Volleyball kicked off the year with a win in an exhibition match against Oklahoma at Charles Koch Arena.
The Shockers won in five sets (25-12), (20-25), (23-25), (25-11), (15-9). Morgan Stout led the team with nine kills with Natalie Foster and Emerson Wilford right behind with eight kills.
“My team knows that if Morgan Stout can do (her) job so (Foster) can do her job, right now we’re a better team,” head coach Chris Lamb said. “I’m excited that Morgan was pretty clean tonight and effective.”
Oklahoma committed 37 attacking errors throughout the match compared to Wichita State’s 16.
Senior transfer Izzi Strand said that as a team they had been working on their hitting and Stout has been effective.
“She’s just the most athletic person I’ve ever seen and it’s insane,” Strand said.
In a spring match against Nebraska, Lamb was not pleased with his team’s serve-and-pass game.
Before the exhibition match, Lamb said his team was passing well in practice but was passing against the servers.
“After all of the hype about the serving, we had seven aces to their six, so it’s still kind of a nice story,” Lamb said.
Lamb said with Oklahoma’s aggressive gameplay, he’s advising his team to be cautious going forward.
“Wichita State, in any configuration of our six-two offense, will be (in the) upper echelon in the conference if our five-one half of our offense can keep up,” Lamb said.
Outside hitter Emerson Wilford said that focusing on her energy allowed her and her team to play better.
“I feel like in the fourth and fifth I literally came up to Izzi (Strand), I was like ‘Okay we’re gonna bring that energy right here’,” Wilford said.
During Strand’s first match at Koch Arena, she had five kills, 32 assists and four of Wichita State’s seven aces.
She said she was excited to see all the lights and thinks that put her in the right mindset to play hard.
“I was here to show up and compete like a D1 athlete,” Strand said.
The team will officially open their season at Texas Tech’s Under Armour Challenge in Lubbock, Texas, against Notre Dame on Aug. 25 at 1:30 p.m.
