Oklahoma Sooner VB is @ Cincy for 2 matches on Friday-Saturday!

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooner Volleyball team is in Cincinnati, OH to play the Bearcats in a Big 12 DH on Friday and Saturday at 5 PM CST each night. The Oklahoma Volleyball team is 2-12 in the Big 12 this season. The Big 12 is a very strong VB conference this season. Nine (9) of the thirteen (13) Big 12 teams are ranked. So far in the season, OU has played all 9 of those teams in 12 of their Big 12 matches with a 2-10 match record. The other two conference losses are to UCF who is 8-7 in conference play. OU's schedule has been very challenging in the Big 12. Cincinnati is 4-10 in Big 12 play this season. Cincy is 2-9 against the top teams in the Big 12 this season

But their last four matches of the season are against Cincy (2 matches), Texas Tech and West Virginia. The three teams have a combined conference record of 9-35. Perhaps a goal for the Sooners can be to finish strong in the conference and climb into 10 teams in the conference. With 3 wins in their final 4 matches, they may be able to do just that.

Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the DH in Cincy this weekend.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/11/1 ... -road-trip

Oklahoma is led on offense by Shelton (OH), Preston (OH), Burts (MB) and Pfiffner (MB). Shelton has over 400 points on the season with Preston adding over 300 and Burts over 250 and Pfiffner having 150 points. The offense is strong for OU points wise. The setting job is handled well by Chamberlain with the defensive return game led by Kemohah, Chamberlain and Corral-Blagojevich. The serving game is Corral-Blagojevich, Thompson and Chamberlain. The defense at the net is led by Burts, Shelton and Pfiffner.

OU's achilles heel all year has been their attack errors, serving errors and return errors. When they do not make excessive errors, the Sooners can play well. They have also had a habit of starting slowly in matches in the first set.

Cincy is lead by a wider variety of players on offense as that have two players with over 250 points and four other players with points between 148 and 193 points. I tlooks like Cincinnati serves a little better due to about half of the errors that OU has and blocks better at the net. They also have about 300 more digs than OU. That must mean in combination with their blocking game at the net that they funnel the ball successfully to the back row defensive players and that they stay in points due to their defense.

A split with Cincinnati on the road is needed for the Sooners. It would be a big step for the Sooners if they were able to sweep Cincy this weekend and provide some momentum as they go forward to close out the season. Good luck to the Sooners in Ohio.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooner Volleyball Team was close, but close is still a 2 sets to 3 sets loss for OU to Cincinnati on Friday night. The sets scores were: C 25-22, OU 25-22, OU 25-17, C 25-15 and C 16-14. In five sets, 4 points separated the two teams.

Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the close loss to Cincy.
https://soonersports.com/news/2023/11/1 ... cincinnati

The Sooners were led once again by Alexis Shelton with 29 Kills and 30.0 points in a massive effort from her. OU set to Shelton 59 times in the match. Lydia Burts added 16.5 with Taylor Preston had 12.5 points. Payton Chamberlain had 55 assists on sets in the match. Callie Kemohah had 17 digs in the match. Thompson had 33 receptions against only 2 receive errors for a .943% in a strong effort . Ireland McNees had 15 receptions with no errors. Ou did serve better with only 9 service errors and topped 90% of their serves being in-play at 91.1%.

In the first set, OU battled back from a 16-22 deficit as OU picked up three attack kills and a Cincy error followed by a Service Ace to close to 21-22. But in the next four points OU had 2 attack errors and service error to let the first set go by 3 points at 22-25.

In the second set, OU trailed by as much as 12-18, but rallied back to tie the set at 20-20. With Cincy up by one point at 20-21, OU ran off four straight points on a kill, Cincy error, and two more kills to move to 24-21. After a Cincy point, OU won the set on a Kill for a 25-22 set win.

The third set was a runaway win my OU at 25-17. OU had 18 kills in the set against only 3 attack errors for a .500 hitting % and sided-out at a 61% rate to win easily.

In the fourth set, Cincinnati returned the favor to OU as Cincy had 12 Kills and only 1 attack error as they hit for a .393 hitting %. Meanwhile OU had 10 kills and 7 attack errors and only sided-out at a 25% rate. Cincy won the set 25-15. OU also changed up their rotation in the set as Pffifner replaced Carrington on the front line. I do not know if the two things are related or not, but I noticed the change in the stats. Carrington returned to the front line in the 5th set.

In the decisive 5th set, the score was close throughout. OU held a 10-7 lead however with the service. Cincy picked up 3 straight kills to tie the score at 10, The two teams traded points for an 11-all and a 12-all and 13-all score. OU took the lead at 14-13 on a Cincy error and had the ball in had serving for the set and the match. A kill by Cincinnati moved the score to 14-14 in favor of Cincy. On that last point, Shelton ended up on the floor under the net. There seemed to be some confusion about the point as play was stopped. After a long delay and a review of the play, the point was awarded to Cincy to make the score 14-15 in Cincy's favor. OU tried to replace Shelton due to an ankle issue and then tried to put Shelton back in the lineup and there was more confusion as I tried to watch on a phone while being at the OU Men's BB game. I will have to rewatch the match to understand what happened. I think the point was awarded to Cincy due to Shelton being across the line under the net as she fell on the play. When play resumed, without Shelton on the floor, Cincy won the 5th set on a kill to win 14-16.

I also noticed that except for substituting for Shelton as the very end of the 5th set, Mele Corral-Blagojevich did not play in the match.

It was very close in the 5th set and the first two sets.

Oklahoma will try again to pick up a win in Big 12 play tonight in Cincinnati at 5 PM. The match will once again by on ESPN+.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

On Friday, the Oklahoma Women's Volleyball team lost in 5 sets to Cincinnati on the road with alex Shelton recording 29 Kills and 30 Points in the match. When it was announced before Saturday's match that Shelton would not be playing due to a left leg injury suffered on the next to last point on Friday, the path to victory on Saturday seemed a bit steeper and maybe beyond the ability of the team. But, sometimes the unexpected should be expected. The Sooners came out of the locker room with determination and effort and defeated the Cincinnati Bearcats in 5 sets, complete with a min-comeback in the match, to break a 4 match losing skid. The scores of the 5-set match were OU 25-20, OU 25-23, Cincy 20-25, Cincy 13-25, OU 15-5. The Sooner Volleyball Team showed a large amount of resiliency on Saturday and a bit of grit also, if I can say so

Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the, shall I say, big win for the Sooners.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/11/1 ... ts-in-five

With Shelton on the sidelines with a stimulating device on her ankle/calf to help her return to play later this week, someone for the Sooners had to step up to play well for the Sooners to be successful. Who did that? Well most everyone of the Sooners did.

- On the offensive side of the play, Lydia Burts led the Sooners in points and kills with 22.5 points and 17 kills. i think that both of those marks are her season high at OU. She only had 2 errors versus her 17 Kills for a very strong .484 Hitting%.
- Ireland McNees, in her first start on the front row of her career as a Freshman, recorded 15 kills and 15.0 points on a surprising 57 hits at the net for Oklahoma. McNees also added 21 receptions on the back row with only 2 errors and 14 digs on the night in addition to serving with no errors. McNees had a big night for a 5'9" outside hitter.
- Taylor Preston had 12 kills and 13.5 points to help OU in the victory.
- Daleigh Ellison scored double-digit points with 10 for the 3rd time this season and had 9 kills with only 1 error on the night.
- Kesley Carrington added 6.0 points with 6 kills also.
- Payton Chamberlain added 2 kills including the match winning point in the 5th set on a 'dunk' on a ball above the net. Chamberlain had 53 assists and only 2 setting errors on 159 sets.
- At the net, OU recorded a .345 Hitting% in the 3 sets that they won with only 6 errors. In the decisive 5th set, they had 11 kills with no errors.

- On the defensive side, four Sooners had double-digit digs as Callie Kemohah led with 21, McNees had her 14, Sydney Thompson had 14 also and Mele Corral-Blagojevich added 12. Chamberlain almost made it 5 with double-digits as she had 9 on the night. I would have to do some checking, but I do not think the Sooners have had 4, almost 5, players with double-digit digs in a match this season. The 79 total digs is the second highest number this season for OU after the 87 against Tulsa.
- The Sooner reception numbers were outstanding also. The Sooners had 90 receptions against only 3 receive errors for a very high .968 successful % in the match. Only twice this season has OU had less than 3 errors.
- The Sooners recorded a 72% Side-Out % in the 3 winning sets which is very high. In the decisive 5th set, OU was 6 for 6 on side-puts for 100%.

Within the win was a mini-comeback as OU won the first two sets with both teams playing pretty well but OU winning the key points down the stretch. But in the 3rd and 4th sets, Cincinnati played their best as they won the two sets with a 25-13 4th set win over OU. But, like they started the match, OU picked themselves off the floor and rallied to win the five set quickly and decisively 15-5.

Congratulations to the Sooners for their win on Saturday at Cincinnati. I have been a fan that likes what Coach Mansfield and his staff are doing and trying to do. Coach Mansfield and his staff has built a beginning for the Sooners after the coaching change and the transfer of two key players (Wilson and Perkins). They picked up enough transfers late in the process to give Oklahoma a shot to be good this season. In fact, all three point leaders on Saturday night were transfers. Last spring, when player development and team development can occur, the Sooners had 6 (maybe 8) players on campus. The Sooners could not even scrimmage in practice. The Sooners are now 3-13 in the very tough Big 12 conference and 10-16 overall. Not good records but in a first year of building something new, it is not terrible considering the competition in the Big 12.

The Sooners have two matches remaining in the season. They will be in Lubbock on Wednesday night to play Texas Tech (3-13 in Big 12 play) and at home in McCasland Field House on Saturday hosting West Virginia in the final match which will include Senior Night probably. I think OU will lose only one player after the season due to graduation, Lydia Burts.

Boomer Sooner!