‘Look in the mirror’: How Chris Lamb graded opening weekend for Wichita State volleyball
For months leading up to the fall season, Chris Lamb figured the lineup for the Wichita State volleyball team was set in stone.
Those plans changed in the weeks leading up to last weekend’s season-opening tournament at Texas Tech, as an abdomen injury flared up with Sophia Rohling, leaving a massive absence on the right side.
Without fully-healthy Rohling, an all-conference opposite hitter, Lamb played Brylee Kelly, voted preseason American Athletic Conference Co-Player of the Year, out of position on the right side.
What was a dynamic attack in the spring was not quite as potent to begin the fall, as WSU’s 1-2 opening weekend included a five-set loss to Notre Dame in which it failed to close out a 2-1 lead, a four-set loss to Texas Tech and a four-set win over Houston Christian.
“We find ourselves searching for a lineup (early) in a year where we shouldn’t have to be doing that,” Lamb said on his radio show on Monday. “I’m watching the tape against Notre Dame thinking, ‘We can beat this team.’ I’m watching tape of Tech and I’m thinking, ‘We can beat this team.’ To me, that’s the most disappointing thing.”
Lamb raved about his team’s progress this spring, then was ecstatic to learn athletic director Kevin Saal had allotted the money necessary for the program to have all of its players on campus in July — the first time that’s ever happened in his 24-year reign.
But all of that progress was difficult to remember on Monday when Lamb said two more starters, along with Rohling, sat out the day’s practice due to injury. Although the coach did not specify which two players, Kelly was unable to finish Saturday’s match against Houston Christian due to injury.
“For the first time, we were here on campus working out and getting in shape and yet, here we are in the preseason with nagging injuries like when you’re not ready to play,” Lamb said. “We just have to look in the mirror and ask ourselves, ‘Why? Is it something we’re doing? Is it something we didn’t do?’ I don’t know the answer, but that part is driving me crazy right now.”
The out-of-sync attack cost the Shockers a golden opportunity against Texas Tech, as 35 hitting errors in the four-set loss completely negated a superb defensive effort from WSU’s back row, which registered a dig on 72 of 121 swings (59.5% dig rate).
“It was irresponsible attacking and bad play on our part,” Lamb said. “If we were (just average on errors), with that kind of dig percentage, there’s no way we would have lost that match. So the Shockers have got to figure out how to right the wrongs when we’re attacking all over the map.”
The opening-weekend standout on the back row was Gabi Maas, a sophomore transfer from TCU who racked up 65 digs in 13 sets.
WSU also posted solid blocking numbers, led by Natalie Foster’s team-high 14 blocks in the middle, but Lamb said his team’s numbers looked better on paper than how he graded their performance.
“We played good team defense, but we didn’t have anybody in particular to brag about,” Lamb said. “Our defensive numbers were good, I’m actually kind of like, ‘Well, it wasn’t what I thought it would be.’ It wasn’t bad. I like my little army, but that group could have played better this weekend.”
One of the bright spots for Lamb was the play of outside hitter Emerson Wilford, who was called into action more heavily than anticipated due to injuries.
The 6-foot-2 sophomore finished with 29 kills on the weekend, which nearly equaled her career total entering the season. Her best match came against Houston Christian when she posted a double-double of 13 kills and 11 digs, both career-high marks.
“No pin hitter has been as consistently at a high level through our first three weeks of the season than Emerson,” Lamb said. “She was also the best passer not named Gabi this last weekend, which was a huge step in the right direction for Emerson. Kill percentage is still the issue. With her talent, you look at her and you say, ‘I think you’re capable of 36%, 37% kills, but you’re going to be at 34%, 35% if you don’t take physical enough swings often enough, if you don’t pull the trigger or if you keep trying to cut-shot balls and take away ball speed. If she avoids that, her kill percentage numbers will go up.”
Another highlight was the much-anticipated debut of junior-college transfer Ba Koehler, who was the NJCAA Player of the Year in 2022 at Florida Southwestern.
After shining in a preseason scrimmage against No. 4 Nebraska, Koehler made an immediate impact against Notre Dame with a team-high 13 kills in four sets with an eye-popping 46.4 kill percentage. She was also limited the rest of the weekend, playing just two sets in the other two matches.
“She’s going to have to learn how to get around hands that are reaching across the net and middle blockers that close faster,” Lamb said. “But she’s got our best arm talent. If she can avoid the block and force teams to dig her, they’re going to have a hard time doing it because her ball speed is so good.
“She was at 46% kills against Notre Dame and I can’t tell you a left-side player in WSU’s history to come even close to that number against a team of that caliber. So you can definitely see what’s there. Now it’s a matter of stacking good days, as we like to say around here.”
WSU returns to action later this week when the team makes a home-state trip for Kelly, a sixth-year senior who hails from Monee, Illinois, which is about a 90-minute drive to Champaign, where the Shockers will play in a tournament hosted by Illinois. WSU will play Illinois at 5 p.m. Friday, then Illinois State at 1 p.m. Saturday.
This story was originally published August 29, 2023 at 6:00 AM.
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