Sooner Women's Volleyball - Opens Season @ Ball State Tourney

[OUBeliever56A]

The new look Oklahoma Sooner Volleyball Team opens the Regular Season tomorrow at the Ball State Tourney in Muncie, IN. Coach Aaron Mansfield sens his first Sooners Team into action with two matches on Friday and a single match on Saturday. On the Sooners VB Schedule Page, there are links to watch all three matches during the weekend. The Saturday match is on ESPN+. I think the two Friday games are courtesy of Ball State links. Live Stats are available for all three matches.

https://soonersports.com/sports/volleyball/schedule

The Sooners will play two matches on Friday.

• The first match on Friday is at 10 AM CST against Gonzaga. The Sooners defeated Gonzaga last season in the opening tourney at home in McCasland Fieldhouse as they won 3-0 by the scores of 25-18, 25-19 and 25-19. Overall in 2022, Gonzaga was 6-23 on the season.

• The second match on Friday is against Purdue-Fort Wayne at 4 PM CST. Overall in 2022, Purdue-Fort Wayne was 9-20 overall.

On Saturday the Sooners will play Ball State at 12 noon CST. The Sooners played Ball State last season in the LUV Tournament in Nashville, TN the second weekend of the season. Ball State won a close match 3-1 over Oklahoma by the scores of 25-17, 29-27, 20-25, 25-16. Last season, Ball State was 24-9 overall and received an NCAA Tournament bid as they lost to #4 seed Marquette in 3 sets in the opening round.

The Oklahoma Sooners were 15-13 in 2022. They did lose two major contributors who transferred from OU though after the season was over. Megan Wilson (OH) and Morgan Perkins (MB). Wilson left to play at Kentucky and Perkins left to play at A&M.

Coach Mansfield countered that with four freshman recruits with Mele Corral-Blagojevich (OH-Libero) and Hannah Pfiffner (MB) heading the freshman class. Both saw plenty of action in their exhibition match at Wichita State on August 17th.

Also joining the Sooners were two productive transfers who also saw lots of action against Wichita State. Daleigh Ellison (OH - from Texas State) and Lydia Burts (MB - from Liberty) both played well against the Shockers.

The starting lineup will be interesting this weekend. To me it will be very interesting if Callie Kemohah does not line up at the Libero position for all three matches. Kemohah was only used as a defensive specialist and a server against WSU. I will also be surprised if Kelsey Carrington (MB) and Kristen Birmingham (OH) do not play this weekend. Neither played in the exhibition match against Wichita State. Here is who I expect to see play this weekend.

Setter - Payton Chamberlain #2, (Raylee Fay may also play some.)
Libero - Callie Kemohah #10. (Corral-Blagojevich #8 and Sydney Thompson #12 did fill the Libero position at WSU.)
MB - Lydia Burts #22, Hannah Pfiffner #7 and Kesley Carrington #1
OH - Alexis Shelton #12, Taylor Preston #23, Daleigh Ellison #17, Mele Corral-Blagojevich #8 and Kristen Birmingham #5
Def Specialist - Chloe Kaminski #25, Sydney Thompson #12.
Servers - Mele Corral-Blagojevich #8, Raylee Fay #4, Sydney Thompson #12 and Hannah Pfiffner #7.

The Sooners have a lot of flexibility due to some front line players that can play the back row and can serve well.

As always is the case in D1 Volleyball, the first priority is for the Sooners to serve well and minimize serving errors and build up serving aces. Corral-Blagojevich is a top notch server from what was shown in at WSU. Pffifner was strong as well.

The other two factors are as they always should be. One is to be able to have a high % of side outs against the opponent's serve and to have more kills/bocks than errors at the net.

• A percentage above 60% for side-outs is a very good place to start for the Sooners. to me Callie Kemohah and Payton Chamberlain will be instrumental in receiving serve and setting the ball to get the side-outs.

• Shelton, Preston, Ellison, Corral-Blagojevich, Burts, Pfiffner and Carrington will have to strike and block the ball well to enable the Sooners to be successful. Anything over a .250 hitting % will be a strong percentage for the Sooners.

Good luck to the Sooners in their first action of the season.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

Here is the staff writers article about the opening weekend in Indiana for the Oklahoma Women's Volleyball Team under new Coach Aaron Mansfield.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/8/24 ... tournament

Good luck to the Sooners in their two matches on Friday and their single match on Saturday.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

Finally, the Box Score I like to review was provided. The Sooners won the match 3 sets to 0. I thought the Sooners played and hit the ball well in their first match of the year. I did watch the match while watching the live stats out of one eye.

In the first set of the season, the lineup was a great choice by Coach Mansfield. Here is was:

Setter - Payton Chamberlain - Plays full time.
Libero - Callie Kemohah
MB - Lydia Burts - After her serve, Kemohah replaces Burts on the back row.
MB - Hannah Pfiffner - Kemohah replaces Pfiffner on the back row.
OH - Alexis Shelton
OH - Taylor Preston - Chloe Kaminski replaces Preston on the back row to serve and to play defense.
OH - Daleigh Ellison - Mele Corral-Blagojevich replaces Ellison to serve and play the back row during the rotation.

In the first set, the Sooners played very well on defense as the successfully got a side-out 11 of 12 times against Gonzaga for a 91% side-out effort. Great! The great service return and defense led the Sooners to the 25-11 set win. The Sooners offense was slow to start however as the only netted 4 of 20 kill attempts for a .200% hitting% but that had a .400 kill% with 8 kills. They served 'fair' in the first set with 6 errors in 24 attempts for a 75% serve-in% with 1 ace by Chamberlain. The Sooners tallied 5.5 blocks with 1 solo block (Burts) and 9 shared blocks. The offensive attack was lead by Hannah Pfiffner with 4.0 points, Alexis Shelton with 3.5 and Daleigh Ellison with 3.0 points.

In the second set, the Sooners started slowly but rebounded well. The came from behind to win the 2nd set 25-18. There were no changes in the lineup for the Sooners. The side-out was still good at 61% for 11 of 18 side-outs. The attack game on offense was superb as the Sooners tallied 14 kills out of 23 attempts with 0 errors for a .609 hitting% and kill%. The service game was a little better with only 3 service errors and 1 ace (Kemohah) out of 25 attempts for a .880 serve-in%. The defensive net play was good with 4.5 blocks and only 1 blocking error. Burts had a part in 4 blocks. The offensive attack was lead by Lydia Burt with 5.0 points, Taylor Preston and Alexis Shelton each had 4.0 points and Daleigh Ellison had 3.5 points.

The 3rd set was more of the same good play as the Sooners played well and won 25-20. The Sooners continued the good serving defense as they totalled 13 of 21 side-outs for another 62% side-out%. The attack game was strong again with 15 kills and 3 errors out of 29 attempts. that is a .424% hitting% and a .517% kill%. The service game was solid with 2 aces (Shelton and Burts) with 8 errors in 24 attempts. That is still a 67% serve-in% in the least effective set with is strong for the match. The Sooner net game was down a bit with only 3 blocks with 1 blocking error. The offense was led by Lydia Burts with 6.0 points, Alexis Shelton with 5.5 points and Taylor Shelton with 3.5 points.

Other stats show that the Sooners support players played well.

Payton Chamberlain had 60 total set-attempts in the match with only 1 error and 32 assists for a .533% for points won off of her sets. Chamberlain also had 8 digs with no receiving errors. In total, Chamberlain had 1 error in 68 touches for a .986% success rate. Chamberlain had 20 serves in the match with 3 service errors and 1 ace for a .850% serve-in%.
Callie Kemohah had the most touches for the Sooners after Chamberlain with 9 sets, 11 recieves of serve and 9 digs. Kemohah also served 7 of 8 serves in play with 1 ace. She had 2 errors in the match for a .931% success rate. Chloe Kaminski had 4 touches without an error in addition to 7 of 7 serves in the court of play.
Mele Corral-Blagojevich had 8 service receives and 1 dig with no errors. MCB also served 8 of 10 serves in play for a .800% serve-in%.
Sidney Thompson saw action in the 3rd set during the last rotation and touched the ball 3 times with one very nice dig, 1 serve in play and set.

Offensive players had the following points in the match:

Alexis Shelton - 13.0 ponts - 9 kills in 14 attempts with no errors - 8 serves with 1 ace and 2 errors (.800%) - 9 touches with 1 error - 6 shared blocks.
Lydia Burts - 13.0 points - 7 kills in 10 attempts with 1 error - 12 serves with 1 ace and 3 errors (.750%) - 4 touches with no errors - 1 solo block and 8 shared blocks with 1 error.
Daleigh Ellison - 8.5 points - 6 kills in 18 attempts with 1 error - 2 touches with 1 error - 5 shared blocks.
Taylor Shelton - 8.5 points - 8 kills in 21 attempts with 5 errors - 7 serves with 5 errors (.286%) - 10 touches with 2 errors - 1 shared block
Hannah Pfiffner - 7.0 points - 6 kills in 8 attempts with no errors - 2 shared blocks with 1 error.
Payton Chamberlain - 3.0 points - 1 kill in 1 attempt with no errors - 20 serves with 1 ace and 3 errors (.850%) - 68 touches with 1 errors - 2 shared blocks
Callie Kemohah - 1.0 points - 1 service ace in 8 service attempts (,875%) - 29 touches with 2 errors

The first match was a good win. I like the way that Coach Mansfield and his assistant Coach Thornton were ever present on the side of the court implementing the Sooner strategy. the team looked prepared and as they had found a way to fit together as they are several new pieces playing together. But, I think they still have a higher level of play in front of them.

Burts and Pfiffner can get the job done in the middle it looks like. The outside hitters of Shelton, Preston and Ellison had 23 kills in 53 attempts with only 6 errors. As a trio that is a 17 for 53 for a .321 hitting% and a .433 kill% with 23 out of 53. The backrow play for the Sooners were a strength last season and it looks like it will be again. The serve game was pretty good in match one with a .767 serve-in% with 4 aces. I think the aces will grow as the season progresses and the if the serv-in% can stay at the 80% level or higher, the serve game will be good.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

4th Set point and Match point with emphasis from Alex Shelton!

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooners completed their first day of the season winning the second match of the day 3 sets to 1 set over Purdue-Fort Wayne in their 4 PM Match. The Sooners won the first set 25-21, dropped the 2nd set 20-25, rebounded to win the 3rd set 27-25 and then won the match with a 25-16 4th set win.

The keys to the afternoon match and the win was much the same as they were in the morning match against Gonzaga.

Serving-In% - VS Gonzaga .767% with 4 aces = VS Purdue-FW .833% with 7 aces.
Offensive Attack - VS Gonzaga .514 Kill% and .417 Hitting% = VS Purdue-FW .453 Kill% and .250 Hitting%.
Defensive Blocks - VS Gonzaga 24 shared blocks and 1 solo block with 2 errors = VS Purdue-FW 13 shared blocks with 1 solo block and 3 errors.
Setting - VS Gonzaga 36 assists in 76 attempts with 2 errors .474 assist% = VS Purdue -FW 53 assists in 128 attempts with 1 error .414 assist%.
Side-Out% - VS Gonzaga 35 side-outs in 51 tries 0.686% = Purdue-FW 55 side-outs in 88 tries 0.625%

With the exception of serving, the Sooners played better against Gonzaga than they played against Purdue-FW. Going into the two matches today, i thought that Gonzaga might be the better team, but either Purdue-FW played better or OU did not play as well against Purdue-FW.

The starters were the same for both matches:

Setter - Payton Chamberlain
Libero - Callie Kemohah
MB - Lydia Burts, Hannah Pfiffner
OH - Alexis Shelton, Taylor Preston, Daleigh Ellison
Def Back Row Subs/Servers - Mele Corral-Blagojevich, Chloe Kaminski
Other situation substitutes for serving purposes were Sydney Thompson and Rylee Fay

Chamberlain and Kemohah in many ways are the backbone for the team on offense and defense. Chamberlain had 2 errors in 178 attempts in setting and receiving serves. Kemohah had 3 errors in 51 attempts in receiving serves with 22 digs on the day. Together they 8 errors in 63 serve attempts (87% serve-in%) with 5 aces. They also had 86 assists for set kills. I did think that Chamberlain was a bit off at times on her sets, but she was running to play the ball especially in the afternoon match. If she is set, Chamberlain puts the ball in place for the hitters very well. When needed due to receptions, Kemohah compliments Chamberlain well.

The five scorers for the Sooners did their jobs well today. Here were their numbers:

Alexis Shelton - 33.0 points, 29 Kills in 54 attempts with 7 errors = .537 Kill% and .407 Hitting% with 6 shared blocks and 1 ace, 3 errors in 20 serve attempts (85% serve-in%).
Lydia Burts - 25.5 points, 18 Kills in 31 attempts with 7 errors = .581 Kill% and .355 Hitting% with 9 shared blocks, 1 solo block and 1 block error with 1 ace, 6 errors in 20 serve attempts (70% serve-n%).
Taylor Preston - 20.0 poins, 19 Kills in 48 attempts with 10 erros = .396 Kill% and .188 Hitting% with 1 shared block and 8 errors in 11 serve attempts (.27% serve-in%)
Hannah Pfiffner - 18.5 points, 15 Kills in 29 attempts with 5 errors = .517 Kill% and .345 Hitting% with 1 solo block, 5 shared blocks and 1 block error.
Daleigh Ellison - 15.5% points, 11 Kills in 35 attempts with 4 erros = .314 Kill% and .200 Hitting% with 9 shared blocks and 1 block error.

Shelton, Burts and Pfiffner did their jobs well today. Preston and Ellison did not play poorly, but need to step up their game tomorrow with better Hitting%'s.

Situational players Corral-Blagojevich, Kaminski, Thompson and Ray compiled 4 aces, 8 serve errors in 55 serve attempts = 85% serve-in%. They also handled 30 serve receptons with only 2 errors. With Pfiffner, Ellison not serving, there are two spots open for servers. Kemohah will fill one of those spots. In addition to that Shelton and Preston do not always serve, so there is one maybe two spots open for servers to fill. Corral-Blagojevich probably fill one of those, so there are maybe two spots up for grabs by someone.

The Sooners are 2-0 after the first days action. Tomorrow they play host Ball State. Today OU defeated Gonzaga 3-0 by the total score of 75-49. Ball State defeated Gonzaga 3-0 with a total score of 75-54. The match against Ball State should be a good one tomorrow at Noon CST.

Good luck to the Sooners tomorrow!

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

Here is the staff writers article about the double win for the Sooners today!

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/8/25 ... sfield-era

Coach Mansfield on today's performance
"Playing two matches in a day is physically and mentally demanding, and we met the challenge head-on," said Mansfield. "I'm really proud of how our group competed today and collectively stuck together. We are looking forward to recovering and playing a very good Ball State team."

Boomer Sooner!

[AustinTXSooner]

I can't tell from the videos whether Shelton is going over, through, or around the blocks, but she is getting some incredible down angles on her kills.

MCB has a wicked serve.

I've looked around for the videos, but it doesn't look like they were saved, unless it just takes a long time. Ball State seems to use YouTube to archive games, but none of the tournament games are there (yet).

[OUBeliever56A]

I can't tell from the videos whether Shelton is going over, through, or around the blocks, but she is getting some incredible down angles on her kills.

MCB has a wicked serve.

I've looked around for the videos, but it doesn't look like they were saved, unless it just takes a long time. Ball State seems to use YouTube to archive games, but none of the tournament games are there (yet).

Shelton is doing about everything, going over, going through and dinking over the blocks. She has upped her game and is playing the back row with success. I think Coach Mansfield has helped her a lot.

Lydia Burts is a very pleasant surprise as well. She is long and agile. She gets a big down angle on the middle kills and is a force on the net for blocks.

Make sure you check out the Ball State - OU on ESPN+. It is worth the two hours.

[OUBeliever56A]

The Sooners win Match #3 over Ball State 3 sets to 1 set. Alexis Shelton had a Huge Day!

Boomer Sooner!

[AustinTXSooner]

Shelton absolutely dominated the third set and Burts had a great day. At the beginning of the match, our back row was having issues. But that got shored up. I see the importance of having Shelton on the back row, but she was constantly the target of Ball State when she was back there. Pfiffner was having a good day until she got hurt. Our middle-blockers were a big strength today. Preston finally started to heat up in the third set. Ellison seemed to play well also.

We're looking better than I expected this year. Ball State is a good team.

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooners Women's Volleyball Team defeated the Ball Stat Cardinals 3 sets to 1 set in the their Noon-ish match today in Muncie, Indiana. The set scores were 18-25, 25-22, 25-13 and 25-18 as the Sooners swept the last three sets from Ball State. Last year in 2022, the Cardinals defeated OU 3 sets to 1 in the 2nd weekend of the season. The win raises the Sooners to 3-0 on the young season for the new look Sooners. Coach Aaron Mansfield has molded this group of players which include 8 returners and 7 new faces between transfers and freshman very quickly as they have been together for only about a month, if that long. Last spring when Coach Mansfield was hired, he had only 8 players on campus. It is amazing that they are playing as well as they are.

Today, the Sooners were playing well in the first set until the 15-13 point in the set with OU leading. Ball State setter, Wielonski went to the service line and 11 points later, Ball State lead 24-16. OU salvaged two points before Ball State won the 1st set 25-18.

In the 2nd set, the play was even but Ball State held a 19-16 lead when Alexis Shelton recorded a Kill to bring OU to within 2 points. When Callie Kemohah completed her service run, the Sooners had tied the score at 21-all. After swapping points to make the score 22-22, Lydia Burts put the Sooners ahead with a Kill off a middle set by Chamberlain at 23-22. Coach Mansfield picked Sydney Thompson off the bench to serve for OU. On her first serve, Burts picked up a block at the net to put the Sooners at set point. When Thompson's next serve was not returned by Ball State, Thompson's Ace sealed the 2nd set comeback win for the Sooners. This late comeback might prove to be a sizeable moment for the Sooners as the 2023 season plays out.

In the 3rd set, behind Alexis Shelton's serves the Sooners took an 8-2 lead as Shelton had 2 Aces and served for 7 straight points for OU. The lead grew to 14-4 and then 18-8 before OU won the set 25-13 on a Shelton Kill for her 10th point of the set and her 20th point of the match to tie her career high from the Purdue-Fort Wayne match yesterday.

In the 4th set, the Sooners trailed by as much as 3-7 and 9-15 as Ball State tried to get back in the match. Behind Burts at the net with a block and serving, the Sooners closed the gap to 14-16. After a quick side-out against the Cardinals on a Daleigh Ellison Kill, Mele Corral-Blagojevich served the Sooners into the lead 18-17. Another side-out for OU, this time by Taylor Preston and Chloe Kaminski serving the Sooners led 21-18. Alexis Shelton added her on Kill on the 3rd quick side-out against Ball State that lead to Callie Kemohah service with Oklahoma winning 3 straight points to win 25-18. Alexis Shelton's powerful Kill shot sealed the Sooner victory with 3 set wins to 1 set win for Ball State.

After the opening set, the Sooners played very well today. The 2nd set late comeback was big for the Sooners. It is very difficult to win a match after being down 2 sets.

The star today was two-part I think. Early in the match, Lydia Burts fully asserted herself at the net and with her quick Kill shots in the middle of the net. Burts is long, quick and agile as she gets a good angle on kill attempts and blocks. Burts had 6.5 points in the first two sets. Burts finished with 12.0 points and led the team in blocks with 6. Starting in the 2nd set, Alexis Shelton was 'on-fire'. Shelton tallied 25.0 points in the last three sets. Her total on the day was 29.0 points for a new career high. She scored at the service line at the net on offense and with blocks. She also played very well on the back row defensively as she recorded 16 digs and had 1 error in 28 chances.

Three other players were major contributors today. Taylor Preston was second in the team in scoring with 14.5 points with 13.5 of them happening in the last three sets. Callie Kemohah added her excellent defensive play and serving skills to the mix as she had 16 sets with 6 assists, 15 serves with 1 ace and 1 error and had 23 receptions and Digs with no errors. Just a typical Kemohah day diving to the court to play defense. Payton Chamberlain also added to the mix for the Sooners. She picked up 45 assists on 117 sets with only 3 errors with alot of new faces around her. She served 10 times with 1 ace and 1 error and picked up 15 digs and helped on four shared blocks and one solo block. Chamberlain was very steady today.

Daleigh Ellison and Hannah Pfiffner had good matches also. Ellison had 7.5 points with a .273 Kill%. Ellison is a good countering option opposite of Shelton and Preston. Pfiffner, a freshman, added 5.5 points in the match with good play early. The Ball State front line size might have caused her a bit of trouble today. Late in the 4th set today, JR Kelsey Carrington took a rotation in the game to add some size for the Sooners. Ellison at 5'11" and Pfiffner at 6'1" will give up some size to bigger teams. Carrington's 6'3' size could help at times.

Four Sooners picked up 1.0 point on service aces (Corral-Blagojevich, Kemohah, Thompson and Kaminski).

A key to the Sooners victory today was their ability to side-out the Cardinals in the last three sets at a 63% rate. The Sooners also served at a high rate with a .913 serve-in% in the match with 9 aces against only 8 serving errors. The Sooners also had a .452 Kill% on the attack and a .317 Hitting% in the last three sets. The only stat that was not high was the blocks as the Sooners totalled 10.5 blocks in the 4 sets.

The Sooners are playing well right now for as little as they have practiced with each other. It is a very good start to the season at 3-0.

Oklahoma travels to Corvallis, OR next weekend for the Asics Invitational where they will play Oregon State on Friday at 5 PM CST on then Boise State on Saturday at 1 PM CST.

Congratulations to the Sooners on the 3-0 start!

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

Shelton absolutely dominated the third set and Burts had a great day. At the beginning of the match, our back row was having issues. But that got shored up. I see the importance of having Shelton on the back row, but she was constantly the target of Ball State when she was back there. Pfiffner was having a good day until she got hurt. Our middle-blockers were a big strength today. Preston finally started to heat up in the third set. Ellison seemed to play well also.

We're looking better than I expected this year. Ball State is a good team.

I did not realize that Pfiffner was injured. I saw her slip on the floor but I thought she got up and looked okay. I know Carrington came in for Pfiffner the last rotation but that could have just been for size up front. After her fall, I would say that Pfiffner looked a bit like a freshman a couple of times. Pfiffner has surprised me this weekend with her play.

I think Coach Mansfield has really put together a good set of players. Burts and Ellison are big pickups as starters for the Sooners.

[OUBeliever56A]

Here is the staff article about the Sooners win against Ball State on Saturday.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/8/26 ... ball-state

Boomer Sooner!

[AustinTXSooner]

I did not realize that Pfiffner was injured. I saw her slip on the floor but I thought she got up and looked okay. I know Carrington came in for Pfiffner the last rotation but that could have just been for size up front. After her fall, I would say that Pfiffner looked a bit like a freshman a couple of times. Pfiffner has surprised me this weekend with her play.

I think she might have rolled her ankle on that slip and tried to play through it. When Carrington came in, Pfiffner was not rotating out, she was pulled out because of her ankle. Later, they showed the trainer rotating her ankle trying to assess the problem.

One thing I don't ever remember seeing before was Shelton blowing out a shoe. McNees gave up her shoe to keep Shelton on the floor.

[OUBeliever56A]

I did not realize that Pfiffner was injured. I saw her slip on the floor but I thought she got up and looked okay. I know Carrington came in for Pfiffner the last rotation but that could have just been for size up front. After her fall, I would say that Pfiffner looked a bit like a freshman a couple of times. Pfiffner has surprised me this weekend with her play.

I think she might have rolled her ankle on that slip and tried to play through it. When Carrington came in, Pfiffner was not rotating out, she was pulled out because of her ankle. Later, they showed the trainer rotating her ankle trying to assess the problem.

One thing I don't ever remember seeing before was Shelton blowing out a shoe. McNees gave up her shoe to keep Shelton on the floor.

Thanks for that insight. I must have missed that. I was doing a couple of things at that point in the match and trying to watch the game both. I need to try harder to do so it seems.

The shoe blowout was amazing by Shelton. I guess that is w=hat is called an explosive jump. The Sooners are probably lucky, that did not end in a potential injury for Shelton. McNees has the perfect replacement shoe. I wonder if the Sooners start bringing some extra shoes along on the road now?