Volleyball 101 Dinner

[SpanglerFan316]

I wouldn't say WSU was "much better" than SLU. They were better, but the Bilikens were tough and easily could have won the match imho.

Look at http://www.goshockers.com/downloads1...DB_OEM_ID=7500

WSU hit .247 and SLU hit .180.
WSU had 1 BS and 24 BA for 13 blocks. SLU had 3 BS and 6 BA for 6 blocks.
WSU had 82 digs and SLU had 72 digs.
In the final (4th) set, WSU hit .333 and SLU hit .024.

WSU won fairly easily. SLU hit .022 in the second set and .024 in the fourth set. In the third set (after the half break), SLU came out and played fantastically, hitting .472 and winning 25-18. That was it for SLU; WSU won the fourth set 25-16.

I agree that SLU was good. IMHO WSU was much better.

[1972Shocker]

Looks like we have a nice little added attraction before the Volleyball 101 Dinner on Saturday, August 21st as the ladies will scrimmage for an 75 minutes at 4:00 pm in Koch Arena. This is free to the public.

The VB101 dinner requires the purchase of a ticket by August 13th.

http://www.goshockers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=7500&ATCLID=204973628

A fun evening just got better.

:goshocks:

[WuDrWu]

Kind of surprised that nobody has weighed in yet.

400+ tickets sold again this year, although it didn't seem as full as last year.

As usual, the staff and team impressed. They are just a fantastic group of people.

This is going to be an interesting team. Very young. More potential than some other Shocker teams of late, but not there yet.

Sam Sanders impressed me. Emily Adney always gets high quality swings....when she "gets it" I think she could be special.

The middles, with McGee, Field and Witham could be really good. REALLY good.

Hoop and Feekin will give us a lot of options.

There is a LOT of depth, but as of yet I think this group lacks the star power needed to win championships.

But they could be dynamite if the girls come together as a team.

Looking forward to Oklahoma on Friday.

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

[shocker22]

The dinner was great! The girls and staff impressed as usual. Two spots I am worried about are outside hitter and Libero. Waldo has the ability to be good but she has to prove it. On the outside Eck seems to still be recovering from the knee and doesn't have the power she had before the injury. Backes suffers from a shoulder injury, and the other OH's are unproven. However Sam Sanders was very impressive. Adney looked really good as well. The team has alot of talent, let's hope they gel quickly.

[xazshox]

Dinner

This team is going to be more physical than last year. You can see it in the drills and in the scrimmage. There are some really big girls on this team! They walked around among us before the dinner and people were impressed with their size.

[WuDrWu]

You can accurately define the 2010 WSU Volleyball team with the following statement:

Unlike the previous 5 seasons, the 2010 Shocks do not have Sara Lungren, Kelly Broussard, Emily Stockman or a combination of those 3.



If Sam Sanders could find a little of Emily Stockman's hops, she could be awesome. She's not bad right now, especially for a redshirt freshman, and what I really like is her intensity. She's got just a hint of piss and vinegar (easily hidden by her million dollar smile) and seems to disdain poor play, from either herself or her teammates. It's a tough balancing act for a group of young ladies, especially the quality of this particular one.

Libero was a concern last year (more with passing that digging imho) and I am concerned it will continue to be. Waldo looks about the same, Church's passing did look improved and I thought Lindsey Engel did well for herself.

We're going to have to bring Feekin along, now. Hooper will be her usual outstanding self, but she won't hold up to the brutal pounding forever. This is going to be different for us, and how quickly they adapt will be a huge factor in the amount of success this team enjoys.

The middles look to be exciting this season.....McGee is outstanding and Field and Witham both have a ton of upside. I think we'll be much improved here. If not right out of the chute, then certainly by the end of the year. Ashley Andrade also showed off some skill here, although she doesn't appear be as athletically gifted as the aforemention triumvirate.

We witnessed almost no serving by the ladies.....I found that to be interesting. Sam Sanders does have a decent jump serve.

I thought Camri Zwiesler would be better than she was....I guess it shows how one's (in this case my) perception of a "bigger" program is simply unfounded. She was a decent player for a bottom feeding PAC10 team. She's going to have to improve to play for WSU, "at this level".

Based on last night, and fully admitting my ignorance of the game as well as stratigical thoughts, I would put the following 6 on the floor Friday at Oklahoma:

Sanders, McGee, Adney, Hooper, Field, Church

I expect to see Backes, McGee, Church, Waldorf, Hooper, Sanders


Either way, there is going to be a lot of fluidity to the lineup for quite some time.


One final note on Lindsey Eckenrode. As mentioned earlier in the thread, it's obvious she isn't close to being full speed, a concern I voiced last year and mocked by at least one poster here. She is a wonderfully sweet and brilliant young woman and I know she loves being involved with the team, I just want her to be able to walk without a limp in 10 years.

[1972Shocker]

Although the format Lambo decided to use (more of a public practice than a scrimmage) in order to get as many girls on the court as possible made it seem a little bit like a Chinese fire drill I did think that Emily Adney, Sam Sanders, Sara McGee and Jada Witham stood out (which seems consistent with the observations of others). I also thought our digging and passing looked pretty solid. I can only remember one overpass during the session.

I agree that Lindsey, who was wearing a large knee brace, looked less than fully recovered. I talked with her briefly at the dinner and asked her if she would have to wear the brace through the season and she said yes she would. She said she was not back to her pre-injury level. It doesn't appear that will happen. How effective she can be is hard to say. There is so much quality depth she is competing against. Lindsey was never a big jumper but I think her mobility and quickness off the floor have definitely been diminished.

Mary Elizabeth looked good and did not seem to be hampered by her leg problems. She did have ice packs on both shins after the practice.

Lambo fielded questions in Koch Arena after the practice session. I had a little trouble hearing him (typical for me with the arena accoustics) but I believe he gave himself a B- for this year's schedule. I think (but am not totally sure) that he said a couple of teams backed out of our home tournament leaving us only Stephen F. Austin and Portland. He did say he was very happy to get the mid-week match with SMU. He said something about ORU not being on the schedule but I did not really catch what he said on that point. He did note that next year they would be making a trip to Hawaii which he seemed very excited about. (And no doubt the team is also happy about that).

I think the reason the dinner did not seem as full as last year was that the tables were a little more spread out this year and there did not seem to be as much room around the VB net on the adjacent court as they had last year. Also they set up the room slightly different than last year and had two food lines instead of one which I thought was helpful. BTW, I though the food was very good and was better than last year. I also thought the music was better than last year for this type of an event. It was a little loud last year.

Mike Kennedy commented that the University of Minnesota, who has a very fine VB program, recently was trumpeting that they had sold 500 season tickets for the first time. The Shocks had 400 fans in attendance at the VB 101 dinner.

The rules discussion by Mary Farragher was pretty interesting although it dragged on a little bit. I did enjoy the drills Lambo and the team displayed including some of the plays and stategies the Shocks use. Lambo also showed us his newest space toy, a NASA designed machine, that measures the angle of a serve. This machine was initially developed to measure the angle of free throws but didn't seem to catch on. The Stanford VB coach thought it might be a useful tool for VB. At this point only Stanford and WSU have one. It's called Noah and Mary Elizabeth and Chelsey call it their boyfriend. When a serve is made the machine announces the angle of the serve. After a session the machine provides a chart of the serves so the setters can see how consistent they have been. Lambo thinks about 45 degrees is best for serves to the pin which get there in about 1.2 seconds which is quick enough to make it difficult for the defense to set up their blocks. The Mad Scientist seemed pleased with his new toy.

All-in-all an another successful VB 101 dinner.

:goshocks:

[1972Shocker]

If Sam Sanders could find a little of Emily Stockman's hops, she could be awesome. She's not bad right now, especially for a redshirt freshman, and what I really like is her intensity. She's got just a hint of piss and vinegar (easily hidden by her million dollar smile)

and also perhaps by her shyness at least in public. She was too nervous to introduce herself to the crowd at the dinner so Lambo did the honors for Sam.

[1972Shocker]

Chelsey Feekin may be the most physical looking player I have seen at the setter position.

In his Q&A session at the end of the public practice Lambo was asked if he would have 2 setters on the floor at the same time this year. Again I was having a little difficulty clearly hearing Lambo's response but I think he said that was unlikely. However, he did say something about the 5-1 and 6-2 offenses which I did not quite catch and he did say that with this group of players at his disposal he would be able to do some crazy things with his lineups. I could almost see the wheels turning in his head at that point.

[WuDrWu]

and also perhaps by her shyness at least in public. She was too nervous to introduce herself to the crowd at the dinner so Lambo did the honors for Sam.

She didn't seem very nervous or shy to me. In fact I found her to be quite engaging. That comment during the intros surprised me.....I wonder if the whole thing was a bit of a set up.

[WuDrWu]

Mike Kennedy commented that the University of Minnesota, who has a very fine VB program, recently was trumpeting that they had sold 500 season tickets for the first time. The Shocks had 400 fans in attendance at the VB 101 dinner.

Add to that, the University of Illinois, considered by most in the discussion for a National Championship and a consensus top 10 team, held their own "Volleyball 101" event.

About 150 were in attendance.

[1972Shocker]

Mike Kennedy commented that the University of Minnesota, who has a very fine VB program, recently was trumpeting that they had sold 500 season tickets for the first time. The Shocks had 400 fans in attendance at the VB 101 dinner.

Add to that, the University of Illinois, considered by most in the discussion for a National Championship and a consensus top 10 team, held their own "Volleyball 101" event.

About 150 were in attendance.

Doc, that is only part of the story.

http://www.fightingillini.com/sports/w-volley/spec-rel/071910aad.html

The cost to attend was only $10 per person vs $30 a pop for the Shocks dinner.

Not only that apparently you had to bring your own food:

Now for the first time, Hambly is offering a one-session course called "Volleyball 101" on Monday, August 16 from 6-9 p.m. at Huff Hall. Doors open at 5:15 and students are encouraged to bring dinner.

No mention of a title sponsor (at around $5 grand), prize raffle, silent auction, team dinner auction.

Which is the big time program?

[1stThings1st]

I watched the girls before the dinner and am very impressed with our depth. Maybe we can rotate people and save some of the bodies for the post-season (not really a practice our coaches have ever used). This team should imtimidate the Valley. Everyone just keeps asking where do the Shocks get that much talent! Every girl should walk on the court with the attitude "we are going to take it to you" then get out there and smash the ball into thier opponents. Wish I could be coaching this much talent!

[1972Shocker]

I don't think the team will intimidate Northern Iowa nor Missouri State and Lambo also talked highly of improving programs at Drake and SIU.

UNI and MSU are both talented and experienced. I don't think the Shocks will be intimidated by those two teams but they will be underdogs when they play primarily due to the experience factor.

Lambo has always preached the value of having "old" volleyball players.

I do agree that the depth is pretty impressive, although it is inexperienced. While this bodes well for the future, this year is very difficult to predict. Apparently, this group did have a pretty good performance during their spring workouts.

One reason Lambo and other coaches don't rotate a lot of people during a set is due to the limits on substitutions. However, it will be interesting to see what he does from set-to-set this year. Also, he did make the comment at the Dinner that you really don't have a pre-season in VB. All of the non-confernece matches are very important in building a post-season resume.

We'll get a pretty good idea of what we have just around the corner opening with OU at 7:00 pm Friday and a very good Miami, FL team the following morning at 10:00 am. That will certainly be a challenge for this youthful team.