The RoundHouse | 10/28/2022 9:28:00 PM
Wichita State junior right-side hitter
Sophia Rohling missed four matches due to injury and acknowledged the frustration of watching from the bench.
She did not, however, waste that time. She instructed teammates and by teaching, and watching the game from a different angle, learned herself.
"It's going to help me grow," she said. "Whoever they put on the right side, they would be like 'Hey, Sophia,' and they would ask me a question. I would be trying to help Emerson (Wilford) out with what she was seeing. Trying to help Natalie (Foster) out to see if she had a block."
Rohling returned to the Shockers lineup last week, briefly against No. 24 Houston and full-time against Tulane. On Friday, she played as well as she had before the injury in Wichita State's sweep of USF at Koch Arena.
The Shockers (11-10, 6-4 American Athletic Conference) finished with a season-high .353 attack percentage with 40 kills and 10 errors. They held USF (7-14, 1-8) to .032 attack percentage in the 25-15, 25-19, 25-7 victory in which the Shockers trailed 2-1 in the first set and then never again.
Rohling contributed 10 kills on 17 swings and hit .529, a season's best. Left
Brylee Kelly recorded 11 kills, hitting .450, with Foster adding 11 kills and a .611 attack percentage from the middle.
Rohling's return gives the Shockers three strong offensive threats. Before the injury sidelined her, Rohling was hitting a career-best .275.
"Back to normal," Wichita State coach
Chris Lamb said. "She's playing physical. You saw the attacking. And how about the range? She went everywhere for kills. So great."
Another attacking threat spreads out the defense and gives setter
Kayce Litzau more options. On Friday, Kelly, Foster and Rohling combined for 32 kills and a mere three errors on 55 attempts.
"She pulls blockers, so having her out there they're going to scramble," Foster said. "At one point tonight, they split and I had one blocker. That's awesome when that happens. When they're inside on me, she's wide open."
Friday's dominant performance erased some of the frustration from a 3-2 loss at Tulane on Sunday. The Shockers led 2-1 before losing the final two sets against one of the American's weakest teams.
"We came in practices this past week with almost like a reality check," Foster said. "We reset ourselves and started back to focusing on basic stuff. We worked on our defense a lot."
The Shockers play No. 25 UCF (18-1, 10-1) on Sunday at Koch Arena. The Knights visited Wichita on Oct. 2 when Hurricane Ian forced them to leave Florida and move their match. UCF swept the Shockers (25-16, 25-14, 25-16).
Lamb acknowledges UCF, SMU and Houston are the conference's top teams. After UCF handled the Shockers easily, they went to Houston and pushed the first-place Cougars to five sets. He hopes that performance is an indication the Shockers can give UCF a better test in the rematch.
"I would like to see a better effort," he said. "I just want to see a really competitive effort. Get closer. Find a few more points. I hope we put ourselves in position to crack them a little bit."
Paul Suellentrop writes about Wichita State athletics for university Strategic Communications. Story suggestion? Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.
