Wichita State volleyball’s seniors Sarah Barham, Annalie Heliste, Morgan Stout and Izzi Strand took the last serves of their regular season careers at Charles Koch Arena on Sunday afternoon against the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA).
Despite being second-to-last in the conference, UTSA upset the Shockers, 3-1 (25-23), (21-25), (20-25), (24-26). This ends the Shockers’ regular season with a 15-13 record, dropping to 10-6 in conference play.
“I just felt like this was a week of being in a daze, in a cloud,” head coach Chris Lamb said. “It’s hard to get through all of that, and everybody’s looking for answers, but sometimes there’s no answers.”
The loss was Wichita State’s second in a row, and third in the last four games. The Shockers are the fourth seed in the American Athletic Conference (AAC) heading into the conference tournament.
Senior middle blocker Morgan Stout drew first blood on senior night, the first of a new career-high 23 kills.
“Having them all here, and playing somewhere I love, it doesn’t get much better than that,” Stout said.
The first set stayed neck and neck as any run by both teams was answered. The Roadrunners went on a 3-0 run to make it 15-13, taking their first lead of the set. It was quickly answered back as a kill by freshman outside hitter Alyssa Gonzales and a bad UTSA set knotted it up at 15.
Missiles off of Stout’s right arm provided the scoring punch for the first set with seven kills.
“Their scouting reports, I’ve heard, are ‘Just stop me,’” Stout said. “And I’m like, ‘Yeah, good luck, it’s not happening.’”
Stout continued her streak of double-digit kills dating back to Oct. 20 with her tenth of the game to start the second set.
After Stout’s explosive performance in the first set, the Shockers struggled to score points in the second. UTSA used a 5-0 run to take a commanding 15-8 lead. Despite a WSU comeback tying the period at 19-19, it was too late as UTSA took the second set.
“Point-scoring has been an issue for us all year,” Lamb said. “If (junior outside hitter) Brooklyn (Leggett) is out, we’ve got to figure out where we can find some points. And it’s not easy.”
The Shockers hit an abysmal .105 percentage in the second set.
Despite improved hitting by the Shockers with a .226 percentage in the third, they struggled to generate offense early once again. Wichita State took the first point but were unable to lead or tie at any further in the set as a kill sealed a Roadrunner win.
UTSA went on a 4-0 run in the fourth set to take a 12-7 lead as the Shockers looked out of system. However, Stout quickly fired back with five kills and a rejection to make it 15-14.
The drama continued as both teams struggled to get away from each other, but UTSA continued to gain the advantage with two crucial service errors given away by the Shockers.
A service error by Stout gave the Roadrunners match point, 24-23. Another service error by the Roadrunners tied the set, but a UTSA kill and attack error by Gonzales sealed the upset.
Heliste got eight digs on her senior day, while Barham only played in two sets. Strand led the game in assists with 48.
“I was just telling (Strand), ‘I think that you make me look better than I’m supposed to,’” Stout said. “That is a selfless teammate, that is a leader. That is somebody who I would love to play with for the rest of my life, but that’s (not) really going to happen.”
The Shockers will face the University of Tulsa in the first round of the AAC Championship in Charles Koch Arena. The Shockers defeated Tulsa in four sets twice in a row earlier in the year.
“We’re going to mash this ball on the floor,” Stout said. “We’re going to make them question why they chose volleyball in the first place as their Division I sport.”
The first round of the AAC Tournament will take place on Friday. Nov. 22. First serve for the WSU vs. Tulsa game is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
