Texas prep roots help Lauren McMahon star in middle for Wichita State volleyball team
Playing for the No. 1 club volleyball team in the country and in Dallas, arguably the nation’s top recruiting hotbed, sounds like a great way to receive exposure for a high school player.
But sometimes being surrounded by that much talent can make it easier to be overlooked. Wichita State volleyball coach Chris Lamb believed this to be the case when he watched Lauren McMahon play in her hometown of Dallas.
“She was pretty much just blocking when we watched her play and we wanted to involve her so much more in the offense and use her at a different tempo,” Lamb said. “We wanted to use her differently.”
Despite playing for Texas Advantage Volleyball, the No. 1-ranked club in America, and for a successful Highland Park high school team, McMahon said her college recruiting options were limited until Lamb and assistant Sean Carter identified her as a potential “M1” at the college level — the most valuable kind of a middle hitter in a 5-1 system.
“People would reach out maybe once or twice, but I wouldn’t hear from them again,” McMahon said. “But Sean would talk to me all the time. He would text me about my tournaments and it was nice because I felt like I was really wanted here at Wichita State.”
Lamb has made a career at WSU pulling diamonds in the rough in recruiting. The coach believes he has found his latest recruiting coup in McMahon, a 6-foot-3 freshman middle blocker who has already become an important part in the Shockers’ 5-1 start to this season.
In just her second collegiate tournament, McMahon earned a spot on the American Athletic Conference honor roll after hitting .455 with 2.5 kills and 1.0 blocks per set in WSU’s three games at the Kansas Invitational. Her best performance came in a five-set win over Delaware, where she finished with a career-best 14 kills on just 26 attempts.
Entering this weekend’s Shocker Volleyball Classic, where WSU will play against South Dakota at 7 p.m. Friday, Wyoming at 10 a.m. Saturday and No. 18 Creighton at 7 p.m. Saturday, McMahon ranks second in the AAC in hitting percentage (.370) and seventh in blocks per set (1.1).
“Honestly, I have to tell you she’s way ahead of schedule,” Lamb said on his weekly radio show about McMahon. “When I recruited her, I was very honest and told her she’s probably going to redshirt and then be a starter her junior and senior year. She’s putting herself in the equation way ahead of schedule.”
When McMahon arrived at WSU as part of the 2020 recruiting class, the Shockers were set in the middle with a pair of veteran players. That’s why she only played in four matches and a total of 10 sets in the abbreviated spring season this year.
But when both of those veterans decided not to return for this fall, the equation changed for WSU and McMahon was thrust into a starting role. She is part of a trio of freshmen that WSU counts on in the middle with Natalie Foster and Morgan Stout.
“I remember when I first got here, Sean told me, ‘I hope we throw you in there and we never look back,’” McMahon said. “I didn’t really expect this so soon. I thought I would be a player that would show up later in my college career. But now I think I’ve stepped up and I’m trying to be a leader in my position now.”
Since WSU’s dominant 2017 team, Lamb feels as if the Shockers have struggled to establish a true presence in the middle during their time in the American. With this season’s team featuring dynamic pin hitters like Sophia Rohling, Brylee Kelly and Kailin Newsome, the Shockers’ offense can level up even further by finding consistent swings for their middles.
McMahon said she has worked hard since arriving in Wichita at being more available in transition for her setter. That detail is something WSU sophomore setter Kayce Litzau has appreciated very much about McMahon, which was a reason why the duo connected more than they ever have before this past weekend in Lawrence.
“With setting, you need to see the hitter and Lauren does a really good job at making sure she’s up early,” Litzau said. “It’s really important to keep the block on the other side of the net on the top of their toes, not knowing where the ball is going by keeping the middles involved. If they have to watch out for that, then setting the pins becomes easier and everyone can get kills easier.”
McMahon believes her experience playing for TAV in Dallas and practicing every day against soon-to-be Division I players prepared her for the early success in college. Although she didn’t play for the club’s top team in her age group, she still scrimmaged regularly against the top team that featured girls that now play at Texas, UCLA, Florida, Stanford and UCLA.
“I was going against girls who ended up going to some of the best schools in the country,” McMahon said. “I’ve always played around big talent, so I felt like that prepared me for the college life because I was used to playing around people who I would say are at the highest level.”
All McMahon needed was a chance to prove herself and that’s exactly what Lamb gave her.
Although McMahon wasn’t playing the role Lamb envisioned she would play at WSU in high school, he saw flashes of the potential. He liked her motor and how she would tirelessly work for attempts in the middle, even if the sets never came her way. But what he liked most about McMahon after talking to her was her desire to get better.
In her year on campus, McMahon has dedicated herself in the weight room and is already seeing the benefits of her hard work. Now she wants to become the latest overlooked success story for the Shockers.
“Physically, she’s a different athlete than she was,” Lamb said. “She’s stronger now. She can change directions better. Just in a short amount of time, she’s really changed herself as an athlete and changed herself as a volleyball player. We’re excited about her future.”
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