Shocks vs SMU

[1972Shocker]

Looking forward to see if the Shocks can continue to build on their play from the BYU Tournament.

If they do they should be able to handle a pretty solid SMU squad at home. Still if you can lose to Portland at home there aren't many matches that are sure things.

I enjoyed Sully's article on Emily Adney in today's Eagle. Not only did I like Lambo's willingness to challenge Emily but I like the way Emily responded to the challenge. Clearly Emily has the physical tools to be a very good player. Her strong play in response to Lambo's challenge shows she probably has the right mental makeup also.

Kudos also to Camri Zwiesler who has been quite a bit better than I was anticipating she would be.

Waldo has also made some very nice improvements in her game.

Looks like Lambo may have decided to mothball the 6-2 offense for the time being. Hopefully, Mary Elizabeth can hold up to the grind of the 5-1.

Amanda Backes showed a little life late in the BYU match. It would be nice if we could get her going. Unfortunately, consisitency has been somewhate of a problem for Amanda during her career. A strong finish Shocker career would be nice to see.

[1972Shocker]

I would probably be remiss if I didn't mention Sarah McGee. She has been pretty steady all year and also had a very nice weekend at BYU.

Her 24-5-55 = 0.345 attack percentage was very solid. During the two matches on Saturday against LMU and BYU Sarah hit 0.472 with no attack errors (17-0-36). For good measure she added 13 Block Assists and 1 Block Solo during the 3 matches.

If we can keep our outside hitters productive that can only help open things up some for Sarah.

[shocker22]

Re: Shocks vs SMU

Looking forward to see if the Shocks can continue to build on their play from the BYU Tournament.

If they do they should be able to handle a pretty solid SMU squad at home. Still if you can lose to Portland at home there aren't many matches that are sure things.

I enjoyed Sully's article on Emily Adney in today's Eagle. Not only did I like Lambo's willingness to challenge Emily but I like the way Emily responded to the challenge. Clearly Emily has the physical tools to be a very good player. Her strong play in response to Lambo's challenge shows she probably has the right mental makeup also.

Kudos also to Camri Zwiesler who has been quite a bit better than I was anticipating she would be.

Waldo has also made some very nice improvements in her game.

Looks like Lambo may have decided to mothball the 6-2 offense for the time being. Hopefully, Mary Elizabeth can hold up to the grind of the 5-1.

Amanda Backes showed a little life late in the BYU match. It would be nice if we could get her going. Unfortunately, consisitency has been somewhate of a problem for Amanda during her career. A strong finish Shocker career would be nice to see.

In Amanda's defense...she has a torn labrum and plays through the pain. In think it hurts her consistency.

[1972Shocker]

Ouch, that would hurt. Shows some toughness on her part to play through the pain.

[1972Shocker]

Somewhat of a mixed bag for the Shocks tonight, but all-in-all and considering how much we struggled to connect in the middle it was a pretty solid 25-15, 25-18, 25-19 sweep of SMU.

While we struggled in the middle with Sarah McGee (6-4-20 = 0.100) and Elizabeth Fields (0-1-3 = -0.333) just never getting in sync with Mary Elizabeth (or vice versa) the outside hitters were very solid led by Camri (13-2-25 = 0.440) and Emily Adney (13-3-30 = 0.333).

Amanda Backes also had a solid outing hitting 0.222 (7-3-18) and contributed 5 block assists and 1 block solo and 2 service aces.

The serving was much improved over the Springhill Suites Classic as the Shocks notched 6 aces vs 6 errors which is a very good 1-to-1 ratio.

Shocks held SMU to a 0.89 hitting percentage.

The Shocks came out flat in the 3rd set but they rallied for the sweep behind Emily's attacks.

Not sure we are quite ready for UNI on the road this Saturday but it will be a good measuring stick for where we really are at this point.

[xazshox]

Amanda

Amanda Backes played very well tonight & was featured on the post game radio show. A look at the stats showed she was one of the leading point getters on the team, so that shows that she played a good all around game.

We sat down in the SE corner a few rows above the team bench (a change for us). It was interesting to watch Amanda's serves come over the net when the team played the 2nd set at the north end. She was getting her serves in tonight and they were just clearing the net & then diving towards the floor. Actually, the whole team had one of their best serving games of the season.

It was difficult to tell how much of WSU's 3 set sweep over SMU was due to WSU's excellence as opposed to SMU's lack of good play. WSU got them down early by big margins in the 1st 2 sets. In the 3rd set, SMU had WSU down, 11-14, and WSU suddenly ran off about 9 pts in a row to their 1 pt. It was all over after that. WSU made a lot of really good defensive saves in this game.

[WuDrWu]

I think I heard Mike and Lambo mention SMU was the 8th best digging team in the country.

After watching them, I've come to following conclusion:


Either A) they have some real stat padding assistants, or B) I have no idea what a dig is.

[flyingMoose]

I think I heard Mike and Lambo mention SMU was the 8th best digging team in the country.

After watching them, I've come to following conclusion:


Either A) they have some real stat padding assistants, or B) I have no idea what a dig is.

In the first two sets especially, if I were at the dinner table, I would have hated asking SMU to pass me anything.

[1stThings1st]

I thought we were dominating at times tonight against a fairly good team. All cylinders better be working Friday and Saturday as we start the Valley games. Aggressive serves, limited serve errors (we can get better), good serve receives (we can get better), sets all around not just outside(we can get better), and the best blocking in the Valley, hit the ball hard and smart and we should go five with UNI. Not sure we are tough enough to win in five at UNI this early in the season. We play too many easy 3 set wins and are not a high winning five set team

[1972Shocker]

Getting Bradley first this weekend while UNI hosts MSU on Friday might prove beneficial to the Shocks.

We get to work the kinks of the long trip out Friday against the team picked to finish last while the UNI and MSU match has the potential to be a real tough affair (hopefully, a tough 5-set affair).

[Wuzee]

Also, from an RPI aspect ... once-beaten Miami has ranked FSU at home this weekend. A win would almost certainly get them into the Top 25 with OU getting votes.