Media Tidbits

[1972Shocker]

From todays Shockwaves:

http://blogs.kansas.com/shockwaves/

I’ve seen parts of three or four volleyball practices. Outside hitter Emily Adney is the freshman who stands out to me. She takes all-out swings and doesn’t look like a freshman. The 10-person freshmen class, in general, appears to be a step above most as athletes. Don’t know how many will play this season, but next season coach Chris Lamb will have a bunch of redshirt freshmen ready. I think Lamb would like to find another six-rotation player to go along with Emily Stockman. I think Amanda Backes and Sarah McGee will get chances to show what they can do in the early matches.

[1972Shocker]

Lambo on Sports Daily today which apparently will be a weekly occurence on Wednesday's during the season.

He said the loss of Lindsey will hurt more than most think. He said he had the weakest depth chart at Lindsey's positon. He also said Lindsey has always had a low error rate (around 10-11%) next best of the players available to fill in was around 17-18% which is about where Indiana State plays at. He said the loss of Lindsey opens somewhat of a hole that other teams my try to exploit. Losing her sol close to the start of the season doesn't make if any easier to plug this hole. We will see what happens.

Asked about the rankings he said that looking at it realistically he thinks the Shocks are fairly ranked. To me Lambo seemed to indicate that the Shocks may be doing about as well as they can do with the way College VB recruiting currently works and with the limited pool of players that can hit from 10.5 feet or so who can simply overpower good fundamental VB.

(I wrote this from memory, but I think I have it close -- if you want to listen to the podcast he was on around 10:15).

[1972Shocker]

Interviews with Lambo, Emily and Mel on goShockers.com:

http://www.goshockers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=7500&ATCLID=204781338

One thing that strikes me about these interviews and Paul Suellentrop's Shockwave observations are the positive comments about this year's large freshman class. Bodes well for the future.

:goshocks:

[SpanglerFan316]

I notice that PrepVB lists "The Class of 2010 Top 50 Recruits" and include the schools to which they are going. One player without a listed school is Erica Denney, a 6-4 MB from Aurora, Colorado. Considering that we have three players from Colorado (Stockman, Adney & Heath), I wonder if Chris Lamb is recruiting Denney.

http://prepvolleyball.com/content/view/2079/157/

[1972Shocker]

Two Shocker VB matches to be televised this year on Kansas 22.

http://www.goshockers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=7500&ATCLID=204783070

Sept. 15 - 7:00 p.m. Italian National Team in Wichita
Oct. 16 - 7:00 p.m. Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa

Nice to get the exposure statewide. Hopefully it doesn't dampen attendance to much for the Italian National Team which, despite being an exhibition, should be a very, very interesting measuring stick for the Shocks and a very difficult challenge but positive experience leading into the MVC season.

[1972Shocker]

Bad news for the Illinois State Redbirds - from Sunday's Wichita Eagle:

lllinois State's volleyball season took a bad turn on Thursday. All-MVC outside hitter Peggy Riessen ended her career because of chronic back problems.

Perhaps a bigger loss for the Redbirds than the loss of Lindsey Eckenrode was for the Shocks.

[The Mad Hatter]

Bad news for the Illinois State Redbirds - from Sunday's Wichita Eagle:

lllinois State's volleyball season took a bad turn on Thursday. All-MVC outside hitter Peggy Riessen ended her career because of chronic back problems.

Perhaps a bigger loss for the Redbirds than the loss of Lindsey Eckenrode was for the Shocks.

I'd say more than perhaps. Losing Riessen would be more like losing Stockman for us.

[WuDrWu]

I'd say more than perhaps. Losing Riessen would be more like losing Stockman for us.

No doubt, although with our depth it might be even more like losing Emily and 1 other, like Katie. Gone is any chance of the Redbirds cracking the top 3 (probably the top 5).

[1972Shocker]

I don't disagree with either TMH or Doc regarding Riessen. I was totally unaware that Riessen had chlronic back issues. You sure couldn't tell by the way she played.

I suppose the same could be said about Abby Harsh's performance her junior and senior year's (except I was aware Abby had some back issues).

Just shows you how tough a lot of these young ladies are.

[SubGod22]

And Abby still played quite well. I would have loved to have seen her 100% both those years. She was a hell of a player

[SpanglerFan316]

http://www.kansas.com/sports/story/961306.html

Shockers happy with Adney's emergence

On a volleyball roster heavy with upperclassmen and used to success, a timid freshman stands little chance.

Fortunately for Wichita State, outside hitter Emily Adney doesn't know how to back down.

"I think she came in here wanting it," setter Mary Elizabeth Hooper said. "What I like about her is that she's not scared at all. She messes up and she'll bang it again. She gets blocked, she'll go up and swing again. A lot of freshmen, if they get shut down they will break down."

No. 23 WSU, which plays Oral Roberts tonight, needed Adney to play beyond her years on the left side. Senior Lindsey Eckenrode suffered a season-ending knee injury in August, offering Adney a chance to play.

"I knew that as soon as she went down someone needed to be able to take her spot," Adney said. "That's an important spot that needs to be filled for the team to do well. I needed to work really hard in practice every day so I could play like Lindsey did."

Adney, from Golden, Colo., is a big hitter with a big swing. Eckenrode relies more on accuracy. Regardless, Adney wasted no time proving that she could help. She recorded eight kills against Pittsburgh and eight more, with an attack percentage of .421, against Louisville in the season-opening tournament.

"Trial by fire, hit the ground running _ pick your cliche," WSU coach Chris Lamb said. "She's part of the equation. She came here with the possibility of being a redshirt. Once Lindsey Eckenrode went down, we kind of knew she needed to be in the mix."

Lamb also pointed to Adney's calm demeanor. He compares her to senior outside hitter Emily Stockman, the 2008 Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year.

"She's not worried that so much is falling on her shoulders," he said. "I think she just wants to go out there and play volleyball. That's how the other Emily is."

Adney played in WSU's first five matches and totaled 24 kills and a .291 attack percentage. What sets her apart are her powerful and aggressive swings.

"Early on, none of us could dig her," Hooper said. "She was impressing all of us from day one."

Adney attributes her pop to her younger days playing tennis. She didn't pick up volleyball until junior high.

"It's the same motion as a serve or an overhhead," she said.

Adney is the one out of 10 WSU's true freshmen to appear in a match. WSU's upperclassmen made her transition easy. Senior libero Melissa Granville tells her to keep swinging hard and coaches her on the court. Junior Sarah McGee talked to her about preparing for the first match.

"They know how it feels," she said. "They were really good to me and really helped me through it. Now I can focus more on being more competitive."

[1972Shocker]

High praise indeed for an Emily to Emily comparison.

Hopefully EA, who did not play vs OU, will get some swings tonight against ORU.

Also, would like to see Katie maintain her very storng play on the left and would like to see Amanda step it back up to her pre-OU form.

[SpanglerFan316]

I noticed in the free "VYRE" rag (Central Kansas, September 2009) that Derby "must find a way to replace all-state hitters Sammie Shook and Joanna McFarland."

I thought Sammie Shook was coming to WSU but she isn't listed on the volleyball roster. Bring in google; I found http://www.goshockers.com/ViewArticl...CLID=204773007.

So ... is there any chance she might play volleyball at WSU? Is she good? good enough for D1?

[flyingMoose]

So ... is there any chance she might play volleyball at WSU?

I think she is strictly a softball player at the collegiate level. She certainly played softball for a travel team during the summers, although there may have been some club volleyball mixed in, too. And at 5' 8", I assume she would be a back row player only in D-I.

One story I heard is that Coach Lamb started recruiting her for volleyball only to discover that Coach Perniciaro was already her recruiting for softball.