The Oklahoma Sooner Women's Volleyball Squad hosted the UCLA Bruins at McCasland Field House last weekend in a DH where the Sooners won on Friday 3 sets to 2 sets and the dropped the Saturday match 1 set to 3 sets. The Sooners played well and did have a chance to win a couple of the sets on Saturday to extend the match. McCasand was pretty full for the two matches and the crowd was treated to high level volleyball.
At 6-3 the Sooners are now ready to begin the tough Big 12 Volleyball season. Up first is the Texas Longhorns for another DH on Friday and Saturday nights at 6 PM at McCasland Field House. The Longhorns walk into McCasland Field House with a 5-3 record and a #9 ranking in the AVCA Poll and the #1 preseason ranking in the Big 12 preseason poll. The play will be at a very high level this weekend in the conference rivalry and a bit of the Red River Rivalry that exists. There schedule is clear for both matches with OU Football playing at Cincinnati at 11 AM, the OU Tennis teams playing away from Norman in the daytime, and the Women's Golf Team playing up at Belmar during the day in their host tournament on Saturday thru Monday. If you have ever wanted to watch an OU Volleyball match, this is the time as new coach, Aaron Mansfield and his staff rebuilds the Sooner VB program. The tickets are not expensive and you are able to be close to the action. the doors open up at 5 PM each night.
The Longhorns are the defending National Champs as they won it all in 2022 with a 28-1 record. They did lose 5 players from that squad but the Longhorns have reloaded. The Longhorns are lead on offense by Skinner #6, Wenaas #13, Bergmark #5, O'Neal #7 and #44 Kahahawai. The offense revolves around the setter, #1 Swindle (FR) who also plays well on offense and defense. Defensive Specialist Halter #2 has 110 Digs and looks like a very small player (5'5" maybe) compared to the other Longhorn players. Servers #12 Akana and #10 Barnes pick up Aces as well Swindle (10), Halter (10), Skinner. Skinner is the points leader and averages 16.9 Points/Match with 4.75 Block Points/Match. O'Neal is the blocks leader.
While they are 5-3 on the young season, the Longhorns have played a tough schedule. They have defeated #12 Minnesota 3-1, #21 Ohio State 3-1, Loyola Marymount (RV#36) 3-0, Rice (RV#34) 3-0 and FGC 3-0. They have lost to #2 Stanford 0-3, #7 Washington State 1-3 and Long Beach State 1-3. Long Beach state is 6-4 on the season. Do not look at the record for Texas and think that they are not a top team.
Here is a rundown of the Sooner players this season.
- Alexis Shelton #12 (OH) leads the Sooners with 171.5 Points with 19.6 Points/Match. Shelton has 151 Kills with a .299 H%, 23.0 BLK/Pts, 55 Digs, and 7 Service Aces.
- Taylor Preston #23 (OH) is the compliment to Shelton with 129.5 Points 14.4 Points/Match. Preston has 119 Kills with a .238 H%, 18.0 BLK/Pts, 5 Digs and 1 Service Ace.
- Lydia Burts #22 (MB) is in the middle for OU. She has 106.5 Points with 11.8 Pts/Match. Burts has 80 Kills with a .353 H%, 41.0 BLK/Pts, 14 Digs and 5 Service Aces.
- Daleigh Ellison #17 (OPP/OH) has added 75.5 Points with 8.4 Pts/Match. She has 55 Kills with a .170 H%, 24.0 BLK/Pts, 25 Digs and 8 Service Aces.
- The Combo of Hannah Pfiffner/Kelsey Carrington (MBs) have added 82.5 points as the 5th scorer for OU. They have 69 Kills with a .320 H%, 26.0 BLK/Pts and 1 Dig.
- Setter, Payton Chamberlain #2 directs the offense for OU with 366 assists for almost 10.5 per Set. Chamberlain adds 26.0 Points with 9 Kills, 21.0 BLK/Pts, 82 Digs and 6 Service Aces.
- Libero, Callie Kemohah #10 is the defensive heart for OU. She backs up Chamberlain with 45 assists and leds with 1-5 Digs. She has added 6 Service Aces
- Sydney Thompson #24 just keeps playing more for OU. She has 9 Service Aces, 1 Kill, 6 assists, 35 Digs, and 1 BLK/Pts as she plays the back row defensively and serves in the rotation.
- Mele Corral-Blagojevich #8 has impacted OU with her serve. She has an explosive serve with 6 aces. She has added 5 assists, 46 Digs also as she plays on the back row and Serves in the rotation.
- Rylee Fay #4 and Chloe Kaminski #25 have also played regularly for OU. Fay is a Server with 4 Service Aces and 4 Digs on defense. Kaminski is a defensive specialist who also serves at times. She has had 3 Service Aces, 16 Digs and 2 assists.
The 6-3 Sooners have played well in 2023. But outside of UCLA (RV#31) last weekend the Sooners have not played a ranked team. Their other two losses are to Oregon State (5-5) and Notre Dame (6-2). I think their best win is the UCLA win on last Friday and maybe the wins over Illinois and Ball State.
I hope there is a very good crowd for the 2 matches this weekend. I think it is believable that the Sooners pick up one win in the 2 matches this weekend. If they win on Friday night, it puts Saturday's match in play also. I am hoping for a 1-1 split for the Sooners this weekend. Good luck to the Sooners!
Boomer Sooner!
After UCLA Last week, OU Volleyball Host Texas for Fri-Sat DH !
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Here is the Sooner staff wrtiers article about the DH Volleyball Matches on Friday and Saturday against the Texas Longhorns.
https://soonersports.com/news/2023/9/21 ... ig-12-play
Boomer Sooner!
https://soonersports.com/news/2023/9/21 ... ig-12-play
Boomer Sooner!
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There was a Sooner Softball sighting at the Texas - Oklahoma Volleyball Match.
I think I see 6 All-Americans and hopefully one future AA.
I think I see 6 All-Americans and hopefully one future AA.
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OUBeliever56A
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By the time that play started in McCasland Field House, the stands were close to full as there were many fans in the upper deck. The atmosphere was hyped by the venue staff and everything was ready for the Texas vs Oklahoma Big 12 conference opener for both squads. The Sooners were looking for an upset over the #9 ranked Longhorns. They were close, but could not win the big points in two sets as the Sooners were defeated by the Longhorns in 3 straight sets, 26-28, 18-25 and 28-30. But the play, IMO, was much closer than a 3 set to 0 sets match.
The match was decided primarily, on a couple areas of play.
The first was the ability and play off the Texas defensive back row. The Longhorn back row is anchored by their Libero, #2 Halter. She was very good last night with 24 of 25 successful receipts of kill attacks by the Sooners. She also recorded 10 Digs on the night. Halter (all 5'5" of her) and the rest of the Longhorns just always seemed to be where the ball was hit with very few gaps opened up on the floor. For the Sooners, they received good play by the defensive back row, but the Longhorns managed to not hit the ball at Kemohah, OU's best defender. OU found themselves chasing the ball after the first hit often. Texas was better on the first hit last night. OU also ended up with many open gaps on the floor that was routinely found by the Texas attackers.
The second was the errors by the Sooners. The Sooners had 40 errors on the night compared to the 28 errors by Texas. Those twelve points could have really helped the Sooners during the match especially in the 1st and 3rd sets. OU had 2 more errors in the 1st and 3 more errors in the 3rd set. In the 2nd set, the Sooners had 5 more errors. the largest gap in the errors were the attack (Kill) errors as Texas had 10 compared to OU's 20. That resulted in a Hitting% of .343% for Texas in the match and a .241% Hitting% by Oklahoma.
The Longhorns also did a better job of "siding-out" the Sooners with a 66.2% side-out%. Oklahoma had a 58% side-out%. I also think that the service game for Texas was for the most part stronger than the Sooners service game. Texas used 6 servers in the match as they all had at least 11 serves on the night. Oklahoma used 9 servers on the night with four reaching double-digits in serves.
In the 1st and 3rd sets, the Sooner had the advantage with set point and the ball in an OU server's hands 4 times and the Longhorns sided-out the Sooners each time. The Sooners however did show strong resistance as they also sided out the Longhorns 4 times in those sets. But ultimately, Texas won the two points needed to win the two sets.
In the second set the Sooners trailed early 1-3, 5-8, 7-11, 8-13, 13-19 and 16-21 on the way to the 18-25 defeat.
In the third set the Sooners held a 11-7 lead after a service run by Mele Corral-Blagojevich (MCB). Halter of TX served the set back to even at 14-14. Barnes for TX served the Longhorns to a 18-15 lead. MCB rallied the Sooners while serving back to a 21-19 lead. After the score was tied at 22-22, it was a one point games both ways until the 28-30 win by Texas.
Here is the Sooners staff writers article about the Texas-OU match last night.
https://soonersports.com/news/2023/9/22 ... -longhorns
Maybe the best player on the floor last night was Madison Skinner for Texas. She picked up 19 Kills, 1 Service Ace and 1 Block for 21.0 points on the night. She had 4 errors in 57 touches. Wenaas added 11/5 points for Texas in a supporting role. Their freshman Setter, Swindle played well last night also with 3 Kills, 3 Service Aces, 4 Digs with 35 assists. She had 34 errors in 107 touches. then there was the play of Halter as I mentioned earlier.
Oklahoma was lead by Alexis Shelton with 15.5 points with 15 Kills, and a shared block for her points. Taylor Preston added 13.5 points on 12 Kills, and 1.5 block points. Hannah Pfiffner, who returned to the starting lineup, added 10 points with 10 Kills, Lydia Burts added 9 points on 6 Kills and 3 Block Points. Chamberlain had 35 assists, 2 Kills, and 2 Service Aces for 4 points. MCB had the most service attempts last night for the Sooners with 17 and had 2 Service Aces.
Coach Aaron Mansfield changed up the lineup last night in the first two sets as the Sooners started Kesley Carrington over Daleigh Ellison to add more size to the front line for the Sooners. The Sooners used MCB to serve for Carrington as a result which also removed Ellison from the service game where she had been strong lately. In the 3rd set, the Sooners used their usual starting lineup with Ellison in the lineup but still MCB served for Ellison. I wonder why Ellison did not serve and MCB sub in for another player.
The two squads play again tonight at 6 PM. I do think the Sooners can defeat Texas if they eliminate some errors and play a little better on defense and seve well. OU has the hitters to play at the net vs Texas. But Skinner is a force that has to be dealt with by the Sooner blockers. It will be interesting to see if the Sooners go big again with Carrington or as normal with Ellison or another variation of the front line for the Sooners. Volleyball can be a bit of a chess match at times as players are the front line are lined up against each other.
Good luck to the Sooners tonight vs Texas.
Boomer Sooner!
The match was decided primarily, on a couple areas of play.
The first was the ability and play off the Texas defensive back row. The Longhorn back row is anchored by their Libero, #2 Halter. She was very good last night with 24 of 25 successful receipts of kill attacks by the Sooners. She also recorded 10 Digs on the night. Halter (all 5'5" of her) and the rest of the Longhorns just always seemed to be where the ball was hit with very few gaps opened up on the floor. For the Sooners, they received good play by the defensive back row, but the Longhorns managed to not hit the ball at Kemohah, OU's best defender. OU found themselves chasing the ball after the first hit often. Texas was better on the first hit last night. OU also ended up with many open gaps on the floor that was routinely found by the Texas attackers.
The second was the errors by the Sooners. The Sooners had 40 errors on the night compared to the 28 errors by Texas. Those twelve points could have really helped the Sooners during the match especially in the 1st and 3rd sets. OU had 2 more errors in the 1st and 3 more errors in the 3rd set. In the 2nd set, the Sooners had 5 more errors. the largest gap in the errors were the attack (Kill) errors as Texas had 10 compared to OU's 20. That resulted in a Hitting% of .343% for Texas in the match and a .241% Hitting% by Oklahoma.
The Longhorns also did a better job of "siding-out" the Sooners with a 66.2% side-out%. Oklahoma had a 58% side-out%. I also think that the service game for Texas was for the most part stronger than the Sooners service game. Texas used 6 servers in the match as they all had at least 11 serves on the night. Oklahoma used 9 servers on the night with four reaching double-digits in serves.
In the 1st and 3rd sets, the Sooner had the advantage with set point and the ball in an OU server's hands 4 times and the Longhorns sided-out the Sooners each time. The Sooners however did show strong resistance as they also sided out the Longhorns 4 times in those sets. But ultimately, Texas won the two points needed to win the two sets.
In the second set the Sooners trailed early 1-3, 5-8, 7-11, 8-13, 13-19 and 16-21 on the way to the 18-25 defeat.
In the third set the Sooners held a 11-7 lead after a service run by Mele Corral-Blagojevich (MCB). Halter of TX served the set back to even at 14-14. Barnes for TX served the Longhorns to a 18-15 lead. MCB rallied the Sooners while serving back to a 21-19 lead. After the score was tied at 22-22, it was a one point games both ways until the 28-30 win by Texas.
Here is the Sooners staff writers article about the Texas-OU match last night.
https://soonersports.com/news/2023/9/22 ... -longhorns
Maybe the best player on the floor last night was Madison Skinner for Texas. She picked up 19 Kills, 1 Service Ace and 1 Block for 21.0 points on the night. She had 4 errors in 57 touches. Wenaas added 11/5 points for Texas in a supporting role. Their freshman Setter, Swindle played well last night also with 3 Kills, 3 Service Aces, 4 Digs with 35 assists. She had 34 errors in 107 touches. then there was the play of Halter as I mentioned earlier.
Oklahoma was lead by Alexis Shelton with 15.5 points with 15 Kills, and a shared block for her points. Taylor Preston added 13.5 points on 12 Kills, and 1.5 block points. Hannah Pfiffner, who returned to the starting lineup, added 10 points with 10 Kills, Lydia Burts added 9 points on 6 Kills and 3 Block Points. Chamberlain had 35 assists, 2 Kills, and 2 Service Aces for 4 points. MCB had the most service attempts last night for the Sooners with 17 and had 2 Service Aces.
Coach Aaron Mansfield changed up the lineup last night in the first two sets as the Sooners started Kesley Carrington over Daleigh Ellison to add more size to the front line for the Sooners. The Sooners used MCB to serve for Carrington as a result which also removed Ellison from the service game where she had been strong lately. In the 3rd set, the Sooners used their usual starting lineup with Ellison in the lineup but still MCB served for Ellison. I wonder why Ellison did not serve and MCB sub in for another player.
The two squads play again tonight at 6 PM. I do think the Sooners can defeat Texas if they eliminate some errors and play a little better on defense and seve well. OU has the hitters to play at the net vs Texas. But Skinner is a force that has to be dealt with by the Sooner blockers. It will be interesting to see if the Sooners go big again with Carrington or as normal with Ellison or another variation of the front line for the Sooners. Volleyball can be a bit of a chess match at times as players are the front line are lined up against each other.
Good luck to the Sooners tonight vs Texas.
Boomer Sooner!
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OUBeliever56A
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The first match of the 2023 Big 12 Volleyball Season was played Wednesday night with Houston at BYU.
- BYU won the match 3 sets to 0 sets over Houston - 26-24, 25-13 and 25-18. That is a very good win by BYU over a good Houston team.
Three more Big 12 Volleyball Matches were played on Thursday Night.
- UCF won the first match 3 sets to 1 set at Cincinnati. They play again on Friday night.
- Iowa State won 3 sets to 0 sets at West Virginia. They play again on Friday night.
- TCU also won 3 sets to 0 sets at Kansas State. They will play again on Friday night.
The results of Friday's play were:
- Iowa State won once again 3 sets to 0 sets at West Virginia.
- UCF won 3 sets to 0 sets at Cincinnati.
- Texas won 3 sets to 0 sets over OU in a closer match in Norman than the score indicates.
- Texas Tech defeated Kansas 3 sets to 2 sets in Lubbock.
- Kansas State defeated TCU in Manhattan 3 sets to 2 sets in reversal of the result on Thursday night.
Saturday's schedule is as follows:
- Baylor travels to BYU for Baylor's first conference match of the season.
- Kansas is at Texas Tech.
- Texas is at Oklahoma.
- BYU won the match 3 sets to 0 sets over Houston - 26-24, 25-13 and 25-18. That is a very good win by BYU over a good Houston team.
Three more Big 12 Volleyball Matches were played on Thursday Night.
- UCF won the first match 3 sets to 1 set at Cincinnati. They play again on Friday night.
- Iowa State won 3 sets to 0 sets at West Virginia. They play again on Friday night.
- TCU also won 3 sets to 0 sets at Kansas State. They will play again on Friday night.
The results of Friday's play were:
- Iowa State won once again 3 sets to 0 sets at West Virginia.
- UCF won 3 sets to 0 sets at Cincinnati.
- Texas won 3 sets to 0 sets over OU in a closer match in Norman than the score indicates.
- Texas Tech defeated Kansas 3 sets to 2 sets in Lubbock.
- Kansas State defeated TCU in Manhattan 3 sets to 2 sets in reversal of the result on Thursday night.
Saturday's schedule is as follows:
- Baylor travels to BYU for Baylor's first conference match of the season.
- Kansas is at Texas Tech.
- Texas is at Oklahoma.
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OUBeliever56A
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The Sooner Volleyball Squad hosted Texas last night in the second night of their Big 12 series with the Longhorns. The crowd was good once again in McCasland Field House. The Sooners played very well in the 1st set but dropped the set at the very end 22-25 to Texas. Texas followed up with 2 strong sets against a faltering Sooner squad as Texas swept the Sooners 13-25 and 12-25.
Here is the Sooner staff wrtiers article about the Saturday night match.
https://soonersports.com/news/2023/9/23 ... no-9-texas
Coach Mansfield sent out the bigger Sooner lineup in the 1st set on Saturday with Kelsey Carrington in the lineup instead of Daleigh Ellison. The play was very close thru the first 20 points with the Sooners leading 11-9. A Sooner service error lead to Swindle service run by Texas to take a 15-11 lead. But OU rallied right back with Callie Kemohah at the service line to tie the set at 15-15. the score was tied at 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21 with the two teams trading points. On the court a play (I think a contested play at the net was called an OU point to give OU the lead at 22-21. But Texas challenged the call and after review, the point was moved from OU and given to Texas for that critical 22-21 lead. Quickly the set turned and Texas won 4 of the next 5 points to win the set 25-22. OU had two errors in that run for Texas. It was tough set loss for OU. The Sooners outhit Texas with 16 Kills to 13. But Texas had 3 more block points than OU 4 to 1. The difference was the 11 Sooners errors at the net and the service line compared to only 6 for Texas.
In the last two sets, the Sooners tried several different combination of players to counter the Longhorns. The Longhorns play on the court was very good however as Texas won the last two sets 25-13 and 25-12. The main difference was errors. OU had 30 errors in the last two sets compared to 8 for Texas. That is 22 points difference. The other thing to mention is that the Texas defense is very, very good. The play of their backrow and even the front row with blocks is strong. #3 Halter is very effective receiving the shots by the opponents and repeatedly keeps the ball in 'rotation' for Texas and just keeps the points alive. Halter had 22 Digs/Receive touches without an error recorded. Barnes, #10, also had 15 and Wenaas #13 had 14 as a front row player. Texas out blocked OU with 10 block points to OU's 3 block points.
In Set #2, Ireland McNees (Freshman OH) made her first appearence as a Sooner into a match this year. In Set #3, Raylee Fay and Emma Henry made appearances as a the setter relieving Payton Chamberlain as it looks like she is dealing with some leg soreness.
I think for the first time this season, the Sooners did not have a double-digit scorer. Taylor Preston led OU with 9.0 points with 9 Kills. Lydia Burts recorded 8.5 points on 7 Kills and 1.5 Blocks. Alexis Shelton had 8.0 points with 7 Kills and 1.0 Blocks.
Oklahoma's service game was not their best effort last night. They had no Service aces and that Texas defense record side-out percentages of 65%, 92% and 76% in the three sets. A team needs to string points together on serves to win. That is tough to do against the Texas defense.
Going forward for the Sooners, it is no disgrace to win 1 match and lose 3 matches against UCLA and Texas. No disgrace at all. In the 15 sets played against UCLA and Texas, the Sooners played 10 strong sets winning 5 of them. The difference in the 5 sets the Sooners played well but still lost was a point here and point there that made the difference. But in those other five sets where they did not play well, the Sooners need to be more competitive.
Four things stand out to me for that the Sooners need to improve.
1) The consistency at the net has to improve. The successful Kills are very good, but there is usually too many errors also. Some of that is the strike on the ball by the hitter and some of that is the placement of the set for the hitter to play.
2) The team defense and receiving the play from the opponent. Too often the second hitter for OU has to chase down the first touch and try to make a difficult set for the hitters to play. Too often the third touch is a ball returned from lower than the net by OU. The first touches have to be consistently better by OU.
3) The service game has improved but the errors remain for the Sooners. A service error is a point that their opponents does not have to play at all. Serving the ball inside the court is a must by the Sooners. Even on a non-challenging serve, the defense has to win the point with three good touches and OU still has the chance for a block or an attack of their own to win the point.
4 ) The Sooners are not a strong blocking team. They need to get better to help the Sooners to defense at the backend. Too many shots get through the blocks or around the blocks making the return by the OU defense tougher.
The Sooners travel to Orlando for a Thursday/Friday DH with both matches at 6 PM against UCF. The Golden Knights are 2-0 with a sweep of Cincinnati this weekend.
The Sooner will have two good practices on Monday and Tuesday and maybe a quick workout on Wednesday before traveling to work out some kinks.
Boomer Sooner!
Here is the Sooner staff wrtiers article about the Saturday night match.
https://soonersports.com/news/2023/9/23 ... no-9-texas
Coach Mansfield sent out the bigger Sooner lineup in the 1st set on Saturday with Kelsey Carrington in the lineup instead of Daleigh Ellison. The play was very close thru the first 20 points with the Sooners leading 11-9. A Sooner service error lead to Swindle service run by Texas to take a 15-11 lead. But OU rallied right back with Callie Kemohah at the service line to tie the set at 15-15. the score was tied at 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21 with the two teams trading points. On the court a play (I think a contested play at the net was called an OU point to give OU the lead at 22-21. But Texas challenged the call and after review, the point was moved from OU and given to Texas for that critical 22-21 lead. Quickly the set turned and Texas won 4 of the next 5 points to win the set 25-22. OU had two errors in that run for Texas. It was tough set loss for OU. The Sooners outhit Texas with 16 Kills to 13. But Texas had 3 more block points than OU 4 to 1. The difference was the 11 Sooners errors at the net and the service line compared to only 6 for Texas.
In the last two sets, the Sooners tried several different combination of players to counter the Longhorns. The Longhorns play on the court was very good however as Texas won the last two sets 25-13 and 25-12. The main difference was errors. OU had 30 errors in the last two sets compared to 8 for Texas. That is 22 points difference. The other thing to mention is that the Texas defense is very, very good. The play of their backrow and even the front row with blocks is strong. #3 Halter is very effective receiving the shots by the opponents and repeatedly keeps the ball in 'rotation' for Texas and just keeps the points alive. Halter had 22 Digs/Receive touches without an error recorded. Barnes, #10, also had 15 and Wenaas #13 had 14 as a front row player. Texas out blocked OU with 10 block points to OU's 3 block points.
In Set #2, Ireland McNees (Freshman OH) made her first appearence as a Sooner into a match this year. In Set #3, Raylee Fay and Emma Henry made appearances as a the setter relieving Payton Chamberlain as it looks like she is dealing with some leg soreness.
I think for the first time this season, the Sooners did not have a double-digit scorer. Taylor Preston led OU with 9.0 points with 9 Kills. Lydia Burts recorded 8.5 points on 7 Kills and 1.5 Blocks. Alexis Shelton had 8.0 points with 7 Kills and 1.0 Blocks.
Oklahoma's service game was not their best effort last night. They had no Service aces and that Texas defense record side-out percentages of 65%, 92% and 76% in the three sets. A team needs to string points together on serves to win. That is tough to do against the Texas defense.
Going forward for the Sooners, it is no disgrace to win 1 match and lose 3 matches against UCLA and Texas. No disgrace at all. In the 15 sets played against UCLA and Texas, the Sooners played 10 strong sets winning 5 of them. The difference in the 5 sets the Sooners played well but still lost was a point here and point there that made the difference. But in those other five sets where they did not play well, the Sooners need to be more competitive.
Four things stand out to me for that the Sooners need to improve.
1) The consistency at the net has to improve. The successful Kills are very good, but there is usually too many errors also. Some of that is the strike on the ball by the hitter and some of that is the placement of the set for the hitter to play.
2) The team defense and receiving the play from the opponent. Too often the second hitter for OU has to chase down the first touch and try to make a difficult set for the hitters to play. Too often the third touch is a ball returned from lower than the net by OU. The first touches have to be consistently better by OU.
3) The service game has improved but the errors remain for the Sooners. A service error is a point that their opponents does not have to play at all. Serving the ball inside the court is a must by the Sooners. Even on a non-challenging serve, the defense has to win the point with three good touches and OU still has the chance for a block or an attack of their own to win the point.
4 ) The Sooners are not a strong blocking team. They need to get better to help the Sooners to defense at the backend. Too many shots get through the blocks or around the blocks making the return by the OU defense tougher.
The Sooners travel to Orlando for a Thursday/Friday DH with both matches at 6 PM against UCF. The Golden Knights are 2-0 with a sweep of Cincinnati this weekend.
The Sooner will have two good practices on Monday and Tuesday and maybe a quick workout on Wednesday before traveling to work out some kinks.
Boomer Sooner!
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In other Big 12 Volleyball play on Saturday the results were:
Baylor traveled to BYU for Baylor's first conference match of the season. BYU swept Baylor 3 sets to 0 sets.
Kansas rebounded from their defeat against Tech on Friday to sweep Texas Tech 3 sets to 0 sets.
Here are the Big 12 Volleyball Standings through the first week on play.
T-1st - BYU, Iowa State, UCF and Texas at 2-0.
T-5th - Kansas, Kansas State, TCU, Texas Tech at 1-1.
T-9th - Houston and Baylor at 0-1.
T-11th - Cincinnati, Oklahoma and West Virginia at 0-2.
Here is the schedule for next week.
Wednesday:
Kansas State at West Virginia
Thursday:
Oklahoma at UCF
Texas Tech at TCU
BYU at Texas
Friday:
OU at UCF
Texas Tech at TCU
BYU at Texas
Houston at Kansas
Saturday:
Houston at Kansas
Baylor at Iowa State
Cincinnati at Kansas State
non-conference - Chicago State at West Virginia
Baylor traveled to BYU for Baylor's first conference match of the season. BYU swept Baylor 3 sets to 0 sets.
Kansas rebounded from their defeat against Tech on Friday to sweep Texas Tech 3 sets to 0 sets.
Here are the Big 12 Volleyball Standings through the first week on play.
T-1st - BYU, Iowa State, UCF and Texas at 2-0.
T-5th - Kansas, Kansas State, TCU, Texas Tech at 1-1.
T-9th - Houston and Baylor at 0-1.
T-11th - Cincinnati, Oklahoma and West Virginia at 0-2.
Here is the schedule for next week.
Wednesday:
Kansas State at West Virginia
Thursday:
Oklahoma at UCF
Texas Tech at TCU
BYU at Texas
Friday:
OU at UCF
Texas Tech at TCU
BYU at Texas
Houston at Kansas
Saturday:
Houston at Kansas
Baylor at Iowa State
Cincinnati at Kansas State
non-conference - Chicago State at West Virginia
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