Although the Wichita State volleyball program is yet to face any competition this semester, they returned to Charles Koch Arena for the second time this offseason for their second Black and Yellow Scrimmage. 

The program originally hosted a scrimmage last month. 

Head Coach Chris Lamb said that being able to get back out on the court in front of fans was an overall great experience. 

“It was fun to feel like we’re back to normal a bit,” Lamb said. “I think the girls enjoy it so because of injuries we didn’t have it super fair tonight, it wasn’t as balanced. But that’s ok, we’ll do the best we can the next time we play. Got to see some stuff and can’t wait to watch the tape and evaluate it.”

In the scrimmage, Team Black was victorious in four sets, winning the match 3-1. Sophia Rohling proved to be one of the bright spots from the scrimmage, tallying game-high 12 kills to go along with a .310 hitting percentage. 

Freshman Morgan Weber and Mariah Buss were also able to make an impact in the scrimmage for their respective teams. Weber 10 kills and 12 digs for Team Black while Buss was able to add nine kills of her own for Team Yellow. 

Since the postponement of the season, the program has been primarily left to just practice without much game action. Although the team is able to review some tape from scrimmages during practice, Lamb said that being able to break up those practices with these Black and Yellow Scrimmages will be beneficial in the long run especially for some of the newcomers like Weber and Buss. 

“I think it’s more breaking up the monotony of being in the practice gym,” Lamb said. “The only difference is not stopping to teach stuff, playing all the way through, girls having to deal with things on the fly and figure stuff out. Really it’s to see them lace them up, put the jerseys on, playing in front of people. It was really was an icebreaker in a trade.”

Given the uncertainty throughout the offseason and not knowing what would eventually happen for this upcoming volleyball season, it left the program wondering what they could do next. As a result, the program decided to put on these three scrimmages but Lamb feels excited to be able to slow things down before the final scrimmage next week. 

“We were in limbo for the longest time waiting to see what was going to happen,” Lamb said. “November 16 rolls around and we have a ruling. We just decided might as well get three of these things in, we’ll space them out and act accordingly. I’m excited to slow down a bit this coming week and get right back at it next week and finish with one more scrimmage.”

As the spring draws closer, Lamb feels that addressing the lineup is something he will think hard about as they begin training for the season and start trying to find a rhythm.

“We haven’t solidified any type of lineup to get a rhythm and now that we know our schedule, we’ll probably get to practice January 2 and our first competition around January 22,” Lamb said. “We’ll have 20 days to identify a lineup early in January and train it for another couple weeks and get in a rhythm.”

The program will wrap up the Black and Yellow Scrimmages on Friday, Oct. 16 at 6 p.m. inside Charles Koch Arena. As with all the scrimmages, the attendance will be capped at 2,000 fans while masks are required for all who decide to attend.