WICHITA STATE (13-5, 7-1 American)
Friday, Oct. 20 (7:00 p.m. CT) vs. Tulsa (11-9, 4-5 American)
Wichita, Kansas (Charles Koch Arena)
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Saturday, Oct. 21 (6:00 p.m. CT) vs. Tulsa (11-9, 4-5 American)
Wichita, Kansas (Charles Koch Arena)
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Wichita State puts their five-match winning streak on the line with a pair of matches against Tulsa at Charles Koch Arena.
Both matches will be streamed on ESPN+. Track live scoring throughout the weekend at shockerstats.com.
SCENE SETTERS:
- Longtime rival Tulsa visits Charles Koch Arena on Friday and Saturday night as Wichita State looks to continue their recent hot stretch.
- The Shockers have won 10 of their last 11 matches dating back to the opener of the Northern Colorado Classic on September 14. WSU has not had a stretch of 10 wins in 11 tries since the historic 2017 season in which the Shockers won 21 matches in a row.
- Wichita State has moved into a virtual three-way tie atop the American Athletic Conference West Division standings. SMU (8-1) has played one more match than both WSU (7-1) and Rice (7-1), who dropped a five-set match at home to Florida Atlantic over the weekend. The conference's automatic qualifier to the NCAA tournament is determined by conference record; no team from the East Division has fewer than two losses.
- Despite a pair of road wins at Tulane last week, the Shockers dropped five spots in the latest RPI rankings to 60. SMU leads the AAC at 30 with Rice checking in at 54. Tulsa ranks fourth behind Wichita State at 86. In two other significant metrics, WSU is 59th in the Massey Rating and 46th in KPI.
- Head coach Chris Lamb is now just five 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 has showcased one of the nation's most balanced offensive attacks this season. Six Shockers (Sophia Rohling, Natalie Foster, Brylee Kelly, Barbara Koehler and Emerson Wilford) average more than 2.0 kills per set. No other team in The American has more than five.
LOOKING BACK:
- The Shockers exorcised their New Orleans demons with two wins at Tulane, rallying for a 25-20, 20-25, 21-25, 25-20, 15-13 win on Friday night before sweeping the Green Wave 27-25, 25-18, 25-9 on Saturday afternoon. Wichita State had lost three straight matches at Tulane heading into the series.
- WSU fell into a 2-1 hole on Friday thanks in large part to the efforts of Tulane freshman Avery Burks, who finished with a match-high 24 kills. But the Shockers held Tulane to hitting percentages of .081 and .150 over the final two sets and got eight kills apiece from Kelly and Rohling to complete the comeback.
- Kelly finished Friday's match with 20 kills, the first Shocker to record 20 terminations in a match this season. The redshirt senior is 42 kills away from breaking into the top ten kills list at Wichita State (Becky Sutter - 1,118).
- Setter Izzi Strand recorded a career-high 60 assists on Friday and averaged 12.13 assists per set over the two matches.
- The Shockers offense kicked into gear on Saturday. Wichita State hit .373 for the match, their best mark of the season. Kelly again led the way with 11 kills and Rohling added 10 with three others at eight. WSU hit just three balls out of play during the match (seven attack errors, four Tulane blocks).
- Libero Gabi Maas led both matches in digs, racking up 19 on Friday and 15 more on Saturday.
- Wichita State's excellent run at the service line continued in New Orleans. WSU had more aces than errors in both matches; during the course of the Shockers five-match winning streak, Wichita State has 24 aces to just 19 errors.
WSU-TULSA SERIES:
- The Shockers hold a 38-15 lead in the all-time series. At one point, WSU won 23 of 24 matches in the series from 1985 to 1996.
- WSU is 5-0 against the Golden Hurricane in Wichita since joining the AAC and 5-2 in Tulsa.
- The Shockers won both matches against Tulsa in 2022Â but needed a huge rally from a 2-0 deficit in the meeting at Charles Koch Arena. Middle blocker Natalie Foster had a career-high 21 kills and libero Lily Liekweg had a career-high 33 digs to help WSU complete the comeback.
- Foster delivered 16 more kills and the Shockers racked up 14.0 team blocks in the return match in Tulsa, a 3-1 Wichita State win.
- Wichita State's last home loss to Tulsa came in 1980. The Shockers are 20-2 all-time against the Golden Hurricane in Wichita and have won 17 straight.
SCOUTING THE GOLDEN HURRICANE:
- The Golden Hurricane bring a record of 11-9 into play on Friday, including 4-5 in American Athletic Conference play. Tulsa was swept twice at home against SMU this past week.
- Tulsa notched a pair of Power Five wins in nonconference action. The Golden Hurricane opened the season with a win over Michigan State before besting Ole Miss in five.
- For a second straight season, Tulsa relies almost exclusively on the right arm of Kayley Cassaday, who ranks second in the nation with 1,044 total attacks and 5.18 kills per set. Her 99 attempts on September 15 against Ole Miss are the most in a single match by an individual player this season.
- Tulsa ranks eighth nationally in digs per set (17.15) but has been unable to slow down opposing offenses. Their .226 opponent hitting percentage is second worst in the conference and ranks 253rd in the country.
- Setter Avery Kalsu has had a breakout senior season, ranking second in The American with 705 assists to surpass her 2022 total of 655.
- Head coach Lauren Ramatowski is in her first season with the Golden Hurricane. A Kansas State alum, Ramatowski spent one season at her alma mater as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator before taking over the reins at Tulsa. She had previously coached at Arkansas, Washburn, Houston Christian, UTRGV and Truman State.
UP NEXT:
- Wichita State hits the road to square off against two East Division foes, tangling with Florida Atlantic on Friday night and Memphis on Sunday afternoon.
