Wichita State volleyball’s defense, passing hold up against top competition

Practices and statistics told Wichita State volleyball coach Chris Lamb his defenders could play. He wanted to see them against the tall frontlines of Oregon State and Hawaii for confirmation.

“Better than I thought,” he said. “ When you play Pac-12 and Hawaii, you’re wondering if you can keep up and we did. We certainly played to the whistle. We had girls flying all over the place.”

The Shockers went 2-1 in their opening weekend, sweeping Oregon State and losing 3-1 to Hawaii. On Friday, they open the Texas A&M Invitational against Abilene Christian (0-3) and New Mexico State (3-1) and play Texas A&M (1-1) on Saturday.

Three matches in Hawaii gave Lamb plenty to digest, led by more evidence that setter Emily Hiebert and middle Abbie Lehman are a top-level threat to score. His frontline’s ability to block and redirect balls and his back row’s range provided several bright spots. WSU held Oregon State, a Sweet 16 team in 2014, to a .198 attack percentage. After then-No. 18 Hawaii dented it for a .296 attack percentage, WSU limited Idaho to .114 in a sweep.

“We’re definitely a much scrappier, in-the-know team than we were last year,” libero Dani Mostrom said. “We know what’s going on the court. Anticipation is key and a lot more people on the court have that this year.”

Mostrom recorded 23 digs against Hawaii and added 19 and 12 in the other two matches. Outside hitter Jody Larson added 12 against Hawaii and Hiebert had 13 against Idaho. Redshirt freshman Shimen Fayad made her debut with 11 digs against Oregon State.

“Our defense was the best its looked, even in all the practices,” Larson said. “We were picking up a lot of balls and serve-receive was really strong. I was really excited about that, because with that we were able to feed Abbie a lot.”

Mostrom and Lehman, who had a career-high 17 kills against Hawaii, earned spots on the all-tournament team. Lamb said Hiebert played well enough to join them.

“I think Emily Hiebert could play for any team on that island,” he said. “Hiebert was great. Hawaiians know volleyball and we do some different things with Hiebert and she kind of became a pop star, because they write so much on the forums and chat rooms. It was fun to see how people recognize what she was doing.”

WSU returned from Hawaii on Monday and Lamb gave his starters Tuesday off to recover from the travel.

“It’s a very tough transition, because of the time change and everyone is trying to get back on their studies and balancing school and volleyball and our sleep,” Larson said.

Worth noting — Friday matches against Abilene Christian (11 a.m.) and New Mexico State (7 p.m.) can be heard through goshockers.com. Saturday’s noon match against Texas A&M is also on the SEC Network.… WSU opens its home schedule Sept. 10 with matches against South Dakota State and Northern Illinois on the first day of the Shocker Volleyball Classic.

This story was originally published September 3, 2015 at 2:36 PM with the headline "Wichita State volleyball’s defense, passing hold up against top competition."