Wichita State volleyball faced off against Temple on Friday night, claiming victory in three sets (25-11), (25-13), (25-18).
Senior right–side hitter Sophia Rohling led the Shockers with 15 kills, 23 attacks and a .522 hitting percentage.
“I’m really happy for Sophia, she knows what she’s capable of and I know she’s frustrated when she doesn’t dominate,” Chris Lamb, head volleyball coach, said.
Rohling said she went into the match thinking that she just needed to find space and keep swinging.
“There’s been times that swings necessarily haven’t felt great to me but just like still finding a way of finding the holes,” Rohling said.
Lamb said Rohling looked like the person that the other team had to focus their energy on.
“That’s a sign of respect from your opponents when they have to deal with you and she had an easy match,” Lamb said.
Early in the first set, the Shockers sprinted out an 8-1 lead and didn’t trail once until the third set.
In the third set, the Owls narrowed the gap 9-8 before a WSU 7-0 run.
“I just wanted to get deeper in the weeds on the passing accuracy and how well they passed against us, but the differential tonight was huge,” Lamb said.
Following Rohling’s lead, junior middle blocker Natalie Foster scored eight kills and redshirt senior Brylee Kelly had three kills. Senior setter Izzi Strand had three kills and 31 assists.
“I think the first two sets we had to pretty clean the last set, they found some shots I worked on us and we figure that out pretty quick and then got routed back in the game,” Strand said. “I think we just like we played our game.”
During the match, Strand was back setting, which she said was her favorite style of setting.
“I think most of us (setters) don’t like setting back because it’s the hardest one, you can’t see where you’re setting to, so I think the challenge is what I liked most,” Strand said.
Strand attributed her performance to her “bendy wrists,” which she says go back further than most people’s.
“She just has a really strong hand and she is able to be wristy with it,” Lamb said.
Lamb said that they have had to look in the mirror and admit that they are behind from where they were last year with pretty much the same personnel, but that the team is coming around.
He said they have been changing the routine in practice with the serving and have been scrimmaging a lot more.
Wichita State volleyball will be back in action in Charles Koch Arena facing off against East division foe South Florida on Sunday, Oct. 8. The first serve is scheduled for 1 p.m. More information can be found on goshockers.com.
