The RoundHouse | 11/3/2017 1:21:00 PM

By Paul Suellentrop
 
Abbie Lehman represents peak evolution for middle blocker at Wichita State. She is the best combination of skills, height and athletic ability at the position coached by Chris Lamb in his 18 seasons.
 
That is not what Lamb expected when he watched Lehman as a volleyball player with better basketball skills at Newton.
 
"Abbie Lehman is a rags-to-riches story," Lamb said. "Abbie was not powerful at a younger age. She got stronger. She got more coordinated. This all came to be while a college athlete."
 
Five years later, Lehman is the latest in a productive and unique line of middles at Wichita State. The Shockers run the middle in a way few other programs do and she will likely end her Wichita State career as the program's most decorated star. She is the first Shocker to earn AVCA All-American (honorable mention) honors three times and on pace for a fourth.
 
No. 21 Wichita State (20-3, 12-0 American Athletic Conference) plays Connecticut (10-14, 3-9) on Friday at Charles Koch Arena.
 
Lehman is a near-perfect blend of height (6-foot-3), reach, footwork and connection with setter Emily Hiebert (a high school teammate) to take advantage of Lamb's fondness for setting his middles.
 
"Here it's 'Run the middle, run the middle,'" Lehman said. "Middles here definitely get more attempts, which is great. I wouldn't want it any other way."
 
Lamb prefers to think of them as middle "attackers" instead of the limiting label middle "blockers." Most schools organize their offense through their pin players; Lamb strives to balance his offense.
 
"Our program involves our middles so much more than other middles you see," said Ashley Andrade, a former Shocker middle who earned honorable mention All-American honors in 2013. "(Shocker) middles are at top of the conference … for attempts and kills. You don't really see that with other teams – it's always an outside thing or a right-side thing."
 
That emphasis on the middles produced All-Americans Andrade and Lehman and All-Missouri Valley Conference picks such as Jen Ray, Elizabeth Meyers and Sarah McGee.
 
"I don't think enough people train to put middles on the scoreboard," Lamb said. "I don't think enough people train for a balanced offense."
 
The legacy of Shocker middles trained to score fills the top of the MVC record book.
 
Lehman entered the season as the MVC's career leader in attack percentage at .399. Andrade ranked third (.382), with Meyers fifth at .350. No. 9 is former Shocker Jen Ray (.333) and 10^th is McGee (.332).  Wichita State holds the MVC's top four single-season hitting percentages, led by Andrade (.468 in 2013) with Meyers third and Lehman fourth.
 
"Playing middle there was invigorating," said Meyers (now Elizabeth Walker). "Chris utilizes all of his players. He mixes it up. Other teams just don't know who to focus on."
 
Key to Wichita State's use of the middles is the speed of the attack. Middles use their footwork to add to the deception by disguising their approach as long as possible.
 
 "We're up in the air before the ball even leaves the setter's hand, so that doesn't give the defense any time to react," Andrade said. "You need to be up in the air, with your arm up, ready to hit that ball before the setter's released the ball from her hands. Chris would tell me 'All you're doing is you're snapping your wrist and you're putting that ball down.'"
 
Both Meyers and Andrade played and coached volleyball after Wichita State. Both noticed similar reactions when they tried to set their middles in the Shocker way.
 
"People are like 'Really – you want to run fast and you want to engage your middles?'" Andrade said.
 
Lehman is engaged this season for a .412 attack percentage to lead the American Athletic Conference and No. 16 nationally. She also leads the conference in blocks (1.29) per set. She enters the weekend matches needing eight blocks to move into second in the Wichita State career list and 18 kills to take over sixth.
 
She redshirted her first season (2013) and learned from Andrade and Elizabeth Field. She worked on her swing, bringing her elbow back to drive the ball with more power. Stretching exercises gave her shoulder more flexibility. Early in the next season, she recorded 10 kills and a .350 attack percentage in a sweep of Baylor. Lehman and Lamb remember that match as a sign she was no longer a basketball player with a middling swing.
 
"I struggled a lot the start of my freshman year," she said. "I remember he still kept starting me and finding a way to work me in the lineup. That Baylor match is when I finally put good hitting numbers up."
 
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.