Emily Stockman is part of the 2016 Pizza Hut Shocker Sports Hall of Fame induction class. The class will be inducted at a banquet on Sat., Jan. 23.

Emily Stockman played for the Wichita State volleyball team from 2007-09. She was a part of two Missouri Valley Conference championship teams and three NCAA Tournament teams. She finished her career with 1,362 kills, 3,702 attack attempts, a .240 hitting percentage, 108 service aces, 1,186 digs and 184 blocks.
 
She is humbled to be part of the 2016 Pizza Hut Shocker Sports Hall of Fame class.
 
"It's an incredible award," Stockman said. "Being on the list of the best athletes that have gone through Wichita State is one of the biggest awards I can imagine. It means a lot to me to be nominated for something like this."
 
Stockman is just the fourth volleyball player, who played under Chris Lamb, to be inducted into the Hall of Fame and she gives credit to the Shocker coaching staff for making that happen.
 
"It's incredible to be only the fourth one, but I feel like a lot of that credit goes to the coaching staff," Stockman said. "They have brought in a lot of raw athletes and turned them into incredible volleyball players. Without the coaching staff, I really don't think my name would be going on this list."
 
Emily finished her career as a two-time All-American and a three-time first team all-Valley selection. She earned Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year honors in 2008 and considers that her most prized individual award.
 
"Being Player of the Year my junior year was probably my favorite individual award," Stockman said. "We had so many good players on our team and throughout the conference. So to think that all of the coaches in our conference thought that I had an amazing season was pretty cool."
 
Emily is ranked in the top-10 in many statistical categories at Wichita State including kills, digs, points, attack attempts, double-doubles, kills per set, digs per set, service aces per set and points per set. Being ranked in all of these categories shows her large skill set, but she has one skill that she had to work on the most.
 
"The skill I had to work on the most was probably attacking," Stockman said. "I was always the shortest hitter on the teams at Wichita State and always hitting against 6 foot or above blockers. Attacking was always difficult. I had to be smart because I knew that I would never go up and bang balls so it took a lot of time to learn how to move the ball around and see the court really well."
 
She was a junior on the 2008 team that went undefeated in the regular-season and she considers that as her favorite season.
 
"I think my favorite season was my junior year in 2008," Stockman said. "We were ranked No. 1 in the nation defensively. I think our highest ranking that year was No. 9 so that was a super fun season. My teammates were awesome and I think that was the year we broke the record for attendance as well."
 
She credits Wichita State head coach Chris Lamb on helping her develop into the volleyball player she is today.
 
"Lambo taught me everything," Stockman said. "He taught me how to be an amazing volleyball player. Before I went to college, I never really had technical coaching. Between him and Jeff (Sanders), they taught me techniques and how to be a smart player. They trusted me a lot in tight situations, so they definitely built up my confidence and showed me how to be a good leader."
 
According to her, Lamb lives and breathes volleyball and she shared one of her funniest stories about him.
 
"One of my favorite Lambo stories was walking into the gym at six in the morning to go to individuals and he is standing in the dark gym at the white board, scribbling all over the place looking like a hot mess. His hair was a disaster and he hadn't showered. I walked up to him and he said 'Stockman I had this great vision at 3 a.m. this morning and I've been here since then writing it down and we are going to do it at practice today.' I said cool Lambo, you should probably go shower and get some sleep because you look ridiculous."
 
After she graduated from WSU in 2010 with a degree in exercise science, she started playing indoor professional volleyball. She played for four years with stops in the Maldives, Paris, Sweden and Switzerland.  She then made the switch to beach volleyball, which she says is nothing like indoor volleyball.
 
"They are completely different," Stockman said. "In beach volleyball, you have to deal with the outside elements, the sun, the wind, the rain and just trying to figure out how to use those things to your advantage. The skill sets are similar, but they are different. Setting is different, the way you attack is different. You have to be a lot smarter with shots and stuff. Indoor you can just go up and hit balls wherever you want. In beach, you have to be sharp with your shots. One of the biggest differences for me was learning how to coach myself. In beach volleyball, you aren't allowed to have a coach on the court with you during tournaments. You have to learn the game a lot faster and learn how to read players and all that stuff so you do it on your own because you don't have a coach standing there telling you what you need to do."
 
Emily is currently living in Hermosa Beach, Calif., and training for the AVP Tour. She also works as a personal trainer. A typical day for her includes two hours of practice on the sand in the morning and anywhere from 2-3 hours in the gym in the afternoon. She then has a second session on the sand for 1 ½-2 hours and finishes around 4:30 p.m. Since she is also a personal trainer, she trains people from about 5 p.m. until 8 or 9 at night.
 
She has used volleyball to travel all over the globe including Cuba, Turkey, Switzerland, Russia, the Dominican Republic and Prague, but her ultimate goal is the 2020 Olympics.
 
"My biggest goal is medaling in the 2020 Olympics," Stockman said. "We have many goals leading up to that like winning AVP events and being in the top 10 on the world tour. Hopefully those will happen in the next few years leading up to the Olympics, but the main goal is medaling in the 2020 Olympics."
 
She fondly looks back at her time at Wichita State and understands that the college experience gave her skills that she will use forever.
 
"Being at Wichita State taught me to have a strong work ethic and time management skills," Stockman said. "Because my schedule is insane right now, I think that being at Wichita State and learning how to manage our practices, class schedules and homework has really translated over to my professional career because I have to manage going to the gym and practicing and still working. Then there is the work ethic. If you don't put in the time then you aren't going to get anywhere. It's all on you to make things happen and I think at Wichita State they put a lot of pressure on you to go to practice every day and go to classes so I think that definitely has helped me along the way."