The Wichita State volleyball program finished off their fall season on Friday, as the black team rallied to win the final three sets of the last Black and Yellow Scrimmage. 

Shockers head coach Chris Lamb was happy with the team’s performance, especially for some of the areas of focus in practice. 

“We spent a lot of time on team defense and I noticed great improvements there,” Lamb said.  “Really excited to see what we’ve worked on since the last scrimmage, see it develop. That was fantastic.”

Since the American Athletic Conference postponed the volleyball season until the spring, the program has performed under a bubble while continuing in their 20-hour practice segments as scheduled. 

Lamb said that he was happy with his group’s commitment throughout this process. 

“Our team committed to wearing masks, not going out, eight straight tests,” Lamb said. “We held this thing together, had great practices. I just don’t know how many coaches could be able to pull it off as we did. Hats off to everyone involved, trainers, coaching staff, everybody in our bubble. 

“I know a lot of people are talking a good game and you can do a lot of things right and still get a positive test. We held this thing together.”

Lamb said that many of the upperclassmen were crucial in making this journey a successful one. 

“I want to give special thanks to Megan Taflinger, Emma Wright, McKayla Wunesch, some of the older girls that wanted better than what they got last year,” Lamb said. “They walked the walk and they were great and they’re going to keep being great.”

As the volleyball program wrapped up their final scrimmage, they will now start shifting down to eight hours a week until the start of the season in January. To this point, the team has used up all of their 20-hour segments to have enough left for the spring season.

Lamb said it will be more difficult to stay competitive during this time as they won’t be together as much. 

“So, we took it as far as we could take it, we got through it without a hitch barring a couple of injuries,” Lamb said. “We’re going to back off as we have to by rule and we will do small group training and strength and conditioning. We’ll come back in January and get this thing fired up again.”

Unlike some schools that are currently in the season, it has been easier for WSU to weather the storm with the postponement of their season. Lamb said that this was an advantage for WSU throughout this fall. 

“For some people, they’ll tell you that they can’t get any traction because they have three kids today, kids next week,” Lamb said. “It’s just kids coming and going and it doesn’t feel like a team. We were able to keep it close and tight and together. You can imagine how disruptive it would be not to have that.”

Currently, Lamb has been pleased with the competitive environment that has developed with the team as a whole. 

“Shockers pulled it off so we were able to have a complete session,” Lamb said. “Young Shockers are learning fast and pushing old Shockers. It’s fun right now, it’s competitive right now. Really good feeling about the team.”

The volleyball program is yet to release a schedule for the upcoming season starting in January. The program’s first game would be around Jan. 22, according to Lamb. He also noted that there’s still a possibility that the team hosts another Black and Yellow Scrimmage sometime before their season starts up.