OU Volleyball travels to WSU for Thursday Exhibition Match @ 4PM

[OUBeliever56A]

The first edition of the OU Women's Volleyball Team led by new Coach Aaron Mansfield and his staff will on display on Thursday for a late afternoon match in Wichita, KS against the Wichita State Shockers. The match is on the ESPN+.

After the 2022 season, the Sooners replaced Coach Lindsay Gray-Walton after 5 season as the Sooner Coach. the new coach is Aaron Mansfield from Loyola Marymount University. Mansfield had been at LMU for six season with a combined 94-68 record and two NCAA Tourney appearences.

The 2023 Sooner Volleyball Team will be replacing seven players that exited the program after the 2022 season. Three players graduated, Grace Talpash - Server, Savannah Davison - OH and Adria Oliver - MB. Four players transferred including Megan Wilson, OH - Kentucky, Morgan Perkin, MB - Texas A&M, Peyton Dunn Setter - Auburn, Beth Bayless, OH - Tulsa. Taylor Alcorn was injured in 2022 and left the team during last season.

The returning players for the Sooners are; (Starters - *)

OH - #5 - Kristen Birmingham JR
OH - #12 - Alexis Shelton SOPH *
OH - #23 Taylor Preston SOPH *
MB - #1 - Kelsey Carrington SR
Setter - #2 Payton Chamberlain JR *
Libero - #10 Callie Kemohah JR *
Def Specialist - Chloe Kaminski SOPH *
Def Spec/Libero - Sydney Thompson SOPH

Incoming Freshman and Transfers for the Sooners are:

OH - Mele Corral-Blagojevich - FR - California
OH - Ireland McNees - FR - Utah
MB - Hannah Pfiffner - FR - Texas
Setter - Emma Henry - FR - Oklahoma
OH - Daleigh Ellison - SR XFER - Texas State
MB - Lydia Burts - SR XFER - Liberty
Setter - Rylee Fay - JR XFER - New Mexico State

I expect to see these players competing for playing time in 2023.

OH - Shelton, Preston, Birmingham, Corral-Blagojevich and McNees
MB - Carrington, Burts, Pfiffner
Libero - Kemohah
Setter - Chamberlain and Fay
Def Specialist - Kaminski, Thompson and Fay

In 2022 the Sooners made significant progress in many areas of play in 2022 due to a strong freshman class of Shelton, Preston and Perkins and XFER Oliver. The Sooners compiled a 15-13 record overall with a 5-11 record in Big 12 play. In conference the Sooners were a tough out for any of the Big 12 teams, even Texas.

That progress will be difficult to maintain possibly after a change of coach and the transfers of Wilson and Perkins. But new players for the Sooners do show promise of being strong players. Corral-Blagojevich, Burts and possibly Pfiffner should be capable replacements for Perkins and Wilson, which is saying a great deal about their skills. Players stepping up to play more should be Carrington, Birmingham and Thompson.

Coach Mansfield hinted at a change in philosophy when interviewed by Chris Plank on KREF during the spring semester. I do not know if the Sooners will move from a 5-1 set (1 setter on the floor at all times) to a different alignment using rotating setters or not.

Wichita State was 18-13 in 2022 and had a win over Iowa State and a loss to Kansas,, The Shockers were 13-6 in conference play. The Shockers finished the 2022 season with a 7-1 run and received an invite to the NICV Tourney where they loss their first round match to Grand Canyon University.

Good luck to the Sooners on Thursday afternoon.

Boomer Sooner!

Schedule - https://soonersports.com/sports/volleyb ... edule/2023

Roster - https://soonersports.com/sports/volleyball/roster

[OUBeliever56A]

The first look at the 2023 Sooner Women's Volleyball team was a bit of a mixed result inder new Coach, Aaron Mansfield. It also was a bit confusing also. The Sooners lost the match, 2-3 sets with only two sets of good play by both teams.

As the match started, the first set starters for OU was;

Setter - Payton Chamberlain #2 -JR
OH - Alexis Shelton #12 -SOPH
OH - Taylor Preston #23 -SOPH
OH - Daleigh Ellison #17 -SR
MB - Lydia Burts #22 -5th YR SR
MB - Hannah Pfiffner #7 -FR
Libero - Mele Corral-Blagojevich #8 -FR

That lineup includes 3 returning players (Chamberlain, Shelton and Preston) and 4 new players. Ellison and Burts are transfers from Texas State and Liberty. Pfiffner and Corral-Blagojevich are freshman. It was very odd to me that Callie Kemohah was not in the lineup and not the Libero. (But I think I might have figured this out.)

Also playing in the first set were; Callie Kemohah, Def Spec - Chloe Kaminski, Server, Def Spec.

In the 2nd and 3rd set, these players also played; Rylee Fay, Server, Def Spec - Sydney Thompson - Server, Def Spec

In the first set the Sooners did not serve well as the Sooners dropped the set 12-25. The Sooners also did not play well on offense as they hit -0.051% for the set. It was a rough start.

The Sooners played much better in the 2nd and 3rd sets though as they won 25-20 and 25-23 over Wichita State. The Sooners posted their highest hitting % in the third set with a 0.280%. They also earned two good sideout % in the 2nd and 3rd sets with 66% and 69% respectively.

In the 4th and 5th sets the lineup was:

Corral-Blagojevich #8 OH, FR
Alexis Shelton #12 OH, SOPH
Taylor Preston #23 OH, SOPH
Lydia Burts #22 MB, 5th YR SR
Hannah Pfiffner #7 MB, FR
Rylee Fay #4, Setter, JR
Sydney Thompson #12 Libero, SOPH

Also playing in the 4th and 5th sets were: Daleigh Ellison #17 OH, SR - Emma Henry #11 Setter, FR - Chloe Kaminski #25, Server, Def Spec, SOPH

In those two sets the Sooners had a -0.069% and -0.048% attacking at the net on offense with side out % less than 40%.

Wichita State won the last two sets 25-11 and 15-9.

As an exhibition match, this was the first look at the Sooners for 2023. The Volleyball team only had 8 players on campus for the spring semester of 2023. The new players, 7 of them, all arrived for early practice in early August. so they are all still trying to get familiar with each other. And the coaching staff under new coach Aaron Mansfield is trying to see what they have, especially with the players. The coaching staff had a semester with the returning players this spring. I think the Sooners used the exhibition match as a let's see what these young ladies can do. To me that is the only explanation as to why Kemohah did not play Libero and did not play much. It can be the only reason that Kelsey Carrington, MB SR, did not play at all. The same thing goes for Kristen Birmingham, OH JR. Ireland McNees, OH FR, did not play either.

As for the play in the match. I thought Shelton and Preston played well except for their errors on kill attempts. They had 22 errors with 18 kills. They need to have more kills than errors by a safe margin for the Sooners to be successful. I thought Pfiffner and Burts did well at MB. They had 7 errors against 16 Kills. Ellison was a pleasant surprise to me. She had 7 errors to 8 Kills but the errors were mainly late with non-starters setting the ball. The front line had 15 blocks which is a little low for 5 sets. Corral-Blagojevich was a bit of a mixed story. She has a powerful serve which will help the Sooners a great deal. She played OH the last two sets and she has ability there but I wonder about her elevation at the net. I thought she lacked a bit of mobility at the Libero but she can play the back row and can handle back sets. I think she plays OH and stays in the rotation most of the time going forward. Chamberlain played pretty well, but there were some miscommunication on sets and poor sets. She will get the job done well though. Kemohah and Kaminski both played well when they played. I really do think that Kemohah will be the Libero come August 25th in their first regular season match. Thompson has talent and may have a serving role with the Sooners this year. Fay, a transfer had some mobility issues due to a wrapped up leg. But she is supposed to be a good server and setter. Henry looked young but played better the more she played.

Despite having six aces, the serving was not strong overall with 18 errors. Despite that, there were bright points in the serving game. Corral-Blagojevich showed she has a powerful serve with the ability to earn aces with 4. Pfiffner also had an ace as did Shelton. Sydney Thompson (FR Def Spec and Libero) had a nice service run in Game 2. In a bit of a wrinkle, the Sooners pulled off several triple blocks in the match. Later in the match, the Shockers dinked the ball off-court successfully against the triple block. In the broadcast of the match, the announcer said that Coach Mansfield said the the Sooners will be a team that goes for it with their aggressive play.

I think the lineup could be this on August 25th against Gonzaga at the Ball State Classic:

Setter - Payton Chamberlain
Libero - Callie Kemohah
OH - Alexis Shelton, Taylor Preston, Daleigh Ellison, Mele Corral-Blagojevich,maybe Kristen Birmingham
MB - Lydia Burts, Kelsey Carrington, Hannah Pfiffner
Def Spec - Chloe Kaminski
Server - Sydney Thompson, Hannah Pfiffner, Mele Corral-Blagojevich.
I am excited about the 2nd and the 3rd sets for Oklahoma. I am considering the 1st, 4th and 5th sets to be growing pains with a new set of players in an overhauled roster.

Boomer Sooner!