Shockers vs SMU With Sole Possession of 1st On the Line (& Tulsa on Sunday)

[1972Shocker]

The Lady Shockers (14-3, 6-0) take on the SMU (12-5) Mustangs Friday at 7:00 pm with sole possession of 1st place on the line at stake.

SMU was hurt in the non-conference with an injury to 6-2 RSr All-AAC OH Katie Hegarty who missed the Mustangs' final 8 non-con games. However, she rejoined the team for conference play and is contributing 3.1 K/S.

On his radio show Monday Lambo said the one thing you can count on with teams like SMU and TCU is that they will be athletic and they will be skilled. This may well be the best match the Shockers have remaining on their home schedule.

Season ticket holders received an extra ticket to the SMU match in their season ticket packet for each season ticket they purchased. So let's make sure those freebies are put to good use. Sorry but mine are already taken.

The Havoc in the Heatland match against Tulsa (8-10, 2-4) is at 1:00 pm on Sunday. With all due respect to Tulsa the Havoc match this weekend is SMU on Friday. However, that kind of makes the Tulsa match a bit of a trap. Tulsa is not without some weapons most notably 6-2 Jr OH Emily Thorson who had 47 kills this past weekend in 10 sets against UCF and USF at home. Hopefully, the Shocks will have no trouble bouncing back from what should be a very tough match against SMU to get up for Tulsa.

The Shocker Maniacs are trying to drum up some student support of the Lady Shocks. Hope it works.

Shocker Maniacs @ShockerManiacs 19 hours ago

Maniacs, be loud in the Student Section (117) at this Friday’s Shocker Volleyball match and receive this year’s t-shirt! #watchus – at Charles Koch Arena at Wichita State University

[1972Shocker]

The Chris Lamb Coach's Show podcast from Monday, October 9th.

Am I the only one who thinks Lambo's shows flfy by and wish he had another 30 minutes?

[1972Shocker]

Shocker Match Notes

Scouting SMU
The Mustangs are 12-5 overall and 6-0 in the The American. Wins this season have come against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Ole Miss, Arkansas State, UTSA, Texas State, UMass Lowell, Tulane, Houston, ECU, Cincinnati, USF and UCF. Losses have come against Mississippi State, Rice, Virginia Tech, TCU and Arkansas. SMU is led by Lauren Mills who is averaging 3.64 kills and 3.27 digs per set. Kendall Patterson is averaging 9.99 assists and Montana Watts is averaging 4.54 digs per set. As a team, the Mustangs are hitting .217, while holding opponents to a .182 clip. SMU is led by head coach Lisa Seifert.

Series History vs. the Mustangs
Wichita State leads the overall series with SMU 2-1. The Shockers also lead the series in Wichita 1-0. Head Coach Chris Lamb is 2-0 against SMU. The Mustangs defeated the Shockers 3-1 in Reno, Nev. in 1996, while the Shockers won 3-0 in Wichita in 2010 and 3-2 in Dallas in 2012.

Last Meeting vs. SMU
The last meeting between the two teams was Sept. 6, 2012, in Dallas, Texas. The Shockers won 3-2 by scores of 16-25, 25-18, 23-25, 25-23 and 15-6. Emily Adney led the Shockers with 13 kills, while Chelsey Feekin had 42 assists and Jackie Church had 22 digs.

Scouting Tulsa
The Golden Hurricane is 8-10 overall and 2-4 in The American. Wins this season have come against UTEP, UMKC, SIUE, Wright State, Texas Southern, Oral Roberts, Houston and UCF. Losses have come against North Texas, Montana, Colgate, Stephen F. Austin, Wyoming, Central Arkansas, Tulane, Cincinnati, ECU and USF. Tulsa is led by Emily Thorson who is averaging 4.01 kills per set, while Lindsey Ledyard averages 6.66 assists and Taylor Horsfall averages 5.78 digs per set. As a team, the Golden Hurricane is hitting .189, while holding opponents to a .181 clip. Tulsa is led by head coach Ryan Wills.

Series History vs. the Golden Hurricane
Wichita State leads the overall series with Tulsa 28-13. The Shockers also lead the series in Wichita 14-2. The two teams have not met since 1999, so this will be Head Coach Chris Lamb's first meeting with Tulsa.

[1972Shocker]

Great report on Giorgia Civita by Sully in his Roundhouse series.

Kudos to Mikaela for helping Giorgia get through the languarge challenges she faced.

[pogo]

I think I will bring the 3 youngest grand daughters to the match tomorrow. they are old enough to appreciate high level athleticism in women's sports.

[1972Shocker]

Taylor Eldridge previews this weekend's matches in the Wichtia Eagle focusing largely on Tabitha's new role and the Shockers effort to play at and to sustain a faster tempo.

Apparently Volleyball is not that different than many other sports. Speed kills.

[flyingMoose]

In the Whatever category, Pablo has the Shockers winning chances >80% against SMU and >90% against Tulsa. But as has been pointed out, teams get injured players back and change their "general plan" (see the Shockers) and etc., and Pablo can't pick that up. The SMU match should be a lot of fun.

[1972Shocker]

Sully takes a look at Alex Koon's contributions to the Shockers this season heading into the SMU match.

http://www.goshockers.com/news/2017/10/13/the-roundhouse-rh-koons-accuracy-adds-to-shocker-attack.aspx

Sully compared Alex to former Shocker Lyndsey Eckenrode which both myself and @The Mad Hatter: did was well earlier in the season.

[Shock Top]

WSU has seemingly lost every long rally in this first set.

[pogo]

Home from the match. SMU must have been playing on emotion and adrenaline in the first game. The Shox righted the ship in games 3 and 4 after a closely contested 2nd game . Just an amazing performance by most. I was very impressed with Giorgia Civita

[WuDrWu]

Home from the match. SMU must have been playing on emotion and adrenaline in the first game. The Shox righted the ship in games 3 and 4 after a closely contested 2nd game . Just an amazing performance by most. I was very impressed with Giorgia Civita

Glad you enjoyed it. Giorgia is really good, but she was incredible tonight. Shocks struggled early, tons of mistakes, then went into overdrive and SMU folded like a cheap suit.

[shocks02]

Season-high 3,687 in attendance tonight. Great crowd.

[flyingMoose]

Any pre- or post-match comments from Lambo? The Mustang librero kept a ton of balls off the floor. I think we started winning serve-receive after awhile in addition to the SMU errors.

[1972Shocker]

Very reminiscent of the UCF match. Very competitive 1st two sets with the Shocks losing the 1st and winning the 2nd set and then putting the pedal to the metal after the intermission to totally dominate. Not sure what goes on in the locker room but seems like Lambo may be playing chess and his counterparts are playing checkers.

[1972Shocker]

Any pre- or post-match comments from Lambo? The Mustang librero kept a ton of balls off the floor. I think we started winning serve-receive after awhile in addition to the SMU errors.

You can catch Lambo's post game interview with Mike at the link in this match report.

http://www.goshockers.com/news/2017/10/13/volleyball-no-22-shockers-take-down-smu-3-1.aspx