Less than a week before its regular season starts, Wichita State’s volleyball team held a Black and Yellow intersquad scrimmage Saturday afternoon.
The Black team won four of the five sets (25-19), (25-22), (25-18), (25-17), (25-21), but the team is looking beyond the results of the intersquad scrimmage — they’re ready to line up against other teams.
“I couldn’t be more excited, and I know that everyone else is too,” senior libero Katie Galligan said. “It’s also so fun to see the new girls experience the arena, because I don’t think there’s quite anywhere like it.”
The Shockers open their regular season next Friday at 7 p.m. against Kennesaw State in their home-opening Shocker Volleyball Classic. The team plays its second game of the tournament on Sunday at 1 p.m. against Arkansas.
“I’m really excited to show out to our home crowd next weekend against a good Kennesaw State (and) Arkansas team,” junior libero Gabi Maas said.
Volleyball games typically use a best of three format, and if the tiebreak set is necessary, it’s played to 15 points instead of 25. The Black team won three of the first four sets, but head coach Chris Lamb decided to go a fifth set at a full 25 points anyway to collect as much data as possible.
Earlier in the week, Lamb thought the connections between the setter and middle blocker groups were making strides but regressed and became an area of emphasis headed into the home-opener. As a letter grade, Lamb said he’d give it a C- with room to grow in the upcoming week.
A strength of the team during the scrimmage was in the underclassmen. Freshmen trio Janaya Weitkemper, McKenzie Jones and Danielle Moore teed off on multiple kills that you could hear throughout the stadium. Maas said that all three can jump out of the gym.
“They have days where they’re the best players in the building,” Lamb said. “It’s just got to come more consistently, you got to start stacking more good days. Some of the most highlight reel things you see on offense from our team on certain days come from McKenzie Jones and Danielle Moore.”
Weitkemper, Jones and Moore are part of a class of nine freshmen. And with a group of four incoming transfers, Galligan said the trajectory of the team can go one of two ways: really bad, or really good.
“So far it’s been so great,” Galligan said. “I think Lambo did a great job of recruiting talent, but also the personalities are just such a fun mix outside of volleyball.”
Saturday’s scrimmage was a good indication of that.
Communication was strong throughout, and Galligan said they’ve found a happy medium of constructive criticism and offering compliments. She’s excited to see what they have in store for the season. Maas even took notice of this team’s resiliency when the going gets rough.
“I really liked how, like something would go wrong and how we were able to bounce back from that and now get down into a hole,” Maas said, “but be able to say, ‘You know what? That sucks, but we’re going to move on to the next point.’”
For being an intersquad scrimmage on a Saturday in late-August, the number of fans in the arena was impressive to see for Maas.
“Volleyball has a bright future,” Maas said about the program. “We were good last year and we’re going to continue that into this year. I think it shows we do have the city behind us, we have a lot of support … We’re loved by our people here.”
The last time Maas played in front of the Shocker Faithful was Dec. 9, 2023, against Montana State in the semifinals of the National Invitational Volleyball Championship. She was sidelined all of last season with a knee injury. She said making her return to the Roundhouse, regardless of scrimmage or not, felt jittery. But the feeling the home crowd brings once settled in is why she loves it.
“The reason why I play here is for the fans,” Maas said. “I love Koch Arena, and I love our environment. I’m just so grateful to be back out here and doing what I love most.”
