The RoundHouse | 10/11/2019 9:40:00 AM

 
Brylee Kelly possesses plenty of power in her arm and athletic ability. Not enough, coaches told her about four weeks ago.
 
"I realized I really couldn't always score it hitting hard," she said. "I had a conversation with (coaches) and it was something to swallow: They were like 'You don't have a great hand.'"
 
For Kelly, that meant she hit the ball too often with her fingertips. Contact with more of her hand would give her attacks more power and better accuracy.
 
"I had never been taught that," she said. "I need to focus on hitting it with the palm of my hand."
 
Four weeks later, Kelly, a redshirt freshman outside hitter, sees the rewards of added practice. 
 
She is a member of what associate head coach Sean Carter calls his wally-ballers – a group that meets about 50 minutes before practice to work on hitting volleyballs. Kelly's practice led her to last weekend, when she recorded a season-high 14 kills and a .235 attack percentage in a win at Memphis and 13 kills and a .333 attack percentage in a loss at SMU.
 
The Shockers (4-12, 1-3 American Athletic Conference) return home this weekend to play Houston (7 p.m. Friday) and Tulane (1 p.m. Sunday).
 
"She is always in the gym, before and after practice," setter McKayla Wuensch said. "I've seen shots out of her that I hadn't seen her hit before. Roll shots. She's making really smart tip decisions. She's doing a really good job of finding the openings on the court and using that hand contact she's working on to find the shots that score."
 
Early in the season, Kelly's playing time and production rose and fell with her scoring. She recorded eight kills in the opener against Holy Cross and nine against Hofstra. She didn't play in home matches vs. VCU and Texas, then returned to register seven kills at Creighton and 10 against Wyoming.  
 
All along, she arrived early for work on her hand contact, often by banging balls against the wall. Carter limits the amount of jumping for the wally-ballers to keep legs fresh.
 
"There's plenty of athletes across the country that are all good enough to do a lot of the things we would ask them to do," Carter said. "They're just not willing enough to really put in the time. She's doing that."
 
Kelly, from Monee, Ill., told coaches she wanted to be in the lineup and wanted to know what she needed to do. That desire has helped her find a spot amongst a large group of young attackers on the roster.
 
"She has the ability, with the physicality she has, similar to (former Shocker) Mikaela Raudsepp, to be a dominant force," Carter said. "She just doesn't have the skill, yet, to do it."
 
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.