Wichita State’s Abbie Lehman took her shot at volleyball instead of basketball

In the summer of 2012, Wichita State volleyball coach Chris Lamb and his assistants ranked 60 middle blockers to recruit. Newton’s Abbie Lehman wasn’t on the list, because everyone saw her as a basketball player.

“I was always better at basketball than I was at volleyball,” Lehman said. “In high school, I was a basketball player.”

She rebounded. She scored. She blocked shots. She earned all-conference honors as a junior, on her way to All-Metro status as a senior after helping Newton finish third in Class 5A.

“She could really run the floor,” Newton volleyball coach Jamie Dibbens said. “Her endurance, I think she could have been an 800-meter runner. Not many post players could keep up with her.”

Lehman’s future changed during WSU’s summer volleyball camp. Lamb had watched her play often, because he recruited Newton setter Emily Hiebert. He didn’t recruit Lehman. Before camp, Lehman’s likely next stop was Pittsburg State for basketball. After the camp, Lamb and his assistants ranked the middles and all three put Lehman in the top three. He sold her on playing volleyball close to home at an NCAA Division I school and Lehman changed plans entering her senior year at Newton.

“It wasn’t until that camp that Abbie looked powerful enough to do this,” Lamb said. “I can’t tell how much of a difference there was from Abbie, as a high school junior, to Abbie, as about-to-be-a-senior. I thought I was looking at a completely different athlete.”

Two years later, Lehman is playing middle blocker for WSU (7-5, 1-1 Missouri Valley Conference) and serving as something of a gauge for the Shockers. Especially over the past two weekends, Lehman’s productivity is an indication of good digging, passing and setting. The middles, more than the other front-row attackers, depend on an offense that runs smoothly.

WSU travels to Bradley (0-12, 0-2) on Friday and plays at Loyola (5-6, 1-1) on Saturday.

“The thing about middles, when they’re playing well it’s because you can get them the ball, so a lot of people are playing well,” Lamb said.

Lehman (6-foot-3) is playing so well recently that her off night stood out.

She earned a spot on the Bluejay Invitational all-tournament team with 34 kills, including a season-high 16 against Creighton, in three matches in WSU’s final non-conference action. On Saturday, she dented Indiana State for 10 kills in a sweep. In between, WSU opened Valley play with a 3-0 loss to Illinois State and Lehman’s contributions barely registered — three kills and a .188 attack percentage. Lehman recognizes she can’t let an early setback define her match.

“I’m used to that with youth,” Lamb said. “You’ve got to move on. You learn that.”

When she swings, Lehman is capable of powering WSU’s offense. She recorded 10 kills and hit .350 in a win over Baylor. Against Pepperdine, she had nine kills and didn’t commit an error on 15 swings.

“I just need to go out there with more confidence every single night, and not just the nights where I start off with a kill,” she said. “When I start off with getting blocked, or with an error, I still need to keep swinging.”

After deciding to play volleyball, Lehman knew her game needed refining. She willingly redshirted last year and spent the fall practicing against senior middles Ashley Andrade, the co-MVC Player of the Year, and Elizabeth Field. Lehman grew stronger and improved her volleyball mechanics, especially learning to fold her elbow back before striking the ball instead of holding her arm overhead.

“I don’t any of the teams we’ve played thus far would know how little volleyball she’s played,” Lamb said. “She looks like a college volleyball player now.”

Lehman watched Andrade and Field hit the ball hard every time. They knew when to jump to anticipate a set and when to jump early to get in blocking position.

“They were great at everything they did,” Lehman said. “They had their mechanics down. They were always up in the air early, ready for the quicks. It’s so much quicker than in high school, especially in the middle.”

Lehman and Hiebert met as freshmen during volleyball two-a-days at Newton and the Railers finished second in Class 5A in 2011 and qualified for state in 2012. Last season, while Lehman learned from Andrade and Field, Hiebert took lessons from setter Chelsey Feekin. Now they have four seasons together at WSU.

“I feel like we can kind of read each other’s mind,” Hiebert said. “On offense, I just know where she’s at.”

This story was originally published September 25, 2014 at 5:02 PM with the headline "Wichita State’s Abbie Lehman took her shot at volleyball instead of basketball."