Wichita State notes: Golfer hits hole in one with eyes wide open, parents watching

Bryce Schroeder knew something special happened when she saw her father doing the turtle on hole No. 7.

“He rolls back and throws his hands in the air and his feet go up in the air and he’s waving his hands and feet and I’m laughing,” she said.

Schroeder didn’t see her Titleist Pro V1 go in the hole. Her parents, who drove 718 miles to Columbia, Mo., to watch her play in the Johnie Imes Invitational at The Club at Old Hawthorne, did. She struck her 4-iron and knew she hit it well.

“My mom is jumping up and down and she has one of those plastic walking chairs and she’s waving it,” she said. “Absolutely incredible. I didn’t even know how to react.”

Schroeder, a Wichita State senior, used her first hole in one to propel her her best tournament as a collegian. She shot a career-best 67, tying WSU’s mark for a round, in Tuesday’s third round. Her 212 is WSU’s best, by four strokes, for a 54-hole tournament. She earned Missouri Valley Conference golfer of the week honors for a second time.

“I had short irons in my hand the whole tournament, which for me, that’s key,” she said. “I felt really confident over my putter.”

It was fitting that Bill Schroeder saw his daughter’s big moment. The two spent the summer working on Bryce’s game on courses around Colorado. He is a tinkerer who devises uses for swimming pool noodles and hula hoops to help his daughter’s form.

All that practice and reading Pia Nilsson golf books led her to more creative shots and a return to aggressive decisions.

“I played with too much fear, played too conservatively and never took chances to make a score,” she said. “My mindset has been a lot different this year. I want to achieve the confidence where there’s not a shot in golf I can’t hit.”

Bryce spent much of her time on the driving range at Walking Stick Golf Course in Pueblo with her eyes closed, or wearing sunglasses with paper blocking her view, also her father’s idea.

“When I finally starting striking the ball consistently solid like that, that’s when I knew it didn’t matter where I was, what course, what shot I had to hit … I could hit the shot,” she said. “If I don’t have to be looking at the ball, I don’t need to see what’s in front of me to hit that shot. It was a rough summer. I loved every bit of it, but I was out there every day, working.”

Brenda, her mother, has never missed a tournament. Bill did much more than celebrate at last week’s tournament.

“I feel so much more comfortable when I’m around my dad,” she said. “Every shot I hit that was over, I told myself I’m on the range with dad. And he’s letting me open my eyes. It helped take me completely away from the consequences of what my shot could do, or being in a tournament. It just let me swing free and enjoy myself.”

Set up for Monday — WSU takes its first crack at the Missouri Valley Conference’s new volleyball scheduling format on Monday at Evansville (6-11, 0-3 MVC). The MVC moved two matches for each school off a weekend, clearing that time for a fourth tournament in hopes of boosting power rankings.

The NCAA releases its RPI on Monday. The Shockers (11-6, 2-1), trying to bounce back from Friday’s 3-1 loss to Missouri State at Koch Arena, took Saturday off. They planned a light practice on Sunday before getting on a bus for the 606-mile drive.

Along the way, coach Chris Lamb can evaluate Friday’s lineup, one that featured prominent attacking roles for freshman outside hitter Shimen Fayad, sophomore outside hitter Mikaela Raudsepp and junior middle Katy Dudzinski. Hitters Jenny Whitledge and Jody Larson did most of their work as passers in the back row. With that experimentation, Lamb said he wasn’t surprised at some of his team’s passing issues against Missouri State.

“We still aren’t all the way there with our back row,” he said. “We’ve got bigs playing in the back row. We’ve got girls playing where they’ve only been (last) week in practice. I just felt like they (Missouri State) were the more organized group. I knew we wouldn’t have that on our side (Friday), given this new lineup.”

Fayad produced a career-high 20 kills and Dudzinski took a season-high 22 swings, erring five times with six kills, and totaled five block-assists. With the lineup shuffle, WSU’s time devoted to a scouting report is brief.

“We put less time into our opponents this year than any year I can remember,” Lamb said. “We’re still trying to figure out who we are. It will be exciting to settle on that and not have to be as physical in practice and spend a lot of time in prep for our opponents.”

Missouri State plays at Southern Illinois on Monday. On Nov. 2, MSU and WSU swap road trips to complete the SIU-Evansville swing.

Monday’s WSU match is not on ESPN3.

Volleyball never stops — Former Wichita State star Emily Stockman isn’t taking a break after a break-through summer on the AVP beach volleyball circuit. She leaves Monday for Mexico to play in the FIVB World Tour. Later this month, the tour takes her to Turkey.

Stockman devoted herself full-time to beach volleyball for the first time and it paid off with career-best results. Stockman and partner Ali McColloch finished tied for third in the Cincinnati Open, defeating top-seeded Jenny Kropp and Nicole Branagh in the quarterfinals. They finished tied for fifth in the Manhattan Beach, Chicago and New Orleans tournaments.

“I went a step up in my career and it’s really exciting because there’s so much potential and so much room for growth,” she said.

Stockman, who in previous years went overseas to play indoor volleyball, and McColloch started training in January and played two overseas tournaments before the AVP season opened in late May. They played together for the first time a year ago in an FIVB tournament and decided to stick together.

“Crazy things are going to happen on the court,” Stockman said. “Being able to stay with the same partner, you figure things out. Even if you make a call, but something weird happens, you can be on the same page in what you’re going to do in that situation.”

McColloch, who played at UCLA, and Stockman found a chemistry that works, in part because they can push each other.

“We can get on each other hard, kind of like guys do, and it doesn’t bother us,” Stockman said. “She can yell at me while we’re playing and, at the end of the match, it’s completely fine.”

Stockman, who lives in California and works as a personal trainer, will play with Megan Wallin-Brockway in Mexico before reuniting with McColloch in Turkey. After that, she breaks for the holidays before she resumes training.

Worth noting — Ness City senior Regan Stiawalt gave WSU volleyball a non-binding commitment, according to coach Karen Seib. Stiawalt, a 5-foot-11 outside hitter, earned second-team All-Class 2A honors as a junior … WSU men’s tennis player Tin Ostojic starts play in the main draw of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-American Championships Thursday in Tulsa … The deadline to enter the Wichita State Alumni Baseball golf tournament is Friday. Proceeds benefit League 42. Cost is $100 for baseball alums and $125 for others. Golfers may register for the Oct. 16 tournament at sandcreekgolfclub.com.

This story was originally published October 3, 2015 at 2:35 PM with the headline "Wichita State notes: Golfer hits hole in one with eyes wide open, parents watching."