MVC Conference Season Begins

[1972Shocker]

UNI is 8-2 and played a very good non-conference schedule. 5 of their matches went 5 sets and they won 4 of those against Purdue, Minnesota, Baylor and Kansas. They lost a 5-setter to a good Dayton program and they also lost to a very good Iowa State team. They played all of their matches away from home. I see nothing to detract from UNI being the solid favorite to repeat as MVC Champs and their schedule should have them ready for battle.

MSU also went 8-2 against a decent schedule, however, 7 of those matches were in Springfield. They did lose the last two championship games at home against Ohio and Oklahoma. I see a little bit of similarity between the Bears and the Shocks preseasons in that they had some ups and downs as they are searching to solidify their lineup. Again they did nothing to diminish their preseason #2 conference ranking.

Shocks finished the preseason at 7-2. The loss to Miami was a little disappointing and the home loss to Portland was very disappointing. However, the Portland loss may have a silver lining as Lambo apparently was able to get the attention of some of his players and they have responded well with 4 nice wins to finish off the non-conference season. Not sure the Shocks can overcome UNI or MSU but I think they will be plenty tough.

CU went 5-5 in the preseason. Seems like a little bit of a mixed bag. They may be a little overvalued at their #4 pick. I think CU, Drake and SIU are all very close and the preseason rankings and votes support this also.

Drake is 14-0 although this may be a little bit of fools gold. Their opponents are a combined 43-81 and they have played Green Bay and North Dakota twice and they will play South Dakota a second time later in the year. Their best win was a 3-2 home win over Iowa yesterday. Iowa owns 5-set wins over CU and SIU. I think Drake will be competitive. They have some decent players and good experience. However, I'm not sure they are ready to displace any of the Big 3 at this point. Not sure their 14-0 record tells us a whole lot. BTW, Drake set an attendance record in their win over Iowa drawing 1,215 fans.

SIU is 8-1 with their only loss the 5-setter to Iowa. They have wins over Alabama, UConn and Mississippi State. SIU should be right their with CU and Drake for 4th place and perhaps nipping on the heals of the Shocks.

Of the remaining four teams I think Illinois State has the best shot of being in the middle group with CU, SIU and Drake. ILS played a decent schedule and with 2 of their losses in 5 sets to NC State and Indiana. Their 3rd loss was to a good Colorado State team.

It looks like their will be a pretty good battle for the final couple of spots in the MVC 6-team tournament.

Evansville did go 9-1 with their only loss to Michigan State, however the rest of their schedule looks pretty weak so not much to really go on.

Bradley and Indiana State will battle for last place as expected.

[WuDrWu]

Re: MVC Conference Season Begins

UNI is 8-2 and played a very good non-conference schedule. 5 of their matches went 5 sets and they won 4 of those against Purdue, Minnesota, Baylor and Kansas.

For comparison, SMU beat Bayor as well, albeit in 5 games.

The SMU team I watched last night couldn't beat WSU in a month of Sundays.


Lambo has obviously shortened his bench considerably in an effort to gain some consistency. I will be surprised if the current rotation can hold up all year.

I still believe we're going to need Feekin, Witham and then some combination of Sanders, Heath and Andrade to be as successful as we expect.

No doubt UNI is really, really good but this team is capable of competing for the top prize.

[The Mad Hatter]

Re: MVC Conference Season Begins

UNI is 8-2 and played a very good non-conference schedule. 5 of their matches went 5 sets and they won 4 of those against Purdue, Minnesota, Baylor and Kansas.

For comparison, SMU beat Bayor as well, albeit in 5 games.

The SMU team I watched last night couldn't beat WSU in a month of Sundays.


Lambo has obviously shortened his bench considerably in an effort to gain some consistency. I will be surprised if the current rotation can hold up all year.

I still believe we're going to need Feekin, Witham and then some combination of Sanders, Heath and Andrade to be as successful as we expect.

No doubt UNI is really, really good but this team is capable of competing for the top prize.

Injuries and people going into slumps always happen and the bench needs to be ready to pick up the slack, but I think that the rotation you saw last night was what Lamb wants if all those girls stay healthy and perform they way they can.

Hooper has been medically cleared, which is why we have moved back to the 5-1. McGee and Field are solidly our top two middles. Adney and Zwiesler obviously have locked down the left. Both Waldo and Church have solid roles as littles. The only question is the right side, and Lamb has said that he thinks this team goes as Backes goes. If Backes is playing anywhere near her potential, she will be the person on the right side rotation.

Hopefully there will be matches where we can put in the reserves to save our starters legs, but substitution rules and 25 point rally scoring make it hard to do, even against inferior opponents. A 7-9 player rotation is normally the limit, and we ran a 9 player rotation last night.

On a separate note, while I am glad UNI played a tough schedule, I'm not sure I like them setting a precedent that a top-25 caliber, Valley favorite will not play a single home non-con match. I understand why it happens (I have no doubt that no one good wanted anything to do with playing UNI in Cedar Falls), but I still don't like it.

[1972Shocker]

I do like the Shocks quality depth. It will be interesting to see how Lambo will use that depth as the year progresses.

Camri sure looks good and hopefully Emily has had an awakening. Amanda continuing to contribute at a high level will also be of great help.

The play of our littles has also been pretty solid this year.

We clearly need to get MEH and the middles more in sync and more productively involved and the sooner the better (like by Saturday).

One thing about Lambo is that he seems to enjoy the process of building a team and training players as much or more than the actual competition.

[1972Shocker]

Re: MVC Conference Season Begins

A 7-9 player rotation is normally the limit, and we ran a 9 player rotation last night.

Actually we ran an 8 player rotation last night. Chelsey did make a cameo appearance late in the 3rd set but I'm not sure that qualifies for actually being in the "rotation".

That picky point notwithstanding I think your point is a valid one. I'm not sure what the rationale behind the reduction in substitutions was (from 15 to 12 per set I believe). My guess is to speed up matches but I don't really know.

It definitely makes it tougher to work in some PT for the reserves and perhaps makes the 6-2 less attractive due to the sub requirements of that offense (in most cases).

[flyingMoose]

Re: MVC Conference Season Begins

The only question is the right side, and Lamb has said that he thinks this team goes as Backes goes. If Backes is playing anywhere near her potential, she will be the person on the right side rotation.

They ran the slide some for Sarah last night to get additional swings from the right pin.

[The Mad Hatter]

Re: MVC Conference Season Begins

A 7-9 player rotation is normally the limit, and we ran a 9 player rotation last night.

Actually we ran an 8 player rotation last night. Chelsey did make a cameo appearance late in the 3rd set but I'm not sure that qualifies for actually being in the "rotation".

That picky point notwithstanding I think your point is a valid one. I'm not sure what the rationale behind the reduction in substitutions was (from 15 to 12 per set I believe). My guess is to speed up matches but I don't really know.

It definitely makes it tougher to work in some PT for the reserves and perhaps makes the 6-2 less attractive due to the sub requirements of that offense (in most cases).

You are right, my bad. I think the move back to the 5-1 had more to do with Hooper getting healthy than Feekin not performing. One of the problems with the 6-2 is that your hitters have to get used to the setting styles of two different setters with makes establishing timing more difficult.

Positional battles are never really over at Wichita State, since people can earn playing time by performing in practice, but the group we saw out there last night has established some separation from the pack.

[The Mad Hatter]

Re: MVC Conference Season Begins

The only question is the right side, and Lamb has said that he thinks this team goes as Backes goes. If Backes is playing anywhere near her potential, she will be the person on the right side rotation.

They ran the slide some for Sarah last night to get additional swings from the right pin.

True, although I was more referring to someone taking rotations away from Amanda than Sarah getting some swings on the right.

[WuDrWu]

They ran the slide about zero times in Oklahoma to the best of my recollection. Last night was the first time I can remember seeing it with any success or regularity.

And it was good.

[The Mad Hatter]

They ran the slide about zero times in Oklahoma to the best of my recollection. Last night was the first time I can remember seeing it with any success or regularity.

And it was good.

Agreed. As Lamb mentioned on the post game, we need to spend the next couple of days getting our timing fixed on the quicks, but McGee and Hooper were certainly connecting on the slide.

[xazshox]

Quicks

Mad Hatter - you've mentioned "2 quicks" several times in various threads here this fall. Please explain what you mean by the term.

[WuDrWu]

TMH, does it appear to you that Hoop is regularly setting the quick not just a little too low but way to low?

It seems that Sarah and Elizabeth rarely if ever get good full swings at a kill and it's usually more like a forward punch from the chest than a real swing.

Just curious on your take.

[dregn]

The quicks are way to low. It appears to me the Sarah is swinging at balls almost below her shoulder. This is especially true on the quicks further away from the setter. Hoop really needs to give our middles a chance to attack from higher up and over the block. It's something I think she's struggled with in the past couple years also.

Trying not to step on TMH's toes, but the 2 quicks he's talking about would come in a couple of manners. Really you have 3 positions you'll see a quick hit from. Immediately in front of the setter, immediately behind them (this is pretty rare) or further out in front of the setter (you see us doing this more and more the last 2 years). So for 2 quicks you'd have 2 people each run 1 of these routes while your left would take the normal approach.

[1972Shocker]

TMH, does it appear to you that Hoop is regularly setting the quick not just a little too low but way to low?

It seems that Sarah and Elizabeth rarely if ever get good full swings at a kill and it's usually more like a forward punch from the chest than a real swing.

Just curious on your take.

Not directed at me but I will chime in with my 2 cents. I thought she was consistently too low, although I'm not exactly sure how high they want it. But I would think you would want to take advantage of Sarah and Elizabeth's lenght and athleticism whenever possible. Although part of the goal with the quick is to get the attack away before the block can set up. Also, I think part of the problem last night was that SMU was tracking Sarah pretty tightly.

On using the slide to Sarah I think they started going to that more at the BYU tournament as I recall Mike describing that particular play several times in those matches.

Also Amanda said something last night in the post game show that they changed up their type of set they were using to her and that she thought that was helping her.

[xazshox]

Quicks

Ok Wu, I think you answered my question. The quicks are the 2 middle blockers. WSU typically had Sarah McGee and Elizabeth Field on the floor quite a bit of the time. Yes, from my vantage point in the SE corner, I, too, noticed that the middle blockers were not getting their quick, low sets in a position they cud handle very well. Sarah had a lot of swings, but her hitting % wasn't very good and Elizabeth had only about 3 swings at the ball. I remember that she hit one into the net, too. The setter was, however, getting the balls to the outside hitters very well indeed.