The RoundHouse | 10/11/2024 10:03:00 AM
By Paul Suellentrop
Wichita State volleyball coach
Chris Lamb watched
Maddie Wilson play club volleyball. He liked her athletic ability and hustle, but he had finished his recruiting for her class.
"I just knew she could be really good," he said. "I always had my eye on her. I was always checking in on her."
While it took a few years, Wilson did end up on Lamb's roster and recent matches show why. She worked her way into the lineup at middle blocker after recovering from a foot injury and recorded seven or more kills in the past five matches. Attack percentages of .600 vs. Memphis, .467 vs. Temple and .333 at UAB demonstrate her potential to continue a rise in WSU's scoring plan.
"She found that sets that worked for her and has continued to work on the ones we haven't connected on yet," setter
Izzi Strand said. "She is very fast. When she gets her arm ready, she has a really quick swing."
The Shockers (8-8, 3-1 American Athletic Conference) play USF (8-7, 4-0) at 7 p.m. Friday at Koch Arena. Florida Atlantic (10-6, 2-2) visits at 1 p.m. Sunday.
Wilson, a 6-foot-1 redshirt sophomore from Colorado, attracted Lamb's attention with that speed and agility. After earning conference Player of the Year honors and helping Palmer Ridge High School to the 2021 Class 4A title, she went to Idaho. After one semester, she decided to transfer. Former Shocker assistant Sean Carter, now coach at Idaho State, advised her to give WSU a look when she decided she didn't want to play in the same conference as her former school.
She redshirted in 2023 at WSU. This season she is part of the solution as Lamb tries to add scoring to pair with senior middle
Morgan Stout. Missing the season's first six matches frustrated Wilson, eager to play and eager to demonstrate she could help the Shockers.
"I wanted to work super-hard to get back (after injury)," Wilson said. "It's big deal for me, since I transferred from a lower-DI school for me to come here and prove a point."
Wilson most often shows off her scoring on the Wichita State staple of quick sets in the middle.
"(Strand) knows that I like my sets faster," Wilson said. "I'm up there, ready to go."
The injury limited her practice time last spring and good health is fueling her improvement. Lamb also sees a day when Wilson uses her range and athletic ability to score in a variety of ways, perhaps at other positions.
"Now that we're finally getting her day-to-day, you're starting to see what we thought we could have all along," Lamb said. "What excites me about her is her ability to do everything else. I knew we could call her a quick hitter and it would probably always improve. My hope is we can ask her to do other things."
Wilson grew up on hobby farm near Black Forest, Colo., where her family raises a few cows, pigs and chickens. They butcher their own meat. Her sister spent $100 of her Christmas money on a calf and bottle-feeding calves started a love affair.
The cows have names such as Patrick – born on St. Patrick's Day – Sunny, Becky, Sammy and Oliver. In her room, toy stuffed cows are part of the décor.
"They're just the sweetest things in the world," she said. "We love giving them marshmallows and Pringle's, funny little snacks."
Paul Suellentrop writes about Wichita State athletics for university Strategic Communications. Story suggestion? Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.
