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Katie Galligan

Volleyball Preview: Omaha Challenge

8/30/2022 10:56:00 PM

WICHITA STATE (2-1, 0-0 American)
 
Thursday, Sep. 1 (7 p.m. CT) at Omaha (2-1, 0-0 Summit)
Omaha, Nebraska (Baxter Arena)
Live Stats // Watch
 
Friday, Sep. 2 (5 p.m. CT) vs. Northern Colorado (3-0, 0-0 Big Sky)
Omaha, Nebraska (Baxter Arena)
Live Stats // Watch
 
 
The Shockers seek to build off a strong opening weekend showing in Wyoming with a pair of matches at the Omaha Challenge. Wichita State tangles with host Omaha on Thursday night before squaring off against Northern Colorado on Friday. Both matches will be streamed on the Omaha athletics website at Omavs.com/watch. Track live scoring throughout the week at shockerstats.com.
 

SCENE SETTERS:
  • Wichita State continues their season-opening 11-match road swing with a trek to Nebraska for the Omaha Challenge, featuring battles against reigning Summit League regular season champion Omaha (Thursday, 7:00 pm) and defending Big Sky champion Northern Colorado (Friday, 5:00 pm).
  • The Shockers opened the 2022 season with a 2-1 weekend in Laramie, Wyoming at the Rumble in the Rockies tournament. WSU picked up a pair of five-set wins against host Wyoming and Iowa State, sandwiched around a four-set defeat to #18 Creighton.
  • The Shockers have continued their trend of five-set matches from a season ago. Wichita State played 11 five-set affairs in 29 total contests last season, going 7-4 in those matches.
  • Sophia Rohling was named American Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Week on Monday, posting 49 combined kills over the weekend on a .330 hitting percentage, good for 3.50 kills per set. She set a new career high with eight block assists against Iowa State, and came just one dig shy of matching her career high with five ups against Wyoming.
  • Rohling and middle blocker Natalie Foster were named to the Rumble in the Rockies All-Tournament Team. Foster racked up 30 kills, nine block assists and five service aces in Laramie, nearly half of her 2021 total (11).
  • The Shockers are coming off a 19-10 (13-7) season in 2021, good for a fifth-place finish in the American Athletic Conference. Wichita State was picked to finish eighth in the 2021 preseason poll, but used an eight-match conference winning streak to put together their winningest season since 2017.
LOOKING BACK:
  • The Shockers went 2-1 at the season opening tournament, downing Wyoming on Friday afternoon before losing to #18 Creighton that evening. WSU wrapped up the invitational with a five-set win over Iowa State.
  • In the opener against Wyoming, WSU comfortably claimed the first two sets before fending off a Wyoming charge to win in five. The Cowgirls claimed a 25-15 win in the third, then fought off four different match points from the Shockers in the fourth to force set five. WSU was in command from the outset, sprinting to a 5-1 lead and scoring the final five points for a 15-8 clincher.
  • Sophia Rohling led the Shockers with 20 kills against Wyoming, the second-highest mark of her career.
  • Friday evening against Creighton, the Shockers pushed the nation's #18 team before falling in four. After the Bluejays seized a 25-14 opening set win, WSU reached 24-24 in the second before Creighton scored twice for a two-sets-to-none lead. The Shockers dominated the third 25-16, but ran out of steam in their ninth set of the day at elevation, dropping the decider 25-13.
  • Creighton held the Shockers to a -.027 hitting percentage in the first set, WSU's worst mark in any single set in the tournament.
  • Saturday's finale against Iowa State, featured 27 ties and 12 lead changes. The Shockers let two significant leads slip away in the first and third sets, 17-12 in the opener and 23-19 in the third before Iowa State rallied. Despite the setbacks, WSU held off the Cyclones in the fourth and then took control of the fifth set with an early 5-0 run. The Shockers had a sideout percentage of 72% in the fifth set, their best mark of the entire match.
  • The victory over Iowa State was Wichita State's first in 12 tries against the Cyclones.
WSU-OMAHA SERIES:
  • Despite the regional proximity, the Shockers and Mavericks have played just seven times in program history, with Omaha holding a 4-3 edge in the all-time series entering play on Thursday.
  • Five of those seven matchups took place from 1976-1979, and the two teams did not play for 27 years between 1984 and 2011.
  • That 2011 meeting is the only one with current head coach Chris Lamb on the sideline, a comfortable 3-0 sweep for Wichita State at Charles Koch Arena. The Shockers have played just once in Omaha, with the other five matchups taking place at neutral sites.
SCOUTING THE MAVERICKS:
  • Omaha enters the week with a 2-1 record following a trip to the Carolina Classic, where the Mavericks defeated Winthrop and Sacred Heart sandwiched around a sweep at the hands of host South Carolina.
  • The Mavericks won the Summit League regular season championship a season ago, going 16-2 in conference play as part of the first 20-win season in program history. Omaha was swept by #2-seed South Dakota in the Summit League final.
  • Omaha was picked third in the 2022 Summit League preseason poll, snagging one first place vote. Denver and South Dakota were picked ahead of the Mavericks.
  • Reigning Summit League setter of the year Sami Clarkson was selected to the league's players to watch list after pacing the circuit with 11.18 assists per set. Honorable Mention All-Conference defensive specialist Jaiden Centeno was also selected as a player to watch.
  • Head Coach Matt Buttermore is in his fourth season at the helm of the Mavericks. He was named the 2021 Summit League Coach of the Year after leading Omaha to their first regular season title since transitioning to Division I. Prior to his time with the Mavericks, Buttermore was an extremely successful coach at Hastings, where he won the NAIA National Championship in 2016.
WSU-NORTHERN COLORADO SERIES:
  • The Shockers and Bears have met only twice on the volleyball court; a Wichita State sweep in 2004 and a four-set win for Northern Colorado in 2011. That 2011 meeting featured two teams bound for the NCAA tournament, as the Shockers qualified as an at-large out of the Missouri Valley Conference while the Bears secured the Big Sky automatic qualifier.
  • After losing to Northern Colorado as part of the Rams Volleyball Classic in Fort Collins, Wichita State defeated  Slovenian club Nova KBM Maribor in an exhibition match the following day.
SCOUTING THE BEARS:
  • Northern Colorado is off to an undefeated start in 2022, defeating UC Santa Barbara and North Carolina at home in Greeley, then picking up a road win at Colorado State on Tuesday night to improve to 3-0.
  • The Bears reached the NCAA tournament for a sixth-time in program history in 2021, claiming both the Big Sky regular season and tournament championships. They were eliminated in the opening round of the Waco regional by Washington State, capping off a 24-7 overall record.
  • Northern Colorado was picked to repeat as Big Sky champions in the league's preseason poll, projected just ahead of Weber State and Portland State. UNC returns 11 players from last year's squad, including senior Mackenzie Harris, who was named Big Sky Offensive Player of the Week after the opening weekend.
  • Head coach Lyndsey Oates is a four-time Big Sky Coach of the Year, helping lead Northern Colorado from the Division II ranks to a consistent NCAA tournament program. Now in her 18th season leading the Bears, Oates owns a career record of 310-205.
UP NEXT:
  • The Shockers take the short trip north to Lawrence for the Kansas Invitational, with matches looming against 2021 NIVC Champion UNLV and perennial power Kansas on Thursday, September 8.


 
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