WSU vs Creighton (Senior Night)

[1972Shocker]

With Creighton defeating MSU in Springfield Friday night the Shockers have a great opportunity to all but put away the regular season MVC Championship when they take on the Creighton Bluejays on Senior Night on Saturday.

It won't be easy. Nothing this season has been, so that is nothing new.
Creighton will probably be higher than a kite after defeating MSU Friday and still having a shot at a co-championship.

It is still possible that the MVC could end up in a 3-way tie for 1st with the Shocks still having to take on a very good Creighton and a hot UNI team.

I would just as soon eliminate that possibility tomorrow night. Besides what a better send off for two great seniors, Abby and Sara, than to put a big exclamation mark on the season with a BIG win tomorrow against the Bluejays.

I believe the Senior recognition ceremonies start at 6:50 pm.

Hope to see a Big, Big crowd to root the Shocks and the two outstanding Seniors to victory.

:posterwu: :goshocks: :posterwsu:

[SpanglerFan316]

This is our last home match. Shocker fans - please attend this match and say "Thanks" to Abby and Sara.

[1972Shocker]

This has the potential to be another 5-game battle similar to what we had with the MSU Bears last Friday.

[WuDrWu]

Here are a few numbers to digest in the 4 seasons with Sara and Abbey:


Records to Date:

Overall Match Record: 101-20 That's an .835 winning percentage folks.


Overall Game Record: 326-85 .793


How did they do in conference?


2 Regular and 1 Post Season Championships (so far)


Overall Match Record 64-5 .928

Overall Game Record 200-37 .844


Do they fatten up at home you ask?

Conference Road Record 33-1


These are just a few of the team accomplishments. Both ladies are going to set numerous individual marks for the school and the conference. Oh, and they are both great students and better young women.


Did I mention the only win in school history in the NCAAs where they ended up losing to top ranked Nebraska in their own gym in 3 tough games?


I think they deserve your appreciation tomorrow night.

[1972Shocker]

Nice article in Friday's Eagle about the two Seniors:

http://www.kansas.com/250/story/222822.html

Lungren arrived as a raw freshman who struggled with basic skills. She grew into a dominant player. No player under his watch, Lamb said, progressed more from start to finish. He loved Harsh's skills as a high school player and hoped WSU could become a program worthy of her consideration. They leave with a record of success unmatched -- two MVC titles, an NCAA Tournament berth and, perhaps, more to come.

Neither senior season moved along smoothly. Lungren, an outside hitter from Caldwell, deals with a knee injury that she says appears to possess a mind of its own. Harsh, a setter from Newton, plays with back pain that often limits her practice time.

Lungren, last season's MVC Player of the Year, commemorated one of her final practices as a WSU volleyball player by sticking around for extra practice.

She, and two other Shockers, took serves from an assistant coach to work on digging and passing. The senior with a bad knee and nothing left to prove took time to work on the most mundane volleyball skills.

[1972Shocker]

Some individual career accomplishments (so far), which I am sure are less important to these two team leaders than what their teams have accomplished:

Sara Lungren - the raw unproven talent who struggled with basic skills when she arrived and has battled a bad knee for the last two seasons:

Kills - 1,196 - #6 on the career charts (3 more puts her at #5)
Kills Per Game - 3.12 - #3 on the career charts
Attack Attempts - 3,043 - #4 on the career charts (No wonder her knee hurts)
Hitting Percentage - 0.265 - #7 on the career charts
Digs - 980 - #11 on the career charts (not where you would normally expect to find a 6'4" attacker)
Block Assists - 248 - #8 on the career charts
Service Aces - 126 - #4 on the career charts

Looks like Sara turned into a decent all-around player considering where she started from skill wise.

Abby Harsh - Abby of course will not have quite the career stats because she was the #2 setter behind the outstanding Andee Hartig in the 6-2 alignment the Shocks ran in her first two years. (The same can be said for Andee). Also, the setting position is not designed to build a lot of broad based stats. However, you don't win at the rate the Shocks have been winning without quality setting, bad back and all:

Set Assists - 3,697 - #3 on the career charts
Service Aces - 97 - Currently just outside the top 12 with 3 players tied at #10. 3 more aces will move her into sole possession of 10th place on the career charts with the opportunity to move up 2 or 3 more spots.

Neither Sara nor Abby will be in the Top 10 in total games played. Sara played in about 3/4ths of the games her freshman year. In addition, the Shocks have disposed of the majority of their opponents in 3-game sweeps during Sara's and Abby's careers.

And again with all these accomplishments these two young ladies are just as accomplished in the classroom as on the court and are perhaps better people than they are Volleyball players. I don't believe there is any more we could have asked or expected of these young ladies in representing our University and our Community.

My hats off, Ladies. You will long be remembered.

:posterwu: :goshocks: :posterwsu:

[1972Shocker]

Shocker Fans will also be in the record books this year as we will set new season total attendance and average per match attendance records this year.

The only question remains is how high do we set the bar for future seasons.

I say let's go for it. I would love to see 4,000+ Yellow and Black Shocker Maniacs tonight.

Last chance for the students to step up, but I'm not holding my breath in that regard.

:posterwu: :goshocks: :posterwsu:

[dregn]

I got a good group coming I believe...hopefully we can get a nice crowd...

[1972Shocker]

I got a good group coming I believe...hopefully we can get a nice crowd...

:good:

Hope lemuel777 got the tiickets I sent him and will be able to make it.
I'm thinking lemuel777's 7-year old son just may be a good luck charm.

[shox8498]

Just looked at last night's attendance in the box score.

And 2196 is not a bad number at all, IMHO. Not that this is a proven FB state, but the State HS football playoffs are in full swing.

[Shockerman]

Shox sweep CU in 3! Way to go girls, did anyone catch the attendance?

[The Mad Hatter]

Great way for Sara and Abbey to finish their home careers as Shockers. Now let's go out and beat UNI to take the title outright. :goshocks:

[ShockBand]

2752, according to goshockers.com - great job, Shox! Now lets go finish strong on the road, take the Valley tournament, and have a nice NCAA run!

[1972Shocker]

Greet Senior Night although the crowd at 2,752 was good it could have been a lot better (I was hoping for 4,000). Perhaps there are more KU fans in Shocker clothing who stayed home to watch KU football then I realized.

A very, very solid, if not dominating performance, by the Shockers. Great balance and very good serving.

Glad Emily did not take my advice an put away her jump serve. She served great tonight.

We only need to win 1 of 2 next weekend to claim an outright MVC Championship, but a sweep would sure look good on our post-season resume.

:posterwu: :goshocks: :posterwsu:

[1972Shocker]

Shocks finish the year with a total attendance of 35,698 for 14 matches for an average of 2,550 per match. Hopefully, that will be enough to maintain our #7 national ranking.

Texas has closed the gap on us in average attendance after drawing 4,254 for their Friday match against Texas A&M. The have closed the difference from 268 to 78.

They have two home matches remaining with Texas Tech and K-State which will probably draw pretty decent crowds.