WICHITA STATE (11-5, 5-1 American)
Friday, Oct. 13 (6:00 p.m. CT) vs. Tulane (4-14, 0-6 American)
New Orleans, Louisiana (Avron B. Fogelman Arena)
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Saturday, Oct. 14 (12:30 p.m. CT) vs. Tulane (4-14, 0-6 American)
New Orleans, Louisiana (Avron B. Fogelman Arena)
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Wichita State looks to continue their winning ways with a pair of road matches against Tulane on Friday and Saturday in New Orleans.
Both matches will be streamed on ESPN+. Track live scoring throughout the weekend at shockerstats.com.
SCENE SETTERS:
- Wichita State returns to West Division play with two matches on the road at Tulane on Friday night and Saturday afternoon.
- This will be the first instance this season in which the Shockers play a conference opponent on back-to-back days. In the other West Division series at SMU the matches were played on Friday and Sunday due to a Saturday conflict with SMU football.
- The Shockers have won eight of their last nine matches dating back to the opener of the Northern Colorado Classic on September 14. WSU has not won eight of nine since the Shockers rattled off eight conference wins in a row from October 3-29, 2021.
- The Shockers have lost three consecutive matches on the road at Tulane, the only current AAC member to defeat the Shockers more than twice in road matches.
- Wichita State jumped 19 points in the latest RPI rankings, vaulting up to 55 after wins against Temple and South Florida. The Shockers now have the third best RPI in the conference, trailing SMU (32) and Rice (41). Tulane is ranked 241, the second-lowest mark in The American.
- Head coach Chris Lamb is now just seven wins shy of reaching 500 victories over the course of his 24-year career at Wichita State. Lamb has more than 100 more wins than the next-closest American Athletic Conference head coach (Genny Volpe - Rice, 389 wins).
- Wichita State's stout defensive unit ranks 8th nationally with an opponent hitting percentage of .149. The Shockers combine a strong blocking presence (2.51 blocks per set, 35th nationally) with a group of liberos and defensive specialists that Lamb has said ranks among the best he has coached at Wichita State.
LOOKING BACK:
- The Shockers swept two of the East Division's top teams at Charles Koch Arena, downing Temple 25-11, 25-13, 25-18 on Friday and South Florida 25-21, 25-16, 25-21 on Sunday.Â
- In the first two sets of Friday's win, Wichita State failed to side out just twice (10-11 in set one, 13-14 in set two) for their best two side out percentages of the season.
- Wichita State put their balanced offensive attack on full display, hitting .329 and .307 in the two matches despite having just one player reach double-digit kills (Sophia Rohling, 15 vs. Temple). On Sunday against South Florida, six different Shockers recorded four or more terminations.
- Setter Izzi Strand finished the Sunday match with a set percentage of .460 (29 assists on 63 attempts), her best mark of the season.
- The Shockers were able to win the serve and pass game against both opponents, but Friday's performance was arguably the best of the season. Temple entered the match averaging 1.76 aces per set but did not record any in three sets against WSU while erring 10 times. Meanwhile, Wichita State notched six aces to just two service miscues.
- South Florida's Buse Hazan entered the match on Sunday ranked among the conference leaders in several offensive categories but was held in check by the Shockers defense. Hazan finished with a match-high 14 kills but committed more errors (12) than WSU had as a team (10).
- Wichita State has recorded at least one block in all but one set this season (2nd set vs. Kansas on September 7). WSU had multiple blocks in five of six sets this past week.
WSU-TULANE SERIES:
- The Green Wave lead the all-time series 6-5, with all but one of the meetings taking place in AAC play.
- Tulane won the only non-conference meeting in 1986, a 3-1 decision in Tulsa, Oklahoma as part of the Oral Roberts Invitational.
- Tulane bested the Shockers in a wild five-set affair last season in New Orleans. The match featured two noteworthy sets, as Wichita State rallied from deficits of 18-8 and 21-13 to win set three, but also managed just four points in the deciding fifth set. The four points was the fewest Wichita State has scored in a set in the rally scoring era.
- The Shockers got a measure of revenge later that season in Wichita, downing the Green Wave in four. Brylee Kelly had double-doubles in both matches, and Morgan Weber racked up nine kills and 22 digs in the match at Charles Koch Arena.
SCOUTING THE GREEN WAVE:
- Tulane brings a record of 4-14 (0-6) into play on Friday after dropping road contests at Temple and Memphis this past week. The Green Wave have lost nine consecutive matches and just 1-7 at home this season.
- Three of Tulane's four victories this season have come against members of the SWAC (Jackson State, Alabama A&M, Prairie View A&M) with a win over UTRGV representing the other victory.
- Wichita State and Tulane had one common opponent in non-conference play; the Shockers bested Houston Christian in four sets while the Green Wave fell to the Huskies in four.
- The Green Wave possess one of the conference's top blocking units, leading the circuit in total blocks (160.0) and ranking third in blocks per set (2.46). 6'5 Ilayda Demirtas and 6'4 Orsula Staka cause problems with their size, and talented sophomore Sabrina Skyers ranks second in the conference at 1.25 blocks per set.
- True freshman Avery Burks is a top candidate for the league's freshman of the year honors. The 6'1 outside leads the Green Wave with 3.22 kills per set and had 15 terminations in both matches last week.
- Head coach Jordana Price is in her second season in New Orleans after five seasons as associate head coach at Florida State. Price owns an overall record of 13-36 after a 9-22 debut season in 2022.
UP NEXT:
- Wichita State returns to Charles Koch Arena for two matches against long-time rival Tulsa. The series begins on Friday night at 7:00 pm with the second match scheduled for 6:00 pm on Saturday.
