WICHITA STATE (6-4, 0-0 American)
Wednesday, Sep. 20 (5:00 p.m. CT) vs. East Carolina (9-2, 0-0 American)
Greenville, North Carolina (Minges Coliseum)
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Wichita State opens American Athletic Conference play with a midweek matchup on the road at East Carolina, the lone road Wednesday match of the season for the Shockers.
The match will be streamed on ESPN+. Track live scoring at shockerstats.com.
SCENE SETTERS:
- Wichita State heads to Greenville, North Carolina for the opener of the 2023 American Athletic Conference season, taking on the upstart East Carolina Pirates on Wednesday night at Minges Coliseum.
- The Shockers are 4-2 in American Athletic Conference openers since joining the league in 2017. WSU owns wins in 2017, 2018, 2020, and 2022. This is the first time Wichita State opens the conference slate against East Carolina.
- Wichita State and East Carolina are the only two teams in the conference who have picked up multiple true road wins. The Shockers downed Illinois and Northern Colorado while ECU owns road wins over North Carolina Wilmington and Virginia Tech. The Pirates have won seven games away from home in 2023 after going 5-14 in neutral and road matches last season.
- With the introduction of divisions into the conference in 2023, each team will play a pair of Wednesday games to open and close the AAC schedule. Last season the Shockers went 2-0 on Wednesdays against their travel partners, Tulsa.
- Middle blocker Natalie Foster was named to the American Athletic Conference Weekly Honor Roll on Monday after hitting a combined .608 in three matches at the Northern Colorado Classic. Foster leads the conference with a .421 hitting percentage and is third on the circuit with 1.22 blocks per set.
- Wichita State's balanced offensive attack features four players averaging between 2.2 and 2.8 kills per set. Six different Shockers (Natalie Foster, Morgan Stout, Sophia Rohling, Emerson Wilford, Morgan Weber, Barbara Koehler) have notched double-digit kills in a match this season.
LOOKING BACK:
- The Shockers rolled to 3-0 showing at the Northern Colorado Classic in Greeley, Colorado. WSU swept Bradley, held off a late rally to down Omaha in five and finished the competition with a thorough four-set victory against the host Bears.
- Wichita State held their opponents to hitting percentages of .129, .092 and .135, respectively. The Shockers rank 29th nationally in that category, limiting opponents to a .154 clip.
- WSU recorded at least one team block in every set with the exception of the fifth frame against Omaha. The Shockers matched a season best with five rejections in the third set of that match.
- Several Shockers demonstrated their ability to take over a match during the tournament. Natalie Foster (1st set vs. Omaha), Sophia Rohling (2nd set vs. Omaha) and Morgan Stout (1st set vs. Northern Colorado) each had six kills in a single set, matching the most by a WSU player in a frame this season.
- Foster's 1st set against Omaha featured six kills on six attempts, a feat she nearly matched with a 5-for-5 showing in the third set against Northern Colorado.
- No individual Shocker hitter had more than 10 attempts in any set this past week.
- Senior setter Izzi Strand joined the offensive barrage with six kills on eight attempts in the final against Northern Colorado, good for a career-best .750 hitting percentage.
- In the first set of Saturday night's win over Northern Colorado, the Shockers strung together a stretch of 10 consecutive points to turn a 13-13 tie into a 23-13 lead. In the fourth set against Omaha, the Shockers surrendered 10 consecutive points before winning in five.
WSU-EAST CAROLINA SERIES:
- The Shockers have never lost to East Carolina, leading the all-time series 9-0 over the course of nine matches split between Wichita and Greenville.
- Wichita State took both meetings against the Pirates a season ago, sweeping ECU in Koch Arena before a four-set win later in the year in Greenville.
- Morgan Weber turned in perhaps the best performance of her career in the Wichita matchup, pouring in a career-high-tying 14 kills while hitting .619.
- East Carolina's Angeles Alderete had ten kills in the first set, tied for the most by a Shocker opponent in a set in 2022.
- In Greenville, the Shockers got 15 or more kills from three different players (Kelly, Foster, Rohling) to survive Alderete's 21 terminations.
SCOUTING THE PIRATES:
- The Pirates enter play on Wednesday with a conference-best record of 9-2, their best start to a season since the 2019 campaign. East Carolina knocked off previously unbeaten Virginia Tech on the road this past weekend for their fifth consecutive victory.
- ECU's hot start is largely due to a stingy defensive unit that leads the American Athletic Conference with an opponent hitting percentage of .129, the seventh-best mark in the country.
- Former Shocker defensive specialist Lara Uyar is the Pirates libero, coming off a career-best 21 digs in the win at Virginia Tech. Uyar played two seasons at Wichita State, recording 332 digs.
- Talented sophomore outside hitter Angeles Alderete spearheads the Pirates offensively, averaging a team-best 2.89 kills per set and 0.42 aces per set. The reigning AAC Freshman of the Year was a preseason all-conference selection in 2023.
- Head coach Adler Augustin is now in his fourth season at the helm of the Pirates following a stint as an assistant at Stephen F. Austin. His overall record with the Pirates is 34-50.
UP NEXT:
- Wichita State host Charlotte in the AAC home opener on Saturday at Charles Koch Arena, followed by a trip to Dallas for a pair of matches against preseason conference favorite SMU. The second of those two matches on Sunday, October 1 will air nationwide on ESPNU.
