The RoundHouse | 9/15/2019 4:40:00 PM

 
Wichita State volleyball coach Chris Lamb holds onto the match against Cal Poly as proof of what his team is capable of producing.
 
So, when he is asked to assess his inexperienced team on a curve after Saturday's loss to No. 3 Texas and Friday's loss to VCU, he declines. He's seen the potential and thinks he should get that level of play and effort more often.
 
"I saw five freshmen get introduced at Cal Poly and us almost win it," he said. "It's consistency."
 
Wichita State (3-6) lost all three matches in the Shocker Volleyball Classic. The weekend started with a 3-1 loss to No. 13 BYU in which the Shockers won the first set and showed enough fight throughout for Lamb. That, however, was followed by allowing VCU to hit .472 in a sweep. Texas hit .429 in Saturday's sweep and the Shockers enter the final non-conference week searching for someone to claim several positions.
 
"We will learn from it," he said. "We can do better. Coaches are desperately seeking consistency in the lineup. We've been all over the map with being hot and not being hot."
 
Something more is in there, Lamb believes, and he points to the 3-2 loss at Cal Poly, ranked No. 23 in the preseason poll.
 
The Shockers – with 11 newcomers on the roster – continue their challenging schedule this week at No.17 Creighton (Thursday) and No. 2 Nebraska (Saturday), with a neutral-site match against Wyoming on Friday. Complicating Lamb's job is that his lineup is unstable at setter and libero, which makes building around those two spots difficult.
 
Setters Kora Kauling, McKayla Wuensch and Kayce Litzau played over the weekend, all with varying results. Against Texas, Kauling played in the first set only. Wuensch started first two sets and played briefly in the third. Litzau played most of the third and Lamb liked her performance in a set in which the Shockers hit a match-high .138.
 
Litzau, a freshman, led the Shockers with 10 assists for the match, nine in the final set.
 
"The setting carousel is getting really frustrating," Lamb said. "We've yet to find anybody really own it. (Litzau) was gritty. I saw her, on the run, deliver some balls that were accurate. I saw her make some accurate sets in crazy situations."
 
The back row is also perplexing to Lamb. Senior Kara Bown and freshmen Lily Liekweg and Arianna Arjomand shared libero duties in the three matches. Bown and Arjomand gave Lamb some of what he wanted against the Longhorns. 
 
"We had to stand back there and take some heat, and I saw that," he said.
 
Too many balls, however, hit the ground over the weekend and Lamb did not see the Shockers diving and hustling. 
 
"When you get these deflections off the block, you've got to pursue," he said. "I've been calling our group a bunch of pretenders when it comes to pursuit for about the last year. I need to see more urgency. Our liberos are needing to give more."
 
Redshirt freshman middle Chinelo Ogogor started the tournament with five kills on eight swings against BYU for a .625 attack percentage. That performance continued a good string for the freshman, who missed the season's first three matches with an injury. 
 
While her numbers slumped against VCU and Texas, her height and jumping ability impress Lamb. Eight swings, against BYU, Lamb said, is not enough.
 
"Chinelo can contact both sides of the ball, she chops really well," Lamb said. "She has pretty good vision. When things are happening that she's used to, I think you'll find that she can be dominant player. It's going to happen for her. She's just too dominant."
 
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.