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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:
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:
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