Shockers vs Drake

[im4wsu]

One time and maybe more, but at least once, the head referee/umpire/whatever the one in the highchair is called in this game actually stopped the server because the ball girl (SW corner) was dribbling the VB. There were several other times that a ball was rolling within 5 feet of the court's boundary lines after the head honcho had signaled that the server could put the ball in play.

[boyshocker]

Ball girls, yes a subpar performance. The defense was a little shakey at times too. AJ comes into save the day, one thing she brings that everyone has struggled with is blocking the right side, plus she can play back row. At one time last night we had no attackers on the back row and it was killing us.
I do not pretend to know alot about the game, but to have a player of her caliber just disappear from the lineup seems a bit strange.

[shockmonster]

Maybe I'm wrong but I think that the answer that you're looking for is that Backes has begun to play. At least the times for these two events seem to coincide.

[shockerfan132]

If you take note - Lambo never keeps his lineups the same. They are always changing, and it's scary because sometimes that can really affect a team. Players become used to playing beside each other, they learn different mannerisms and who will take what balls.. etc.

This could be why things may seem sometimes harder on MEH.. with different hitters running different routes, maybe she is uncomfortable or lost in all of the chaos.

Either way.. AJ needs to find her way back on the court.. was very disappointed to see the 7th best hitting percentage IN THE VALLEY (AJ) take the bench after a subpar night where other teammates did just as poor.

[boyshocker]

I agree 123, love to see her back on the court. Backus has played very well but does seem a little weak with the blocking.

[1972Shocker]

I agree 123, love to see her back on the court. Backus has played very well but does seem a little weak with the blocking.

Amanda is blocking at 0.54 per game this year and Angela is at 0.50 per game. So really not much difference there.

And Angela wasn't benched after a sub-par night because she did not play vs Creighton.

However, I'm sure Lambo was very pleased with his lineup vs CU because they swept a very solid and experienced CU team despite playing a poor 3rd set. They were dominating in Sets 1 and 2.

Lambo is known to keep very detailed stats during practice and perhaps Angela just has not been playing well in practice, although I don't know that for a fact. Lambo does seem to place a lot fo weight on practice play.

That said, I hope we see more of Angela on the floor as she seems to have a stabilizing effect. I also want us to keep giving Amanda some floor time also as she is a very nice physical talent and needs to play in order to develop those talents.

I'm not really going to criticize Lambo. For one thing he as forgotten more about Volleyball than I will ever know. Also, the team is 22-0 and on a fabulous 5-year run. Going undefeated is an incredibly difficult task.

The Shockers have proven they are not bullet-proof. They also have proven that they are tough as nails when the match is on the line.

I think Lambo will take the Drake match and use it to his advantage over the remainder of the season.

:goshocks:

[shockerfan132]

I was actually referring to the night when Angela didn't hit as well against Illinois State several weekends ago, she hit something like .059 on 17 swings... since then she hasn't seen much playing time.

I don't know how exactly Angela has faired in practice, but I don't see her as the one to do poorly over an extended period of time.

Lambo is known to quickly pull players if he is worried about how they are doing. If you noticed, for some reason, he wasn't playing the same lineup in games 3 & 4 against Drake, for some reason Lambo didn't play Katie Niggemeyer in game 3, and then pulled Tokarz in game 4. I honestly believe MEH and the rest of her teammates need consistency in the lineup to become the best team they can.

[boyshocker]

Yep, 22-0 is hard to find complaints. Are we nitpicking? I agree that a consistent lineup would help MH and maybe the whole defense. I also agree that AJ does seem to stabilize everthing. At what point do you go by feel and forget the numbers?

[1972Shocker]

At what point do you go by feel and forget the numbers?

Good question. Hard to answer.

We know Lambo is a stat freak by his own admission and that he analyzes those in depth.

That said I don't know that he relies totally on the stats in his decisions. Maybe he does, but I suspect some intuition and gut feel also come into play to some extent. To what extent I have no idea.

[Snapshot9]

This was my first VB game. They started a little slow, but picked up speed and looked good for sets 1 and 2. They let Drake in in set 3 and got edged out, and then looked terrible in set 4.

Set 5 was back to business, and they played pretty solid.

I am still haunted, although, by how 'weak' they got in sets 3 and 4.

Sitting through 3 sets is not bad, but gets long for sets 4 and 5.