The RoundHouse | 10/10/2018 2:06:00 PM

Wichita State volleyball starts its longest home-friendly stretch on Friday (7 p.m.) against East Carolina at Koch Arena. If the Shockers (8-8, 3-2 American Athletic Conference) are going to make a run toward repeating as American champions, this is a critical weekend.
 
ECU (12-4, 4-1) is tied for second in the American with Tulsa. On Sunday (1 p.m.), the Shockers play Cincinnati (14-4, 5-0), which is tied for first with UCF. Cincinnati outside hitter Jordan Thompson, the 2016 American Player of the Year, leads the nation with an average of 6.07 kills a set and 431 total kills. She earned the conference's offensive player of the week honor four times this season.
 
After a trip to Texas next weekend (SMU and Houston), Wichita State returns to Koch Arena to play UConn (Oct. 26) and Temple (Oct. 28).
 
Wichita State cross country gets its first big road test of the season when it competes in Pre-National Invitational in Madison, Wis., on Saturday. The Shocker women face 10 ranked teams, including No. 1 Colorado and No. 4 Oregon. Nine ranked teams are in the men's field, led by No. 2 BYU and No. 4 Portland.
 
"This meet is always a meet that gives us a very true indication of who we really are," coach Kirk Hunter said. "You can feel good about your season because of the way you, maybe, performed in some smaller meets. Until you really line up against the best, you don't know. This is our first opportunity to show if we really are as a good as we think we are."
 
Winny Koskei and Rebekah Topham are runners with the potential to compete at the top of the American championship meet and advance out of the NCAA regional meet. Hunter sees them with a chance to finish in the top 20 on Saturday to take a step toward establishing those credentials.
 
Wichita State's men's team is a balanced group that must run as a pack to move up the team standings.
 
"Winny is looking absolutely fabulous," Hunter said. "The thing about Rebekah is that I believe adrenalin fuels her. Whether there is an issue or not, she is an extremely strong competitor when it comes to crunch time."
 
Wichita State softball wraps up its fall scrimmages with Thursday's game at Kansas (6 p.m.).
 
Coach Kristi Bredbenner views it as an opportunity to get solid answers about her team and grab some momentum for the spring. She will rotate pitchers, but won't substitute position players as freely as in previous scrimmages.
 
"We're going to play it as close to a spring game as we possibly can," she said. 'We'll look to keep our lineup a little bit set through the first five or six innings. We're going to play to win this game."
 
Sophomore Erin McDonald will likely start at pitcher and throw three innings. Caitlin Bingham, Bailey Lange and Hailey Martinez are also scheduled to throw.
 
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.