OMAHA, Neb.– Wichita State dropped its final match of the Creighton Classic to Wyoming in four sets on Friday. With the loss, the Shockers extend their losing streak to five games. The team’s overall record falls to 3-8.

The Shockers looked dominant in the first set with 25-17 victory. In that set, the Shockers hit .500 as a team with Megan Taflinger picking up seven of her 13 total kills for the match in the set.

Despite the commanding set one victory, WSU was unable to muster anything in the next three sets as Wyoming took the match.

For the game, the Shockers hit just .155 for the match and were lead by Taflinger’s 13 kills offensively. Brylee Kelly tallied 10 kills while freshman Nicole Anderson followed up with seven kills of her own.

The two main positions that head coach Chris Lamb had been critical of heading into this weekend were libero and setter. Despite the loss, Lamb felt like those two positions came to play.

“There’s definitely a narrative in the air, we’re out set and we’re out liberoed,” Lamb said. “Our setters and our liberos are losing the battle on the other side of the net. I told them I’d let them know before any match where I thought we’d win both of those. There’s been some close but I can’t give them a win yet.”

Freshman setter, Kayce Litzau finished with 22 total assists which was one off of her career-high for assists in a match. 

“Super happy for her. Just getting more experience in a freshman setter is important,” Lamb said.

Kara Bown also responded to Lamb’s call to action as she put together one her best matches as a Shocker. Bown finished with a career-high three service aces along with a career-high 23 digs in the loss. 

“Kara’s had to hear some difficult things,” Lamb said. “Giorgia’s (Civita) not coming back. We had to bench her at our home tournament. She’s had an amazing week of practice and she’s never looked better.”

The road to snapping the losing streak doesn’t get much easier as the Shockers will head into Lincoln, Nebraska on Saturday to face the top-ranked Cornhuskers. Lamb still had this to say for his message heading into the final non-conference game of the season.

“Stay in the process, be big-brained, keep learning, keep training, keep getting better at volleyball,” Lamb said.