The RoundHouse | 11/12/2021 2:22:00 PM

 
During Wednesday's volleyball match, Wichita State's Sophia Rohling coached herself with lyrics from "Trust In You" by Christian singer Lauren Daigle.
 
"It's a song I actually started singing," she said. "There's a lyric 'Letting go of every single (dream), I lay each one down at Your feet.'"
 
"Trust In You" is a song about leaning on faith during difficult times. For Rohling, the song reminds her how she is handling her own high expectations to emerge from a difficult start to her sophomore season. It's about trusting that she is at Wichita State for a reason, trusting coaches and trusting herself to do the job.

She recorded a season-high 19 kills against Houston on Nov. 5 and followed with nine against Tulane and 13 against Tulsa on Wednesday. In all three matches, she had an attack percentage of .321 or better.
 
Earlier in the season, her errors soared. She felt the burden of living up to last spring, when she earned All-American Athletic Conference honors at right-side and led the Shockers with 179 kills and an average of 2.75 a set with an attack percentage of .260.
 
"She's digging out of that," Wichita State coach Chris Lamb said. "She's confident and she knows she can dominate. Can their right-side player keep up with ours? Well, if they're both being aggressive, I'll take mine."
 
Wichita State (16-8, 10-5 American) plays Temple (5-20, 1-13) at 7 p.m. Friday at Koch Arena.
 
Rohling, from Thayer, saw her playing time drop in early October as her hitting percentage sank. Fortunately, her best friend is middle Natalie Foster.
 
Foster allowed her friend to vent her frustrations about subbing in and out of the lineup. She listened to Rohling and offered support. She told Rohling about her experiences with playing time during the spring.
 
Foster also told Rohling the truth about her production on the court and why she found herself out of the lineup at times.
 
"The honest truth," Foster said. "It was the errors."
 
 

.@RohlingSophia with the winner after a WILD sequence 🤯 pic.twitter.com/HslheyMoA7

— Wichita State Volleyball (@GoShockersVB) November 11, 2021

Rohling pushed back some on that notion before realizing her friend diagnosed the issue. The Shockers reeled off eight straight wins, which Rohling used as evidence things were going well. The error statistics told another story, one that is convincing to the coaches regarding who should be taking swings.
 
"I was like 'Hey, you're still making the errors they told you to limit," Foster said.
 
"It's not executing the things I need to execute," Rohling said. "A part of you knows that. You're winning the game, but you're losing the stats and it's hard. That's what was going on."
 
The patience, the support, the hard truth from her friend – it all helped Rohling.
 
"It was a lot of me not wanting to listen to what she has to say, because sometimes the truth Is the hardest thing to hear," Rohling said. "She can see it. Venting to your family is helpful, but they don't always see what is going on in the gym and with the coaches. Her, being there and getting to see my side and their side, she can see what's really going on."
 
Once she confronted that fact, Rohling could begin her reemergence as one of the conference's top attackers. Foster also talked to her giving herself a break from expectations built up in previous seasons.
 
"I had this idea in my head that I had to be this type of player, this high-performance, all-conference, executing, amazing person," Rohling said. "When I started to not be that person, that doubt started to creep in and I felt like everyone else started doubting me, even though they might not be."
 
Rohling reviewed her spring and the type of performance that worked. She told Foster to yell at her in practice to "Let it go" if she noticed Rohling slumping.
 
"She would mess up on a simple thing, but it would throw her off for the rest of the practice," Foster said. "I was like 'Hey, you've got to let that one go.' We make mistakes. Volleyball is literally an error game."
 
In late October, things began to turn for Rohling. She hit .435 with 11 kills in a win at Tulsa on Oct. 20.
 
"I kept saying every point, every time I got a kill, I kept saying 'Let go,'" Rohling said. "I'm trying to keep that in mind with each game, with each practice."
 
Rohling excelled in the previous three matches and Foster sees the weight lifted off her friend. Rohling still expects a lot from herself. She is trying to keep those expectations from interfering with performance.
 
"She's not as hard on herself," Foster said. "Her overall presence on the court – it's more positive. You can definitely see how draining it was on her."
 
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Story suggestion? Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.