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  • Nike Classic

    Any guesses on where the Nike Classic is held? Yes, Eugene, Oregon home of the #14 Oregon Ducks.

    Things will begin to heat up for the #23 Lady Shocks this weekend starting of with a match against Duquesne on Friday at 1:00 pm CT. When Lambo initially talked to the Oregon head coach about playing in this tournament he wasn't too excited with Duquesne as an opponent for RPI reasons. However, when he found out the 4th team in the tournament would be a very good Cal Poly team, who he thinks will win the Big West this year, he decided Duquesne was good enough. That said, while the Duquense is a match the Shocks should win, it is absolutely one they can't afford to take for granted and lose. So I guess from that standpoint this is a must win. Duquesne is 4-4 on the season. Wins have come against Coppin State, Canisius, Robert Morris and St. Francis (PA). Losses are to Xavier, Bowling Green, UIC and Northern Kentucky. Duquesne is definitely moving up in weight class this weekend.

    What makes looking past Duquesne easy to do is that after that match the Shocks will be facing a guantlet of 4 consecutive matches that will be by far their toughest stretch of the year. Including #14 Oregon and RV-#34 Cal Poly to finish off the Nike Classic then finally getting to come home to Koch Arena to face #9 Creighton and #22 Iowa State the following weekend.

    The Shocks take on Oregon at 10:00 pm CT on Friday night. A video stream is available for that match.

    Oregon's only loss is to #5 Texas in Gainesville, Florida. However, that same weekend the Ducks picked up a win over #12 Nebraska. They stepped down in class last weekend when they won 3 matches at home against Texas-Rio Grande Valley, Northern Illinois and Loyola Marymount. However, Loyola did take the Ducks to 5 sets.

    The Shocks finish up the weekend against Cal Poly at 4:00pm CT on Saturday. Cal Poly is ranked 34th based on the number of votes it is receiving in the AVCA polls and I get the feeling that Lambo thinks they may be better than that. 6-3 So. OH Torrey Van Winden played her freshman year at UCLA before transferring to join her sister, 6-1 So. OH Adlee Van Winden. Lambo is very familiar with these two players and says they are very good. Torrey is averaging 4.72 kiils set while hitting .352 and Adlee is 4.50 kills per set and hitting .299. By comparison the Shocks leading attacker, Tabitha Brown, is at 4.33 kills per set while hitting .327 and Abbie Lehman is at 2.95 kills per set while hitting .304. I will point out that Lambo has generally preferred a diversified attack if he can get it. Cal Poly is 5-1 with sweeps over Dayton, High Point, Northern Illinois, Seattle and Santa Clara. Its lone loss was a 3-0 loss (20, 26, 17) at the hands of #8 Washington in Seattle. Nothing easy about this one.

    The last time the Shocks faced Cal Poly was to open the season in 2008 at the Sooner Invitational in Norman. The Shocks fell behind Cal Poly 2-0 before roaring back to take a 5 set victory. The carried that momentum to sweep of the Sooners and a 4-set win over Michigan State. Lambo still says that was the best weekend of his coaching career. 2008 was the year the Lady Shocks became the 1st Wichita State team in any sport to go through the regular season undefeated at 29-0. A great memory for me as I was one of about 50 Shocker fans in attendance in Springfield when the Shocks swept Missouri State to cap off the perfect season. The Shocks did lose the next match, a 5-set Valley Tournament semi-final loss to that same Missouri State team then they beat Rice and lost at Texas in the NCAA Tournament to close out the season at 30-2. Let's hope that playing Cal Poly will be followed by the same success as 2008.

    :poster_shocks:
    Last edited by 1972Shocker; September 6, 2017, 03:55 PM.

  • #2
    Shocker Tournament Notes

    Oregon Tournament Notes
    .

    Cal Poly Tournament Notes.

    Duquesne Tournament Notes.
    Last edited by 1972Shocker; September 7, 2017, 06:09 PM.

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    • #3
      Originally posted by 1972Shocker View Post
      However, Loyola did take the Ducks to 5 sets.

      Cal Poly is 5-1 with sweeps over Dayton, High Point, Northern Illinois, Seattle and Santa Clara. Its lone loss was a 3-0 loss (20, 26, 17) at the hands of #8 Washington in Seattle. Nothing easy about this one.

      The last time the Shocks faced Cal Poly was to open the season in 2008 at the Sooner Invitational in Norman. The Shocks fell behind Cal Poly 2-0 before roaring back to take a 5 set victory. The carried that momentum to sweep of the Sooners and a 4-set win over Michigan State. Lambo still says that was the best weekend of his coaching career.
      Marymount is really strong, but the Ducks can be beat. We'll have to be great though.

      No shame in the Cal Poly loss to Washington. Those Van Winden girls are the real deal. Can't put a ton of stock into the indirect matches, but for reference, Creighton beat Washington at Washington 3-1 during the first weekend.

      I enjoyed that comment by Lambo. It was a good weekend for me as well. I was at McCasland Fieldhouse for the OU and MSU matches then watched the Sooners dismantle UT-Chatanooga in switchback heaven with good friends in tow.

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      • #4
        Originally posted by 1972Shocker View Post
        Lambo still says that was the best weekend of his coaching career.
        Who am I to argue with Lambo, but I figured he would give high praise to November 30-December 1 in 2012.
        78-65

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        • #5
          Like I said, good weekend. Not best ever. #JL

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          • #6
            Originally posted by WuShock16 View Post
            Who am I to argue with Lambo, but I figured he would give high praise to November 30-December 1 in 2012.
            I'm sure he does. It was just something he threw out off the cuff on his radio show Monday and no doubt involved a bit of hyperbole. Mike made the comment that the victory over Cal Poly in Oklahoma was one of the best early season wins in Shockher history. Lambo responded "I call that the best 18 hours of my life. We had beaten Oklahoma, Michigan State and Cal Poly all within no time at all."

            This was at about the 24:00 minute mark of the podcast of Monday's show.

            I suspect that when he got home Shannon probably suggested that their wedding day and the births of their daughters were pretty good days as well. I'm sure he told Shannon he meant of his coaching life as it existed between 2007 and 2009.
            Last edited by 1972Shocker; September 6, 2017, 07:19 PM.

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            • #7
              After the 1st week of the season the Shockers non-con schedule had a record of 20-13 for a 60.6% winning percentage.

              After the 2nd week of the season that records had moved to 43-28 to remain at 60.6%.

              Lambo would like this to be 63% to 65% by the end of the year. A lot of these teams should pick up the pace when they get into their conference schedules including Lipscomb, ETSU, Belmont, Marquette, Miami (OH). Creighton and Cal Poly should also win a lot of matches in their Conference put at 5-1 they probably won't be picking up the pace much. In any case, still looks like reaching Lambo's targets are doable.

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              • #8
                Fully 21% of our non-conference schedule losses are to WSU. That's probably acceptable.

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                • #9
                  Oregon has 8 players that have played in all 19 sets the Ducks have played this year. The other 5 players on the roster have played in 10, 8, 7, 6, 4 and 2 sets. Clearly the Oregon's coach doesn't share Lambo's affinity for a large roster.

                  2 of those 8 primary players are 5-10 Sr. Setter Maggie Scott and 6-0 Jr. Setter August Raskie. With both setters having played in all 19 sets and with Scott having 122 assists on the season and Raskie 99 that is a strong indication that Oregon is running a 6-2 offense.

                  5-9 Sr. Alex Hojnar is apparently the Libero.

                  The five remaining players who have played in all 19 sets are:
                  6-3 Jr. OH Lindsey Vander Weide (3.74 KPS - .228 HP)
                  6-2 So RSH Willow Johnson (2.47 KPS - .314 HP)
                  6-2 Sr RSH Taylor Agost (.242 KPS - .235 HP)
                  6-2 So MB Ronika Stone (1.95 KPS - .342 HP)
                  6-2 Jr MB Sumeet Gill (0.79 KPS - .109 HP)

                  There is one player who has only played in 8 sets but those 8 sets were in the Nebraska and Texas matches. 6-3 OH Brooke Van Sickle is purported to be the Ducks most versatile player and she did well against Nebraksa and Texas totaling 21 kills with a .259 HP and making 37 digs in those 2 matches. Apparently she sustained some kind of a knee injury in the Texas match and did not play at all in any of the Ducks 3 matches this past weekend. The only thing I can find is that she was not available to play last weekend. I have been unable to find anything about her ability to play this weekend. So the availability and condition of this player could be a bit of a wild card this weekend.

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                  • #10
                    Other Scores of Interest

                    Lipscomb 0-3 at #6 Wisconsin
                    19 19 24

                    Cal Poly 0-3 at #14 Oregon
                    22 20 20
                    .147 v .289 (Cal Poly sisters hit combined .175 and each of them had swing totals more than 50+% greater than third highest number of swings.)
                    4 blocks v 13

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                    • #11
                      That actually is not too bad of a showing by Lipscomb.

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                      • #12
                        #23 Shockers v Duquesne at 1pm CT

                        LiveStats link

                        Audio link

                        I'm going to miss this one. Hopefully, it will be over (in three sets) by the time I get back.

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                        • #13
                          Everyone else not able to get the audio to work (again)? Stats say 17-9.

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                          • #14
                            Sometimes it's a browser or random computer thing, but I've tried 6 different devices and platforms and nothing. Think audio is down this afternoon for good.

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                            • #15
                              Originally posted by bunck View Post
                              Everyone else not able to get the audio to work (again)? Stats say 17-9.

                              Not sure about everyone else but this one else is in the same boat.

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