Wichita State works to improve serving as it enters home-stand

The service line is uncharacteristically frustrating for Wichita State volleyball coach Chris Lamb this season.

The Shockers are rolling on offense, ranking eighth nationally in attack percentage at .293. Where Lamb sees room for growth, as WSU approaches three matches in the next four days at Koch Arena, is from the related areas of serving and defense.

“Serving makes defense easier,” he said. “If we served better teams wouldn’t score as fast. It’s all intertwined.”

WSU (10-5, 3-1 MVC) plays Loyola (8-9, 3-1) on Friday, followed by Bradley (6-9, 1-3) on Saturday and Southern Illinois (13-6, 4-1) on Monday. The Salukis enter the weekend tied for first in the Valley with Illinois State, whom they play at home on Saturday.

WSU enters the weekend with 60 aces and 122 errors. The average of 1.1 aces a set is where the Shockers usually sit in past seasons. The doubled rate of errors, however, is too high for Lamb. Last season, for example, WSU finished with 161 aces and 250 errors and the 2014 Shockers recorded 134 aces and 192 errors. The 2010 team is the most recent one to approach a 50-percent rate, with 101 aces and 222 errors.

“I would like to be at least .68 and these days .70 would be better,” he said. “You expect more errors, but you want to be in the high sixties and seventies, not in the fifties.”

Lamb feels best when senior libero Dani Mostrom serves. She has seven aces and 10 errors. Setter Emily Hiebert has nine aces and four errors. Left hitter Tabitha Brown leads WSU with 11 aces, but her 38 errors are more than double any of other total.

“We have an identity crisis of serving skill,” Lamb said. “Some nights we have a lot of errors. Some nights we have aces. Some nights we don’t have either. We’re just average with our numbers.”

Worth noting — Loyola has won four of five and three straight matches. It handed SIU its lone MVC loss 3-1 on Saturday.… WSU is 6-0 against the Ramblers, all matches since 2013 when they joined the MVC. The Shockers have won 26 straight matches against Bradley.… WSU middle Abbie Lehman is hitting .419, second in the MVC and 11th nationally. … All three matches are on ESPN3.com with audio on goshockers.com.

This story was originally published October 6, 2016 at 6:05 PM with the headline "Wichita State works to improve serving as it enters home-stand."