and timing of a live match.

A good warm up but tomorrow will get a lot tougher.

[flyingMoose]

Notable Friday Scores

at Ohio State's tournament,

Missouri State 3-1 #20 Ohio State
18, 21, (21), 20


at Creighton's tournament,

Northern Iowa 3-1 #18 USC
24, 28, (17), 24 ... USC scored two more points in the match, but ...

#7 Creighton 3-0 #13 Kentucky
20, 24, 20

[AndShock]

As someone who only very casually follows women's volleyball, what exactly are the tiers? Is Creighton a legit national title contender, or is it more like women's basketball where that designation is limited to 3 or 4 teams, tops? If Creighton is a legit title contender, how did they reach that level?