Wichita State volleyball beats third straight 2017 NCAA Tournament team for 3-0 start

It’s hard to explain, at least statistically, how the Wichita State volleyball team defeated VCU in a five-set thriller on Monday to improve to 3-0 on the season.

The facts: WSU committed 17 more hitting errors and 30 total, got out-blocked 15-3 by VCU, won fewer total points, and sided-out at a lower percentage.

A few more facts: WSU won the match (25-17, 15-25, 25-18, 10-25, 15-9) and defeated a third straight opponent expected to be a strong RPI team and coming off a NCAA Tournament appearance.

“Right now we’re playing defense,” WSU coach Chris Lamb said in his post-game radio interview. “People aren’t scoring against the Shockers. We’re not blocking, but we’re touching balls and we’re digging. Until we learn how to make fewer attacking errors and be more confident in our swings, then we’re going to have to stand back and take everybody’s shot.

“It helps when we have (libero) Giorgia (Civita) back there because she’s as good as it gets.”

It’s true the Shockers had to gut out another road victory through their defense, as Civita led the way with another 30 digs. But WSU tallied 75 in total, as outside hitters Tabitha Brown and Alex Koon each contributed 12 digs of their own and setter Jordan Roberts also added 12.

Speaking of Roberts, the junior from Corpus Christi, Texas was the breakout star of the game. She entered the match with 18 career assists, but came away with a career-high 22 assists to complete a double-double in her first time playing extended points for the Shockers. And they were important points, too.

“I’m so proud of Jordan Roberts. That girl has given us everything she has,” Lamb said. “She has been an A-plus human for this program, and now all of that hard work is paying off. She knows her physical limitations, but she fights for everything and now she’s part of the solution for us.”

It was another uneven performance by the offense, something Lamb said might be the norm with so many first-year hitters. Megan Taflinger had spurts of standout hits and finished with a team-high 15 kills, while Brown had 13 kills but also 12 errors in 51 swings. Abby Pugh, Emma Wright, and Koon all combined for 27 kills.

But what stood out to Lamb was the team’s mentality.

The Shockers opened the road match with a 25-17 first-set victory. After being out-played in the second set, WSU came back and responded with a 25-18 victory in the third set. Then the wheels came off for the Shockers in the fourth set, as they had double the amount of errors (10) to kills (5) and were stomped by 15 points.

“I usually try to run and hide whenever somebody asks me about psychology,” Lamb said. “But we tried to do different things. We pulled a lot of kids and it was just trying to calm this thing down. We tried to stretch out five-six minutes into 15 minutes, just to see if we could get a different energy.”

Whatever the case was, WSU looked like a new team when the score reset for the tiebreaker.

WSU built an early 8-4 lead behind a suddenly invigorated offense. An important momentum swing occurred when VCU cut the deficit to 8-6 and a marathon point ensued. A diving save by Civita prolonged the point and eventually WSU would win the point on an error. Instead of VCU building momentum and cutting the deficit to one, WSU’s lead was restored to three points.

Another important swing came on a high set that was played to Grace Burken, a true freshman making her collegiate debut. VCU’s defense set up expecting her to free-ball it over. Instead, the 6-foot-1 middle was able to spike it for the 12-7 lead. Soon after, WSU closed out the match with back-to-back kills from Taflinger and Koon.

“I think that one caught them off-guard,” Lamb said. “That was definitely a two-point swing right there for us.”

Although VCU is now 0-3 to start the season (all three losses are to teams expected to be top-50 RPI teams), Lamb said the Shockers will benefit from VCU beefing up its non-conference schedule. The Rams returned five starters from a 30-3 team last season and are expected to roll through the Atlantic-10.

“They’re going for it and they should,” Lamb said. “This is the best team they’ve ever had and I’m proud of VCU for rolling the dice and putting it all out there.”