Louisville Invitational

[1972Shocker]

:good: Got to be pleased with the way the Shocks responded. We may have a few things to clean up in the serve and passing game but that was a nice, solid win today. Makes you scratch your head a little about what went on yesterday.

In any case, very happy to see the Ladies respond to yersterday's performance in such a positive fashion.

:goshocks:

[WuDrWu]

Quality road win somewhat offsets poor neutral court loss.

Nicely done ladies.


:wsu_posters: :goshocks: :posterwu: :posterwsu:

[The Mad Hatter]

Hopefully the Pitt game just proves to be a wakeup call for this team. Today's game is certainly encouraging and shows that when we play well we probably are as good as we hoped we would be, in spite of the Pitt loss.

Honestly, I'd rather have an early non-conference loss be the wakeup call than an MVC tournament loss. Across sports, going undefeated can make it really hard to keep focus, so yesterday may turn out to be a blessing in disguise if we channel it correctly.

[1972Shocker]

I understand this might have been a problem Friday evening, contributing to Saturday morning's swoon.


http://www.porcinilouisville.com/location.html

That reminds me -- time for lunch.

[dregn]

Games like yesterday happen every year. Difference is when they happen against a team like Drake at CKA eventually you should win. If they happen against a better team, you'll probably end up with a loss. Hopefully todays Shockers are the team we'll see a majority of the year.

[SpanglerFan316]

Next weekend UNC & OU. It should be great.

[1972Shocker]

Next weekend UNC & OU. It should be great.

Looking forward to it.

[SpanglerFan316]

Now WSU has a 6'5" right-side hitter? Sounds good to me. GO ST!!

[1972Shocker]

Now WSU has a 6'5" right-side hitter? Sounds good to me. GO ST!!

Maybe, but the reason it was even tried is Lambo is searching for some consistent offense beyond Emily Stockman. If Emily has an off day (such as she did vs Pitt) we need to be able to go elsewhere.

No doubt Emily is going to be the focal point of opposing defenses.

I think Emily Adney is going to get better and better. I would like to see us get Sarah Mac more engaged in the offense and we need Katie to step up and show us why Lambo said she was arguably the best player during the spring. Amanda Backes also has some nice tools to work with. I think Lambo has the raw material to work with. It may take a little time to get everything working smoothly.

[1972Shocker]

Pitt dropped a tough 4-set match to Arizona despite winning 5 more points than the Wildcats. Scores were 26-28, 25-14, 23-25 and 24-26.

Perhaps Pitt is better than anticipated. Hopefully, they will do much better than 8th place in the Big East. I am now a Pitt volleyball fan for the rest of this season. Go Panthers!

[WuDrWu]

Now WSU has a 6'5" right-side hitter? Sounds good to me. GO ST!!

I do not agree. If Stephanie spends most of her time on the right, we will have many more days like yesterday, imho.

[SpanglerFan316]

Let's see what Chris Lamb thinks. With McGee as MB and Stephanie on the right, the blocking options might improve a lot.

[1972Shocker]

Lambo is still searching for offensive solutions. Stephanie was moved to the right against Louisville as a defensive measure (according to Lambo).

From the Wichita Eagle write-up:

Lamb moved middle blocker Stephanie Tokarz to the right side and went with a defensive lineup.

We're still searching for offense," he said. "We thought if we can keep the ball in play we could make these guys run and chase it."

Freshman Emily Adney continued to produce offensively. She recorded eighth kills and hit .412. Adney finished the weekend with 17 kills.

I have to believe that Emily Adney will be a key component in finding the solutions to our offensive needs. Unfortunately we will have to accept the inconsistency and learing process that goes along with playing a true freshman. I would say that EA did have a pretty solid debut though.

[SpanglerFan316]

I agree that our "Emily"s are outstanding. I think playing Stephanie Tokarz on the right has potential. If the opponent's best offensive player is their left-side hitter, we might be able to shut her down using McGee and Tokarz.