Volleyball gets second straight sweep against Bradley

Julian Kincaid

Junior setter Emily Hiebert passes to Katy Dudzinski to set up a kill. Shockers won 3-0 against Bradley in their second straight sweep on Saturday.

Wichita State volleyball had its second sweep in a row, defeating Bradley 3-0 on Saturday at Charles Koch Arena.

The first set saw Bradley hitting out of bounds and making inaccurate passes, while WSU hit .524 off 14 kills and only committing one attack error.

“It comes back to trusting your teammates. We put in 15 hours a week in practice so it all comes down to the trust you have for them and the process,” junior outside hitter Mikaela Raudsepp said. “It’s all about going back to fundamentals.”

The second set started off with a service ace by junior setter Emily Hiebert, leading to two net violations in the second set by Bradely. The Shockers managed to close the gap to 21-10, with the set ending with a 25-14 off a kill from sophomore outside hitter Tabitha Brown.

The Braves had a complete momentum change going into the third set, being more aggressive at the net and challenging the Shockers more. There were no lead changes the entire match until the third set when Bradley finally took over the lead at the very beginning, rallying back and forth changing the lead every other possession with Wichita.

“They started going harder in the front row, and it was our mistake of going softer and not expecting a lot out of them,” Brown said. “It all comes down to respecting your opponent and it’s something we’ll have to sustain in the future.”

Bradley hit .312 in the third set and forced WSU to hit.257 in the third set. A double double from senior outside hitter Jody Larson of 13 kills and 10 digs allowed WSU to take the sweep in set three 25-22 on Saturday at Charles Koch Arena.

“Our average percent error is 12.5 percent and in the third match it was 17 percent,” head coach Chris Lamb said. “We made our fair share of mistakes in the third.”

WSU (12-5, 5-1) completes their three game home stand with a match against conference leader Southern Illionis on Monday at 7 p.m. at Koch Arena.