Fab 4! VB @ Wichita State

[CatBot]

[CatBot]

[uatg]

If anyone wasn't able to see the Great 8 game against Wyoming on Wednesday, I HIGHLY recommend watching the entirety, even if in chunks of time if necessary.

Comments:
1. It is living evidence that the 'Cats experience at the Big Sky Championship (tough loss to Weber) has made them better. It is an amazing, exciting performance! Wyoming was outcoached and outplayed starting midway through the 1st set. You could see it on the Wyoming players faces versus our 'Cats toward the end....

2. Hats off to the Wyoming Cowgirls. That is a GOOD team that played three Freshman through the match. They are going to be really good next year.

3. The Wyoming commentators were so respectful of our teams competitiveness and did a great job of color commentating throughout I thought. I don't think they expected Wyoming to lose going in, but they recognized early on that they were in for a fight, and never talked down about our team. That's refreshing. Although, the one commentator kept saying 'Montana', instead of 'Montana State', which was sort of agonizing, but kinda funny also. Maybe they were confused by the Wyoming Brown and Gold legacy ex-griz jersey colors.

4. To see the replay: Download the Mountain West Network app to your favorite streaming device and locate event replays. Find MSU vs Wyoming (obviously), and get ready.

Saturday should be a fun match to watch!

[rfischer94]

[BobcatDel]

Nice interview with Coach Houk.....


https://www.womensnivc.com/news/montana ... -2023-nivc

[DMMDCats]

Nice interview with Coach Houk.....


https://www.womensnivc.com/news/montana ... -2023-nivc

Nice share.

I am so happy for this group to have been able to put this year together.

Continue the run.

[CatBot]

Reposting the link to the Wichita St forum. Lots of good posters over there. I suspect they will start digging into a scout of MSU soon.

https://shockernet.net/forum/wichita-st ... ment/page7

[Rich K]

RH: Lamb Built Program On Getting Points Where Many Do Not

https://goshockers.com/news/2023/12/8/t ... o-not.aspx

The RoundHouse | 12/8/2023 5:03:00 PM

Story LinksBy Paul Suellentrop

Many volleyball teams think of the position as a middle blocker, with a heavy emphasis on the block.

"Lambo likes to consider us middle attackers," Wichita State middle Natalie Foster said.

Foster sums up a significant story in coach Chris Lamb's 24 seasons at Wichita State. When Lamb arrived, he came with a plan to take an underutilized position and produce scoring. While he couldn't recruit the physically imposing outside hitters who dominate college volleyball, he could turn average athletes into valuable scorers in the middle.

"I don't think we could do the same dance routine as our opponents when you know they have better dancers," he said. "You better have a different routine. More attempts in the middle is one of those attempts to play differently."

The Shocker middles are in the spotlight again as Wichita State (24-8) plays Montana State (24-8) in the semifinals of the National Invitational Volleyball Championship at 1 p.m. Saturday (ESPN+) at Koch Arena. The winner advances to play either USF (22-11) or UTEP (24-9), who play Sunday.

Wichita State advanced with a sweep of Drake in which Foster hit .522 with no errors for 12 kills and middle Morgan Stout added 14 kills and a .444 attack percentage. In a sweep of Arkansas State to open NIVC play, Stout hit .750 with no errors for nine kills and Foster contributed eight kills, also with no errors, and hit .500. (more)

[Joe Bobcat]

Each time a team advances in a tournament it should get more difficult to win, and this Shocker team will definitely be more difficult for the Bobcats to handle. They are awesome at digging out kill shots and the setters are nearly perfect to their numerous monstrous spikers. Oh, and their setters are better at the surprise dump than anything the Cats have seen. A tall task for our ladies but they can do it and thank goodness we have coach Houk to get them as prepared as they can be.

GO CATS!!! Give it all you've got!

[WYCAT]

Lost the first set 25-21. Close all the way just couldn't get on any runs.

[TheJoeGoldstone]

Cats tied 12-12 in 2nd set, in spite of 5 service errors. Go Cats!

[BobcatDel]

Well bummer. WSU wins set 3, 25-20 thus wins match.

I think 11 service errors….ouch! That really hurts in a big match like that.

WSU has only lost 1 set in 4 matches…pretty salty team!

Regardless….great job ladies! Bobcat proud of all of you!

[Joe Bobcat]

We should all be very proud of this team and how far they went in this tournament. Of course you always want to win the conference tourney but both the seniors and the players coming back next year benefitted more from playing in the NIVC than they would've from playing in the NCAA. They came a long way this year and next year they will be just that much better.

Thanks for the record setting season and playing your hearts out ladies!
Thanks to all the seniors for your entire careers!
Congratulations coaches!

[TheJoeGoldstone]

Thanks to the entire volleyball team & coaches for a great season. I was very impressed with the winning streak they had going into the end of the Big Sky season and tournament. Next year’s team is looking very tough already.

[Cledus]

Incredible season for the gals. Though they lost, each set was competitive. It's amazing the results we're seeing simply from having an AD who cares about winning.

[CatBot]

I seriously enjoyed watching this squad this year and I'm very thankful for ESPN+. I saw a match live for the first time as well. Incredible year and I appreciate that this is actually what college athletics should look like. I'm thankful for how this team was able to balance out how disgusted I am with NCAA football and major basketball with this volleyball team competing at the highest level and doing everything the right way. Definitely makes me proud to be a Bobcat.

[CatBot]

[MSU01]

Congrats to Kira! Wichita State swept UTEP 3-0 in El Paso to win the tournament, they went 15-1 in sets through the tournament so were pretty clearly the best team in the field.

[CatBot]

Congrats to Kira! Wichita State swept UTEP 3-0 in El Paso to win the tournament, they went 15-1 in sets through the tournament so were pretty clearly the best team in the field.

Thanks for the update. I had missed that final. Cats actually had an actual set point against Wichita St, so that's accomplishment in my mind.

[Joe Bobcat]

Congrats to Kira! Wichita State swept UTEP 3-0 in El Paso to win the tournament, they went 15-1 in sets through the tournament so were pretty clearly the best team in the field.

Thanks for the update. I had missed that final. Cats actually had an actual set point against Wichita St, so that's accomplishment in my mind.

A big congratulations to Kira, that is a well deserved honor.
Wichita State did prove themselves to be the best team in that tournament. The Bobcats played them as tough as any team they met and in fact challenged them more than UTEP did in the championship match. That championship match was a home game for UTEP who hadn't lost a home match all year. Even with that home court advantage UTEP didn't come as close to winning any set as the Bobcats did, and the Cats had to do it on Wichita's home court where the Shockers were undefeated this year.

Again that tournament was great experience and exposure for the players and the volleyball program. Despite the loss of some key senior players I expect this team to be even better in the coming year and beyond.