‘Just as talented’: How this Wichita State volleyball team reminds Chris Lamb of 2014
It doesn’t take long for Wichita State volleyball head coach Chris Lamb to come up with a comparison for this year’s Shockers.
“Think 2014,” Lamb said, referencing one of his youngest teams that finished 20-10 that season. “You look up (in the rafters) and you won’t see a banner from that season, so you’re probably thinking, ‘What’s so good about 2014?’ Well, those were the girls that became the best team we ever had in 2017.”
Among the freshmen on that 2014 team were Abbie Lehman, Emily Hiebert, Mikaela Raudsepp, Hanna Shelton and Gabi Mostrom — who would become the foundation of the record-setting 2017 team that went undefeated in the American Athletic Conference and hosted NCAA Tournament games for the first time in program history.
The 2021 Shockers feature 14 freshmen and four sophomores on their 20-player roster and after watching them develop this summer, Lamb can’t help but be reminded by those freshmen from seven years ago.
“In a different way, this group is just as talented as that 2014 team and maybe even farther along volleyball-wise,” Lamb said. “We’re going to have a super young starting lineup, but I think this team is going to continue to get better from week to week and that’s exciting.”
Since graduating those six seniors on the loaded 2017 team, the Shockers have struggled to get old and stay old — a familiar phrase that college coaches believe translates to winning.
In fact, WSU has not had more than three seniors on its roster in the four seasons since with the majority of the roster being underclassmen — 16 of 22 were freshmen or sophomores in 2018, 12 of 19 were in 2019, 17 of 23 were in 2020 and 18 of 20 are in 2021.
“We struggled recruiting behind that (2017) group because people knew they weren’t going to start with them around,” Lamb said. “It wasn’t easy. In the past, in the Valley, we could start over with freshmen and put more than half of the conference behind us. In the American, you’re not going to do that. In the American, we cannibalize each other in the middle and bottom. You’re going to have to be a well put-together team every year to be up in the mix. If you’re starting over in this conference, good luck.”
A root cause for that has been transfers or players deciding to end their volleyball career. This past offseason was no different, as academic seniors Emma Wright, Brooke Smith, Megan Taflinger and McKayla Wuensch decided to move on from the program and underclassmen Sina Uluave, Nicole Anderson, Shea Lauria and Marriah Buss transferred out.
Despite the higher-than-normal roster movement that has coincided with a three-year lull in the program — WSU is 32-45 in the three seasons since 2017 — Lamb is undeterred in his mission to produce another championship-caliber team with a core group that develops over time.
“I’ve heard coaches say, ‘You don’t build programs anymore, you build teams’ and I will fight that with everything that I’ve got to try to keep this together,” Lamb said. “But at the end of the day, kids want to start. They want to play. When they’re not a starter, they’re looking for a place to play. It’s hard to have young people to stick around and wait their turn like the old days. That part just seems to be obvious.”
Lamb is confident if he can keep this core together, the Shockers could be special — sooner rather than later.
It begins with sophomore Sophia Rohling, a 6-foot-3 opposite hitter who earned first team all-conference honors last season. Lamb also has expectations of a breakout season into superstardom for sophomore Brylee Kelly, a 6-foot-2 outside hitter entering her fourth season with the Shockers. WSU also has a host of intriguing freshmen outside hitters in Kailin Newsome, Morgan Weber, Sophie Childs and Skylar Goering.
WSU will be made up entirely of freshmen in the middle, but Lamb says the group has a chance to be great right away with the potential of Natalie Foster, Morgan Stout and Lauren McMahon. Foster came on strong at the end of last season, while Stout is finally healthy after missing all of last season with an injury and McMahon has been one of Lamb’s most-improved players this offseason.
“The talent is definitely there with those guys,” Lamb said. “They’re all freshmen, but they’re all kind of ahead of schedule. I would like to think come October, November, we’ve got two middles both inside the top-third in the conference.”
After recruiting one-year fixes at setter the past couple seasons, Lamb is also confident he has solidified the setting position for the future. Sophomore Kayce Litzau already has two years of starting experience, while WSU has a trio of freshmen behind her in Hailey Plugge, Lauren Phillips and Zofia Szczotkiewicz.
WSU has ran a 6-2 offense for the majority of the last three seasons, but could switch back to a 5-1 offense with Litzau running the show this season.
“We’ve been in a 6-2 because of things missing in our 5-1, but really it was a 6-2 with spare parts,” Lamb said. “It wasn’t a 6-2 that was recruited to. We weren’t really built for it, but it was better than our 5-1 because of injuries at libero and not having enough littles to pack the 5-1 and not having a slide-hitting middle presence.
“I feel like we can still put our 6-2 together on short notice, but we have to keep developing our 5-1.”
At libero, sophomore Lily Liekweg returns after finishing with the second-most digs on the team last season. Senior Bryn Stansberry is also expected to take on a larger role this season with a trio of freshmen in Kylie Marneris, Lara Uyar and Annalie Heliste behind her.
“We’ve been on the outside looking in there and I finally feel like we’re where we need to be with the talent (at defensive specialist) and I can also say the same thing about the setting position,” Lamb said. “We’ve had a revolving door there and we were always trying to find an answer, but not we have young talent in the program and we’re starting to get to go back to our kids and develop these guys for the long haul now.”
The Shockers open their 2021 season at the Arkansas State Invitational, where they will play Missouri State and Tennessee-Martin on August 27 and Arkansas State on August 28.
This story was originally published August 18, 2021 at 11:51 AM.
.jpg)