WSU volleyball completes unbeaten AAC season

It was a Friday afternoon party for more than 3,000 Wichita State fans who made it out to Koch Arena.

The day began with a celebration of the six seniors on Wichita State’s volleyball team who have helped the Shockers to a No. 20 national ranking.

The celebration continued as the Shockers wrapped up the third undefeated conference season in the Chris Lamb era, sweeping Memphis (25-17, 25-14, 25-11) for the second time this week to polish off a dominant 20-0 debut season in the American Athletic Conference. Abbie Lehman led WSU with 11 kills and hit .733. Emily Hiebert had 37 assists. WSU held Memphis to a .063 attack percentage for the match.

The Shockers ended the regular season with nine straight sweeps and lost just five sets against AAC competition. Wichita State (28-3) gets the AAC’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The 64-team tournament begins with first and second rounds at 16 campus sites that will be announced Sunday. The Shockers began the week ranked No. 9 in the NCAA’s volleyball RPI.

Will it be enough to sway the selection committee’s mind in choosing Wichita State to host the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament? Wichita State has never hosted an NCAA opening weekend and again appears to be on the bubble, despite a 20-match winning streak and no loss to a team ranked outside of the RPI 30.

Wichita State will find out its fate during the NCAA Tournament Selection Show on Sunday at 8 p.m. on ESPNU. The team is having a watch party for fans starting 30 minutes prior at Koch Arena in the Champions Club.

This story was originally published November 24, 2017 at 5:05 PM with the headline "WSU volleyball completes unbeaten AAC season."