Wichita State freshman Mikaela Raudsepp makes quick work of college volleyball

Every volleyball practice ends the same way. Players, coaches and managers push carts around the gym and pick up volleyballs.

Oregon Juniors Volleyball Academy club director Steve Suttich notices which players help and which ones leave the grunt work to others. It reveals something about the ones who pitched in at his six-gymnasium building in Beaverton. Wichita State freshman Mikaela Raudsepp always volunteered to shag volleyballs.

“Those are the things the superstars, the best players, are not known for doing,” Suttich said. “She’s doing it because that was her home life, that was her work life.”

So Suttich is not surprised that Raudsepp, a 6-foot-2 outside hitter from Dundee, Ore., started WSU’s first three matches of the season and played all six rotations. She led the Shockers with 11 kills in a 3-0 loss to No. 19 Kentucky to become the first freshman to lead WSU in its opening match since Sara Younes in 2001. Raudsepp leads WSU with 31 kills, hitting .220, with 25 digs.

WSU (1-2) opens play in the Delta Zeta Classic against Baylor at 5 p.m. Thursday in San Marcos, Texas. It plays host Texas State and North Texas on Friday before meeting Texas-San Antonio on Saturday.

Raudsepp grew up in a volleyball family — her parents played and her older sister Mariah played at Concordia (Ore.) University. Suttich, who played at UCLA and coached at Washington requires his players to diversify. When Mikaela Raudsepp came to WSU in August, she was ready to attack and play in the back row.

“She’s played just about every position except for libero,” Suttich said. “She’s been a good student of the game at every one of those positions.”

Suttich’s emphasis on strategy gave Raudsepp a mature understanding of scoring. She came to WSU prepared to hit a variety of shots and respond to blockers. He wanted her to hit roll shots and work the angles and lines to combat bigger players.

“He taught me a lot of things which gave me a head’s up,” Raudsepp said. “Steve Suttich challenged me to play the mental game. How quickly can I bounce back from mistakes? How do I look ahead to score? Where is the weakness of the other side of the net and where can I look to score?”

It took about two weeks for Wichita State coach Chris Lamb to see Raudsepp as a freshman capable of contributing and playing six rotations, as former Shockers Emily Adney and Emily Stockman did early in their careers.

“When you have that skill-set, you’ve got to find a program that is going let you do that and do it for a long time,” he said. “Those guys got to come here and be that special, busy, player for a long time. Volleyball wants to have a player like that on the court and the top programs have two of them, that get to do everything because they can.”

To play in the back row, Raudsepp had to prove she could handle serves with more speed and more movement in college. Now Lamb believes he possesses three freshmen hitters — Raudsepp, Jenny Whitledge and Shimen Fayad — with strong passing skills

“The passing thing is such a mystery,” Lamb said. “You can’t evaluate club volleyball and assume those kids are going to walk in the door and handle college serving.”

The Shockers lost to Kentucky and Virginia Tech in three sets before falling behind 2-0 to Butler last weekend. They rallied to defeated Butler with Raudsepp contributing 14 kills and 15 digs.

“Our first matches were just getting the jitters out of the way,” she said. “Going in with no fear is pretty much the key to accomplishing anything, especially when you’re down. If you play afraid, you’re never going to reap the rewards of playing.”

This story was originally published September 3, 2014 at 3:09 PM with the headline "Wichita State freshman Mikaela Raudsepp makes quick work of college volleyball."