If the Wichita State volleyball team did its pregame homework, it didn’t show until late in the first set against Bradley on Saturday. 

WSU (17-6, 10-3 Missouri Valley Conference) swept the Braves, but needed to scrap and claw its way back after trailing much of the first two sets. 

“I hate saying it, but all we really did was start following the scouting report,” WSU coach Chris Lamb said. “We got off to a bad start.”

The Shockers won by scores of 25-21, 25-23 and 25-12 to earn their 20th consecutive match victory against Bradley (8-16, 2-11 MVC). 

The Shockers trailed 19-12 in the first set and trailed 20-16 and 23-19 in the second. WSU scored the final six points of the second set. 

“I really don’t know what changed,” junior Chelsey Feekin said. “Suddenly we were back and I feel we somehow snuck both of those games away.”

The third set was all WSU, which quickly built an 11-4 lead before running away with it. The Shockers hit .520 in the final set. 

Lamb gave much of the credit to his team’s experience and its expectations of winning. 

“There is a feeling out there in athletics when you expect to win,” he said. “If you do this long enough, you start to believe in that.”

The win came at the heels of the Shockers’ 3-0 loss to Northern Iowa (20-7, 11-2 MVC) on Friday. It was the Panthers’ 10th consecutive win against WSU. 

The Shockers still remain in the MVC title hunt after UNI lost to Missouri State (13-12, 7-6 MVC) on Saturday. Creighton (20-3, 11-1 MVC) leads the Valley. 

WSU will face the Bluejays in Wichita on Nov. 16.