Brylee Kelly realizes potential in Wichita State volleyball’s 3-match winning streak
Last weekend was a glimpse into the potential of Brylee Kelly as an outside hitter on the Wichita State volleyball team.
The 6-foot-2 sophomore, who is in her fourth year with the program, delivered by far the best performance of her career last Sunday to help the Shockers win a five-set match over SMU with a career-high 29 kills.
The 29 kills were second-most in program history for a single match, one shy of Emily Stockman’s 30 against Missouri State on November 27, 2009. Kelly, who recorded 30.5 points, also fell just shy of Stockman’s record of 31 points in a single match.
Kelly was superb in WSU’s road sweep in American Athletic Conference play last weekend, which also featured a 3-1 victory at Memphis, as she racked up a total of 45 kills with a .330 hitting percentage to earn AAC weekly honor roll honors. After a five-match losing streak, the Shockers (9-6, 3-3 AAC) have now won three straight matches in a row entering this week’s home swing at Koch Arena against East Carolina (7-8, 3-3 AAC) at 7 p.m. Friday and against Cincinnati (10-4, 5-1 AAC) at 1 p.m. Sunday.
“In my experience, a lot of girls their status on the team has a lot to do with their confidence. It’s like when they first get here they act as an invited guest, instead of being in your own home and owning it,” WSU coach Chris Lamb said earlier this season. “It’s not like Brylee is much different physically. It’s just that now she knows she’s got to do it. She’s not looking to anybody else.. This is Brylee’s team.”
What made Kelly’s performance on the road against SMU even more impressive was that the Shockers desperately needed every one of those kills.
With preseason all-conference hitter Sophia Rohling sidelined by an injury, WSU didn’t have another experienced threat to turn to on the outside. Kelly rose to the occasion, as WSU setter Kayce Litzau, who set her own career-high with 61 assists, went to Kelly a total of 61 times and she still managed to post a .361 hitting percentage on career-high volume. She also easily eclipsed her previous-high in kills, which was 18.
Despite being shorthanded on the road, WSU was able to pick up a key win over SMU because Kelly played like the star-caliber hitter that Lamb has always believed she was capable of being. After splitting the first four sets, WSU raced out to a 6-0 lead in the decisive fifth set and never allowed SMU back into the mix.
“Brylee needs to be one of those players that other teams spend a lot of their time on,” Lamb said earlier this season. “I need her to be in the upper-third in the conference at her position and it needs to be consistent. We need that from her more than anything else she can contribute. I’d like to see her in the high three’s in kills per game and some nights beyond that. She has the talent for that.”
In the match before the SMU win, Kelly turned in a well-rounded performance in a four-set win over Memphis with 16 kills, four digs, two solo blocks and a service ace.
On the season, Kelly is now averaging 3.4 kills per set with a hitting percentage hovering around .260.
“We have everything we need,” Kelly said earlier this season. “We have the passing. We have the setters. We have the big offense. It just comes down to execution for us. We are still making errors we shouldn’t. Once we clean that up, I think we’re going to be hard to stop.”
This story was originally published October 13, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
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