Volleyball | 12/1/2023 5:23:00 PM
By Paul Suellentrop
The sidelines at a volleyball match are busy with cheering, clapping, laughing and sometimes choreographed skits.
Amid the team spirit, however, the Shockers pay attention and prepare for their time.
Emerson Wilford proved that again in Friday's 3-1 (25-12, 15-25, 25-16, 25-21) win over Tulsa in the second round of the National Invitational Volleyball Championship at Koch Arena.
The Shockers (23-8) advance to the quarterfinals vs. Drake at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Koch Arena. Drake (24-10) advanced with sweeps of Chicago State and DePaul at home. The Bulldogs are No. 54 in the NCAA's RPI and finished second in the Missouri Valley Conference at 14-4.
The Shockers beat Tulsa (18-15) for a third time this season. The familiarity of playing an American Athletic Conference opponent added to the challenge. The Shockers dominated the first set. The Hurricane bounced back to hit .312 and roll in the second set. Wichita State hit .410 in the third set. It led 17-11 in the final set. Tulsa rallied within 18-17 and 21-19 before the Shockers finished off the win.
"Nobody in my job wants to have to beat a team three times," coach
Chris Lamb said. "Conference play. They can be scary."
Wilford calmed things for the Shockers in the third set.
She watched the teams split two sets before coming off the bench to play on the left. Her solo block put the Shockers up 9-7. She followed that with two kills and another solo block for a 12-7 lead and the Shockers never trailed again.
"I try to prepare the same way for every single game," she said. "We're trying to look for ways for the other person to score and tell them when they come off. It makes you more prepared when you go in, because you're analyzing it."
Wilford's contributions helped swing a match that seemed in doubt after the Hurricane responded to the first set by smacking the Shockers in the second.
"It builds momentum not only for myself, but the people around me," Wilford said. "We were pushing and trying to bounce back from the set we had before. You need plays like that, especially all together, in order to recover."
Wilford scored more crucial points in the fourth set, registering a kill for a 19-17 lead and another to go up 23-19.
Wilford, who had 13 kills and hit .387 in a regular-season win over Tulsa, finished with six kills and two blocks.
Brylee Kelly, her partner on the left, had 11 kills and one error to give the Shockers significant points at that position. Kelly's big run came in the third set when she contributed three kills in a 5-0 run that gave WSU a 20-13 lead.
Wilford, Kelly and
Barbara Koehler know the expectations on the left. If one isn't producing, somebody else gets a shot. On Thursday, Koehler had nine kills in a sweep of Arkansas State. On Friday, Wilford and Kelly got the swings.
"We've had this thing going back and forth all season," Lamb said. "We've been trying to find the hot hand. Through that, we've learned that if someone doesn't got it, someone else might. Emerson's been on both sides of that."
The Shockers turned the final set to
Sophia Rohling. She had five kills in the set, including two for a 17-11 lead. She totaled 15 for the match and hit .387.
"I felt like I was in a pretty good groove," she said. "I knew I had a good chance of finishing it for us."
Paul Suellentrop writes about Wichita State athletics for university Strategic Communications. Story suggestion? Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.
