Sooner VB travels to Iowa State for 2 matches on Sat and Sun

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooner Volleyball Team travels to Ames, IA to play Iowa State on Saturday at 2 PM and Sunday at Noon. The Sooners are trying to climb their way out of the bottom third of the Big 12 VB Standings. A win in the two matches against I-State can send them on a path to do just that. Here is the Sooner staff wrtiers article about the Iowa State road trip for the Sooners.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/10/2 ... of-matches

Both matches will be on ESPN this weekend. The Saturday match will be on ESPN+ with the Sunday match being on ESPN. I see a Houston-Cincinnati VB match on ESPNU at Noon on Sunday. Maybe the Sunday game has been changed on the network and the OU vs I-State match will be on ESPN+ also.

It will be interesting to see who starts on Saturday against a bigger I-State front line. Lately the Sooners have been playing Shelton, Preston, Burts, Pfiffner and Carrington on the front row for more size. But that has forced out on the right side and she is not as effective as a right side hitter as she is at the MB position. In the last three sets against a small Tulsa squad, Daleigh Ellison played the right side hitter with Burts and Carrington in the MB and the Sooners won 3 straight sets to win the match. A part of the strategy that led to that 3-set reverse sweep was the playing of Chloe Kaminski instead of Ireland McNees on the back row as well. Kaminski improves the back row defense and first touches for OU while McNees probably has a more dynamic serve. The Sooners will also get Payton Chamberlain back to be the setter as she sat out the Tulsa match to let her ailing knee rest before a weekend DH. I also think that Alexis Shelton in not 100% right now due to a right hand injury or soreness.

Sooner defense will have to keep the Sooners in the match against Iowa State. That will require a strong presence at the net with effective blocks and strong play on the reception of the ball on first touches and DIGs. the other part of the Sooners that will need to be strong is the serving game. The keys to me are Mele Corral-Blagojevich, Payton Chamberlain and Sydney Thompson and how they serve. If they serve well and cause first touch problems for I-State and minimize the service errors, the Sooners will benefit positively. Callie Kemohah, either Kaminski or McNees and then a front line player will have to serve well also, with Kemohah being one the most consistent servers for OU.

Iowa State has been on a downward slide as of late. After winning 6 or 7 matches to reach a 13-3 record, the Cyclones have dropped 3 straight matches. OU is on a reverse trend. After losing 8 straight matches, Oklahoma has gone 2 and 1 in their last three matches.

Good luck to the Sooners this weekend against Iowa State.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooners Volleyball team played their first of two matches against Iowa State on Saturday and lost the match 3 sets to 0 sets. The Cyclones out-served, out-blocked and out-performed the Sooners with fewer errors as the keys to their victory. Iowa State won the sets 25-20, 25-22, 25-16. The Sooners dropped to 1-8 in the Big 12 and 8-12 overall. Iowa State raised their record to 5-4 in the conference and 14-6 overall.

In the first set the here are the stats:

Set #1 - OU - 11 Kills - 2 Service Aces - 1 Block = 14 Points and they had 4 attack errors - 3 service errors - 4 receiving errors and 1 block error = 12 errors.
Set #1 - I-State - 13 Kills - 4 Service Aces - 1 Block = 18 Points and they had only 7 errors in the set.
Set #2 - OU - 15 Kills - 3 Service Aces - 0 Block = 18 Points and they had 5 attack errors - 4 service errors - 2 receiving errors and 1 block error = 12 errors.
Set #2 - I-State - 13 Kills - 2 Service Aces - 1 Block = 16 Points and they had only 7 errors in the set.
Set #3 - OU - 9 Kills - 1 Service Aces - 3 Block = 13 Points and they had 8 attack errors - 3 service errors - 5 receiving errors and 0 block error = 16 errors.
Set #2 - I-State - 9 Kills - 5 Service Aces - 6 Block = 20 Points and they had only 7 errors in the set.

In looking at the stats, I am not sure how the Sooners lost the 2nd set by 3 points. I was watching that other game up in Kansas at the time and I am not real sure how the Sooners managed to lose that game either. But the 12 errors to only 7 for I-State in the 2nd set had to be big reason OU lost the set.

Here is the Sooner Staff writers article about the first i-State match.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/10/2 ... iowa-state

For what I think is the first time this season, Alexis Shelton or Taylor Preston did not lead the Sooners in points. Lydia Burts led the Sooners with 10.5 points on7 Kills, 2 Service Aces and 1.5 Blocks. Shelton and Preston followed with 7.0 points each followed by Kelsey Carrington with 6.5 points.

Coach Mansfield continued with the front row of Shelton, Preston, Burts, Carrington and Daleigh Ellison from the Tulsa match on Tuesday night. On the back row, the Sooners sent Callie Kemohah, Mele Corral-Blagojevich, Ireland McNees and Sydney Thompson for the first two sets with Chloe Kaminski playing in the 3rd set. Payton Chamberlain returned to the Setter spot after resting her knee on Tuesday night.

From the article:

With the first set tied at 9-9, the Cyclones used a 7-1 run to take a 16-10 lead. The Sooners pulled within two at 19-17 after a 7-3 run of their own. OU kept it close late but dropped the set, 25-20. (My comment - I-State picked up 4 kills and 1 service ace while OU picked up 1 kill and 3 errors in the 7-1 run for I-State. In the 7-3 run by OU, the Sooners had 3 kills and 2 errors while I-State had 1 kill and 3 errors. BUT in the two runs, I-State picked up 10 points to OU's 7.)

Iowa State took its first lead of the second set, 8-7, but the Sooners tied things back up on a Cyclone error. The teams continued to trade points with Iowa State leading at the first timeout, 15-13. The Sooners pulled within one at 16-15 before the Cyclones took a 21-16 lead. OU pulled within two at 23-21 before falling 25-22. My comment: In the 5-1 run from 16-15 to 21-16 for I-State, OU had 3 errors and 1 Kill while I-State added 2 kills.)

The Sooners trailed 9-3 early in the third set. Out of the timeout, Shelton picked up a kill to stop the Iowa State run. OU pulled within four at 12-8 but Iowa State extended its lead to 19-10. The Sooners ultimately dropped the set 25-16.

The Sooners simply need to reduce the errors, especially in the close sets. Both teams had 35 Kills in the match on Saturday. But the 5 point advantages on service aces by I-State and the 4 point Block advantage, created a lead for I-State that the Sooners could not overcome while also committing 40 errors to the 21 by I-State.

Good luck to the Sooners in their second match on Sunday against Iowa State at Noon. I am still not clear as to if the match will be broadcast on ESPN or ESPNU or not. The article provided above says, "The match will air on ESPN with Paul Sunderland and Jennifer Hoffman on the call." I do not see that on my OEC Guide. I do see the that the game is on ESPN+ however.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

For a quick update, the Oklahoma Sooner Volleyball Team likely played their best match of season as they defeated the Iowa State Cyclones in three straight sets byt the scores of 26-24, 25-23 and 25-20. This is Coach Mansfield's biggest win at OU in his inagural season. What a difference a day makes. After dropping three straight sets to Iowa State on Saturday, the Sooners put it all together to defeat the same Cyclones in three straight sets.

More on the win later when the game report and stats are fully available.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the upset win by the Oklahoma Sooner VB Team against Iowa State on Sunday. The Sooners swept the first three sets by the scores of 26-24, 25-23 and 25-20.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/10/2 ... iowa-state

The Sooners dominate the net play against the Cyclones today. The Sooners had 51 Kills in the match along with 9 Block Points Iowa State could only manage 29 Blocks with 9.0 Block Points. Both teams added 4 Service Aces in the match. OU's total of 64 points outdistanced the Cyclones by 22.0 points as Iowa State managed on 42 points.

But Iowa State did have less errors than OU with 32 error compared to OU's 40 errors. But those 8 mistakes were far outweighed by the 22.0 more points scored by OU.

During the match, needing just three assists to reach 2,000, Chamberlain quickly reached the mark in the first set and finished the match with 38 to bring her career total to 2,035. Of those assists, 1,554 have come during her two years as a Sooner. Congrats to Payton Chamberlain.

Alexis Shelton had 21 Kills in the match with 2 Block Points for 23.0 points in the match. Lydia Burts and Taylor Shelton added 12.5 and 10.5 points to the Sooner total. The Sooners made big strides on their first touches and receive errors with on 7 errors. I thought that Ireland McNees, Callie Kemohah, Sydney Thompson and Mele Corral-Blagojevich had good defensive games and played served well.

The win was a big win for the Sooners over a ranked team an over a top half team in the Big 12. The Sooners are now 2-9 in the Big 12 and 9-12 overall. Iowa State dropped to 5-5 in the Big 12 and 14-7 overall.

The Sooners play a single match during the next week against Baylor in Waco on Wednesday night with a 7 PM first serve. So it will be a quick turnaround for the Sooners as they return to Norman from Ames today and then travel to Waco either on Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning on a 4 or 4.5 hour bus ride.

Good luck to the Sooners this week and congratulations to them for their big win.

Boomer Sooner!

[AustinTXSooner]

Just finished watching today's match. It would be difficult to have started off worse in the first set. We won the first point on a Shelton kill that looked really good. But then the wheels fell off for awhile. The next point we had a touch on a block called against us. It was challenged and I could see no touch, but the refs disagreed. 1-1. Next point was an ace by Iowa St. Kemohah thought it was going to be long and let it go. ISU 2-1. Next point, McNees and Kemohah run into each other trying to get to the first touch. ISU 3-1. Next point, Kemohah got eaten alive by the server. Deep and right at her, high. Tried to bump it, but it was too high. ISU 4-1. Next point, we do manage to return the serve, but ISU gets a kill off an out-of-bounds block by Shelton. ISU 5-1. Next point, bad pass by McNees off the serve went to a Shelton save resulting in an out-of-bounds hit by Burts. ISU 6-1. We finally win another point on a kill by Shelton. ISU 6-2.

With the score ISU 13-9, Chamberlain sets one over Burts head. Hard to do at 6'3".

With the score ISU 15-10, ISU's setter dinks one over the net. Burts tips it. I think some people counted that as a hit and some didn't. McNees passes for the set. Chamberlain, on the back row, thinks that she can't hit the ball over. Everyone on the front row is waiting for a set. The ball lands harmlessly on the ground.

We get it together later and go on a 6 point run with Kemohah serving to bring the score within 1. ISU 22-21. We end up winning the set 26-24.

Found out that Preston sprained her ankle in the first match against Iowa St. I didn't see any winces of pain, but it didn't look like she was getting the height she normally does.

Burts hurt her right hand at some point and had to get it taped. She was visibly crying a couple of times trying to play through it. It happened in the first set with ISU up 16-11, but she definitely aggravated it with OU up 24-18 in the third set. It must have been her wrist because that's where the tape job showed up.

Great win.

[OUBeliever56A]

I agree about all of that. It was a very gutsy win by the Sooners.

[OUBeliever56A]

I agree about all of that. It was a very gutsy win by the Sooners.

[AustinTXSooner]

I really liked the announcers for the game. I don't think they were Iowa St announcers, or maybe they were. The guy talked about living in LA. Anyway, they were very knowledgeable about the game and I actually learned a couple of things. I'll admit though, that he was a little annoying when he kept repeating that you don't serve to the Libero...as Iowa St was doing the same thing.