OU Women's Volleyball Hosts #22 Houston for Th/Fri Matches @ 6PM

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooner Volleyball Team is back in action after a 8 day break. Last Wednesday they dropped a 5 set match to #21 Baylor in Waco. This week, the Sooners host the #22 Houston Cougars in matches on Thursday and Friday with both starting at 6 PM. Both matches will be on ESPN+.

Oklahoma is currently 9-13 on the season and 2-10 in Big 12 play. Houston is 14-7 on the season and 7-5 in Big 12 play.

- Oklahoma is coming off that 5-set loss to Baylor and a split with Iowa State with a loss and a win in three straight sets on the road. The Sooners are 2-3 in their last 5 Big 12 matches.
- Houston has won their last 5 matches as they have won 15 sets to just 1 set loss.

Here is the Sooner staff wrtiers article about the DH against Houston.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/11/8 ... -to-norman

Here is how the stats for both teams look:

OU - 13.39 Kills/Set and 5.53 attack errors/set
Houston - 13.41 Kills/Set and 5.05 attack errors/set

OU - 1.39 Service Aces/Set and 3.11 service errors/set
Houston - 1.55 Service Aces/set and 1.88 service errors/set

OU - 11.73 Digs/set
Houston - 15.11 Digs/set

OU - 2.19 Block Points/set
Houston - 2.41 Block Points/set

It looks like Houston simply does not beat themselves and they play good defense with 15 Digs and 2.41 Block per set. Oklahoma needs to up their game a bit on defense and also limit their errors to be successful in the matches against Houston. The errors is the achilles heel for OU. They have the firepower they need up front with Shelton, Preston and Burts. Shelton has 385.5 points on the season. Preston has 302.5 and Burts has 246.5.

Houston has two big hitters in #4 Sauer and #24 Jackson as both have over 275 points on the season. Four other Cougars have over 125 points.

Houston has 6 players with 15 Service Aces, so OU's returns need to be solid in the two matches. Oklahoma has four players with at least 12 Service Aces.

Good luck tonight to the Sooner VB'ers. A good win tonight against a ranked team would be a nice way to return to the floor after a week off.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooners VB Team struggled to put things together after not playing for 8 days in the match against Houston last night. Houston won the match in 3 straight sets, 25-16, 25-13, 25-14. It had to be a match that the Team and Coach Mansfield was not pleased about.

Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the loss to the #22 ranked Houston Cougars.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/11/9 ... 22-houston

As it is always true, looking at a couple of stats tells the story. Those stats were;

Errors - OU committed 37 errors last night with 19 coming at the net on attacks. Houston committed just 16 errors. 21 free points to the other team is a huge deficit to make up. It was too much last night.
Side-out% - OU was able to side-out the ball only 39.2% of the time. Houston's percentage was 68.2%. Houston served 30 times more than OU did last night.
Hitting% - OU had a .096% hitting % at the net last night. The Kill% was higher at .298% but those 19 attacke errors hurt. Houston had a Hitting% of .370% (higher than OU's Kill%). Houston's Kill% was .482%.

Maybe Houston's ranking despite their Big 12 record is an accurate synopsis of the Cougars. to compete with Houston, the Sooners will have to step up their play in every phase.

I noticed that Lydia Burt did not play in the 3rd set 'in favor' of Kelsey Carrington. I wonder if Burts had an injury or Coach Mansfield and his staff wanted to see Carrington play. It also look like Hannah Pfiffner served full time last night which is a bit of a wrinkle from the norm. Chamberlain, Kemohah and Thompson did not have any service errors last night.

Good luck to the Sooners tonight in the second Match with Houston at 6 PM. The match will be on ESPN+.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooners Volleyball Team played a bit better last night in the first two sets but was swept by the #22 ranked team in the country, Houston, last night by the set scores of 25-19, 25-22 and 25-13.

Here is the Sooner staff writers article about Friday night's match.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/11/1 ... n-in-three

In the first set, OU trailed 24-15 before they fought off 4 set points before losing 25-19. In the second set, the Sooners rallied from a 5 point deficit, to trail by 2 points at 22-20. the Sooners fought of 2 set points at 24-20 before falling 25-22 in the set. In the third set, the match was close early as Houston led 9-8. but the Cougars closed very well to win the final set 25-13 as they won 16 of the last 21 points.

Houston's offense was very good lat night as they had a hitting% of .248 for the match and a Kill% of .394. OU had a hitting % of .110 and a Kill% of .284.. Again, OU had more errors than Houston with 31 to 23.

Alexis Shelton had her 20th match with double digit Kills and Points this season for the Sooners.

The Sooners are now 2-12 in the Big 12 and 9-15 in overall this season. Houston raised their record to 9-5 for 4th place in the Big 12 and 16-7 overall.

Oklahoma closes the season with four matches with a DH at Cincinnati next weekend (16th, 17th), a mid-week match in Lubbock on the 22nd and a home finale against West Virginia on the 25th. Hopefully the Sooners can finish strongly in their final 4 matches of the season.

Boomer Sooner!