Oklahoma Volleyball travels to Texas Tech for Wednesday Match!
Posted: Wed Nov 22, 2023 7:39 am
The Oklahoma Sooner Volleyball Team is on the road for the final time on Wednesday in a match in Lubbock vs Texas Tech at an unusual time of 2 PM today. The Sooners are coming off of the 3rd conference win at Cincinnati last Saturday in a five set match where OU won the first two sets, dropped the next two sets then won the final 5th set. The win gave OU a split of their two matches in Cincinnati on Friday and Saturday.
The Sooner are 3-13 in conference and 10-16 overall. Texas Tech is also 3-13 in the Big 12 and are 10-18 overall. The OU-Texas Tech match will be on ESPN+ today.
One key factor for today's match will be the availability of Alexis Shelton for the Sooners. Shelton injured her left leg i believe at the very end of the Friday match in Cincinnati. then on Saturday she was courtside but did not play in the Sooners win over Cincinnati on Saturday. The Sooners really played well without Shelton on the floor to defeat Cincinnati on Saturday with Ireland McNees replacing Shelton at OH. Both were five set matches.
Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the match with Texas Tech today.
https://soonersports.com/news/2023/11/2 ... u-saturday
Texas Tech opened their Big 12 play with a win over a ranked Kansas team in 5 sets in Lubbock. Then Tech lost 11 straight matches before defeating West Virginia in both matches of their DH at home. Texas Tech then lost their last two matches to create their 3-13 conference record. Texas Tech is 3-5 at home this season in conference. Oklahoma is 2-6 on the road in conference.
Tech is lead by #3 Dugan and #4 Williams at the net as both of the OH have over 325 points. At MB, #17 Engler and at RS #23 Merrick have over 190 points. Dugan and Engler have hitting%'s over .200 on the season. Setter, #16 Rhodes (6'1") has almost 700 assists this season and has 99.5 points in the season with 61 kills and 24.5 block points and 14 service aces. The Red Raiders have 6 servers with double-digit aces and as a team has a serve-in % of 89.1%. Tech has 5 players with over 130 Digs with #9 Correa leading the way with 373. #19 Hansen and Engler lead Texas Tech in blocks with over 40 block points each.
As teams, Oklahoma leads in these categories; Kills per set, Hitting %, Assists per set, Service Aces per set, Tech leads in; Serve-In %, Fewer Service errors, Fewer Reception errors, Digs per set and Block Points per set.
In the Big 12 conference, 5 teams are ranked in the Top 25 teams with 2 more teams receiving points in the voting. Texas will win the Big 12 as they have a 16-1 record and have Tech left to play on Saturday. Texas is ranked as the #4 Team and the #5 RPI Team in the country. Kansas #14 RPI and 12-4 in conference, BYU #15 RPI and 11-5 and Houston #27 RPI and 10-6 in the conference are probably playoff teams from the Big 12. Iowa State and Baylor are in the top 36 teams in the country with their RPI ranking and are perhaps on the bubble in making the playoffs.
Oklahoma can possibly rise in the Big to finish in a tie for 10th with Cincinnati. OU can be considered as the favorite (with Shelton playing) against Tech today and against West Virginia next Saturday. That would give OU a 5-13 conference record. Cincinnati has a 5-11 record in conference currently but the have matches with Kansas at home and at Iowa State remaining as Cincy is the underdog in both matches. If The Sooners could finish in a tie for 10th after their coaching change and the transfers last summer, the season under Coach Mansfield could be called at least satisfactory, perhaps surprisingly good.
The Sooners will be celebrating their Seniors on Saturday in the match with West Virginia in their 1 PM first serve. The four seniors for the Sooners are; Kristen Birmingham, Kelsey Carrington, Daleigh Ellison and Callie Kemohah. I think that Kemohah, Ellison and Birmingham have one year of eligibility remaining if they chose to return. I also think that Burts (a Senior) has one year of eligibility left due to sitting out her freshman season at Liberty.
Good luck to the Sooners today in Lubbock.
Boomer Sooner!
The Sooner are 3-13 in conference and 10-16 overall. Texas Tech is also 3-13 in the Big 12 and are 10-18 overall. The OU-Texas Tech match will be on ESPN+ today.
One key factor for today's match will be the availability of Alexis Shelton for the Sooners. Shelton injured her left leg i believe at the very end of the Friday match in Cincinnati. then on Saturday she was courtside but did not play in the Sooners win over Cincinnati on Saturday. The Sooners really played well without Shelton on the floor to defeat Cincinnati on Saturday with Ireland McNees replacing Shelton at OH. Both were five set matches.
Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the match with Texas Tech today.
https://soonersports.com/news/2023/11/2 ... u-saturday
Texas Tech opened their Big 12 play with a win over a ranked Kansas team in 5 sets in Lubbock. Then Tech lost 11 straight matches before defeating West Virginia in both matches of their DH at home. Texas Tech then lost their last two matches to create their 3-13 conference record. Texas Tech is 3-5 at home this season in conference. Oklahoma is 2-6 on the road in conference.
Tech is lead by #3 Dugan and #4 Williams at the net as both of the OH have over 325 points. At MB, #17 Engler and at RS #23 Merrick have over 190 points. Dugan and Engler have hitting%'s over .200 on the season. Setter, #16 Rhodes (6'1") has almost 700 assists this season and has 99.5 points in the season with 61 kills and 24.5 block points and 14 service aces. The Red Raiders have 6 servers with double-digit aces and as a team has a serve-in % of 89.1%. Tech has 5 players with over 130 Digs with #9 Correa leading the way with 373. #19 Hansen and Engler lead Texas Tech in blocks with over 40 block points each.
As teams, Oklahoma leads in these categories; Kills per set, Hitting %, Assists per set, Service Aces per set, Tech leads in; Serve-In %, Fewer Service errors, Fewer Reception errors, Digs per set and Block Points per set.
In the Big 12 conference, 5 teams are ranked in the Top 25 teams with 2 more teams receiving points in the voting. Texas will win the Big 12 as they have a 16-1 record and have Tech left to play on Saturday. Texas is ranked as the #4 Team and the #5 RPI Team in the country. Kansas #14 RPI and 12-4 in conference, BYU #15 RPI and 11-5 and Houston #27 RPI and 10-6 in the conference are probably playoff teams from the Big 12. Iowa State and Baylor are in the top 36 teams in the country with their RPI ranking and are perhaps on the bubble in making the playoffs.
Oklahoma can possibly rise in the Big to finish in a tie for 10th with Cincinnati. OU can be considered as the favorite (with Shelton playing) against Tech today and against West Virginia next Saturday. That would give OU a 5-13 conference record. Cincinnati has a 5-11 record in conference currently but the have matches with Kansas at home and at Iowa State remaining as Cincy is the underdog in both matches. If The Sooners could finish in a tie for 10th after their coaching change and the transfers last summer, the season under Coach Mansfield could be called at least satisfactory, perhaps surprisingly good.
The Sooners will be celebrating their Seniors on Saturday in the match with West Virginia in their 1 PM first serve. The four seniors for the Sooners are; Kristen Birmingham, Kelsey Carrington, Daleigh Ellison and Callie Kemohah. I think that Kemohah, Ellison and Birmingham have one year of eligibility remaining if they chose to return. I also think that Burts (a Senior) has one year of eligibility left due to sitting out her freshman season at Liberty.
Good luck to the Sooners today in Lubbock.
Boomer Sooner!