Shockers vs K-State (3,327 Fans Needed)

[dregn]

I think the russian player we saw in the 1st and 4th set is the one worth admission. Think she had 7 of her 19 kills in the first set. Even when we put up good blocking in front of her she simply powered it through. I remember one in the 4th set where Emily made a nice swing block setup and the girl still put it between her arms. She just has the power to put it by people. WuDr is definately right that she seemed tired at times and would make errors by hitting the ball long. She's as good of a hitter that I've seen play against us at Koch.

Stockman reminds me of a right handed Younes (i think Sara was left handed). I think her ace numbers will go up in conference play. I think she also looked a little winded in the 4th set.

[1972Shocker]

No doubt Korobkova is a very impressive college VB player and worth the price of a admission to see.

Here are her stats for tonight's match:

19 Kills, 9 Attack Errors in 47 attempts for a 0.213 hitting percentage.
2 aces, 2 service errors, 12 digs, 4 block assists & 1 blocking error.

Very well rounded player indeed.

That said check out these stats from tonight's match:

Emily Stockman:
20 Kills, 6 Attack Errors in 46 attempts for a 0.304 hitting percentage.
2 aces, 4 service errors, 15 digs, 1 block assist.

Sara Lungren:
21 Kills, 9 Attack Errors in 48 attempts for a 0.250 hitting percentage.
1 ace, 1 service error, 11 digs, 1 block solo and 1 block assist.

I would say the Shocks also have some players worth the price of admission. Hopefully, many of the fans in attendance tonight will agree and will be back.

:posterwu: :goshocks: :posterwsu:

[WuDrWu]

Her biggest weakness in my eyes would her passing game only because they kept her hidden on the serve recieves. That's probably the only reason I'd put Pavan above her. Pavan has pretty close to the same attacking ability, but she plays a similiar row as Lundgren were Nebraska relies on her all around game including recieving serves.

I also felt she was winded somewhat easily. When she lost her legs a bit her game came down to average human. Maybe above average...ok way above average.

[WuDrWu]

"Concerning the Russian player... I'd be very surprised if there is a better all-around volleyball player anywhere in the country... man or woman."

She's right there with most. Sara Pavan of Nebraska is still my guess for player of the year.

I don't know that much about across the country talent.......is she really that good?????

If so I would feel better about the loss......


I remember TowelGate also Royal.....I have to admit that it was a bit rude but in her defense, the towel girl was in lala land and had no idea the ref was calling for her to clean for several seconds before she caught on. Still no reason to be a jerk.

[dregn]

Her biggest weakness in my eyes would her passing game only because they kept her hidden on the serve recieves. That's probably the only reason I'd put Pavan above her. Pavan has pretty close to the same attacking ability, but she plays a similiar row as Lundgren were Nebraska relies on her all around game including recieving serves.

[RoyalShock]

I agree there were near 6k in the seats. I said that very thing to my wife during the 2nd game.

It's clear the Shock's defensive net game needs improvement. Toward the end of the third game and all of the fourth it seemed we were afraid to attack. Maybe KSU's blocking is just that good, I don't really know. And we need to cut down on the unforced errors. There were times we were setting up K-State's hitters better than their own setters.

Tokarz needs to spend some serious time working on her serves.

That 9-1 run to get back into the third game was amazing. It went from 24-16 to 25-25 if I recall correctly.

Emily Stockman is awesome. If she were a couple of inches taller . . . wow.

The Russian gal from KSU - at 6'5" - has a near-perfect balance of strength and agility. But in the spirit of finding something negative, I didn't care for her treatment of the towel girl by yanking the towel out of her hand and then tossing it back without even looking. Pretty disrespectful, IMO.

[dregn]

"Concerning the Russian player... I'd be very surprised if there is a better all-around volleyball player anywhere in the country... man or woman."

She's right there with most. Sara Pavan of Nebraska is still my guess for player of the year.

[WstateU]

In reply to Spangler, non of the above, just commenting on the crowd I saw because it is a main topic of conversation. I just hate how I see posters make comments about how the Big XII basketball tournaments inflate their numbers, but people don't think WSU and the Valley does the same.

dregn, you may have some valid points in a couple of your posts, however I believe there were at least 6K butts in the seats tonight. I sat on the second from the top row near half court and when the first match began, I told my guest that there was at least 5K and people were still flooding in. I've attended various sporting events in Koch/Levitt arena over the last 35 years and I believe you're wrong by saying the numbers were inflated tonight. We need to thank K-State fans... they came out in full-force (I'd guess 1,500 of them spread around the arena). It was a special night and one I will always remember.

P.S. Concerning the Russian player... I'd be very surprised if there is a better all-around volleyball player anywhere in the country... man or woman.

[dregn]

If it was 6024 that showed up then Koch holds 15k, but it was a good 4000-4500 butts in seats.

It was way more than half full, were you talking about during the last game of the match?

I don't understand why dregn felt it was necessary to make such a post. Is he/she bitter about something? Is he/she a KSU fan? a KU fan? a troll?

Actually I'm not done with that yet. That's probably the most offensive thing someone has posted about me in the 3-4 years I've been posting here. For whatever reason a year ago I pissed you off with a post I've made and I feel like you've held that against me for whatever reason. That's your choice and I put our little tiff behind me a long time ago and have tried to go out of my way to not make any comment that you may feel is negative against you.

If you really want to know my history with WSU as a student and a fan I have no problem giving it. Just send me a private message and I'll tell you my story. I've never posted things that are negative about players or the teams and I've always tried to stay positive well posting on this board.

In the meantime I don't think anyone would question SubGod on what kind of fan he is of WSU and he knows me personally. I definately think he could vouch for me that I'm as big of a fan of WSU, both the sports and the school, as anyone. He could also vouch that I would have a clue of how WSU reports attendence versus how they report it. This post may not be on topic, but i'm just very pissed and offended that you'd post something like that about me without having a clue who I am.

[1972Shocker]

dregn is correct, WSU, as is the case with most if not all NCAA schools count paid attendance. However, since the Shocks had sold only 675 season tickets coming into the tournament then I'm not sure where
1,500-2,000 paid but unused seats would have come from.

With all due respect to dregn, who is a good contributor to this board, there was clearly well over 5,000 people in the building. How much inflation was built into the reported attendance, I don't know, but I don't think there was very much fluff in the reported attendance.

If dregn only saw 4,500 people than that's what he saw, although I'll agree to disagree with him.

There is also no doubt that we set an attendance record tonight by a large number.

Generally, I was pleased with the Shockers play and their effort, despite losing their edge in game 4.

Sure would like to get another shot at K-State in the post-season.

:posterwu: :goshocks: :posterwsu:

[dregn]

In reply to Spangler, non of the above, just commenting on the crowd I saw because it is a main topic of conversation. I just hate how I see posters make comments about how the Big XII basketball tournaments inflate their numbers, but people don't think WSU and the Valley does the same.

[dregn]

Nope, talking about the whole thing. WSU inflates their attendence figures just like every single other school and conference in the nation. They report tickets sold and not the tickets scanned.

Todays tickets were good for all day. That means every player, coach, team staff, etc from Cal Poly and North Texas were counted in that attendence. Also anybody who went to either of the matches earlier today, but didn't come tonight was counted. I know several people who bought one ticket and got the second free that didn't use the 2nd.

It was a great crowd and defineatly the largest one I've seen at WSU for volleyball.

[SpanglerFan316]

If it was 6024 that showed up then Koch holds 15k, but it was a good 4000-4500 butts in seats.

It was way more than half full, were you talking about during the last game of the match?

I don't understand why dregn felt it was necessary to make such a post. Is he/she bitter about something? Is he/she a KSU fan? a KU fan? a troll?

[1972Shocker]

The switch to the 5-1 worked out pretty well, especially considering that the Shockers have not practiced a lot using the 5-1. The Shocks played much better than they did last night.

Shocks played hard and gave K-State a good match. If they can come back tomorrow and win agaisnt Cal Poly then tonights loss will not look bad at all at the end of the year. The addition of the big Russian has really helped K-State.

Shocks need to clean a few things up. Cut down on the unforced errors and the service errors (14 tonight vs 10 for K-State). Service errors are the equivalent of a walk in baseball to me, plus they seem to always kill momentum.

Shocks need to develop more consistent depth to support Lungren and Stockman who both had very good matches tonight.

Congrats to K-State. They were clearly the best team in this tournament.
Hope they go on to have a good year.

Hopefully, everyone who attended and contributed to the attendance record enjoyed the match and hopefully many first timers will be back in the future.

[lemuel777]

If it was 6024 that showed up then Koch holds 15k, but it was a good 4000-4500 butts in seats.

It was way more than half full, were you talking about during the last game of the match?