Speaker 1 00:00:12 Hello, welcome to the roundhouse podcast. This is Paul Solon, tropical Wichita state university, strategic communications. Thank you for listening. Today's guest is Wichita state volleyball, associate head coach Sean Carter. He's going to update us on spring practices, which are rolling along the shockers. We'll be in Coca Rena on April 9th, along with air force, Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Missouri state to play some spring volleyball. Last season, the shockers went 19 and 10. They were 13 and seven in the American athletic conference. And despite being one of the least experienced teams in the conference, they finished just a couple of games out of second place and a game out of third, uh, among the top returners outside hitter, Briley Kelly, Senator Casey Litz, owl, and middle Natalie Foster, all learned spots on the all conference teams. So Sean, let's go back to November kind of refresh people's memories. Uh, what stood out about last season about how that team played?
Speaker 2 00:01:08 Uh, I think that the biggest thing was just obviously getting back to, you know, more wins, um, getting back to close the 20 wins. It was the first time in few seasons that we had an opportunity to be a 20 win team. And despite, uh, I mean we missed one whole weekend of conference place. So I think we easily would have got there if we, um, didn't have to sit out a weekend, uh, cause of the COVID protocols and that kind of stuff. But I think it was, um, a nice surprise to have young young kids who we didn't, you know, we didn't know exactly how they would respond or what expectations we really should have, but, uh, they put us right back in, okay, we're, we're ready and, and focused to prepare to win a conference championship again. And that's really what our goal is now, but, um, that, that year, last year gave us, you know, the, the confidence that that's what we're going for
Speaker 1 00:02:07 People around that team really consistently talk about the chemistry, the positive vibes of that group. When did you see that start to build?
Speaker 2 00:02:16 Um, well, generally speaking, most of our players are all, you know, very good friends with each other. They all hang out with each other. They all live together. Um, but there is just a different attitude when things are kind of hard and the days, you know, that are really early, when we're in the gym or we're getting on them and that kind of stuff, there was this willingness to allow us to kind of grind on them a little bit and push them to do some things that aren't always comfortable or aren't always popular. There's definitely easier ways, but I think those, the group that they have grinding together for the hard stuff and just the mode of motivation to be really, really good, because most of these girls are very removed from you. Some of the really good teams we've had recently in the past. Um, so I think they're really wanting to kind of blaze their own trail. Um, but that's just this innate desire of each kid really wanting to be good.
Speaker 1 00:03:13 Yeah. Which players take a lead role in keeping the mood upbeat?
Speaker 2 00:03:17 Um, well there's just, I mean, there's quite a bit, uh, that have very contagious personalities. Um, Lauren McMahon, who unfortunately had a season ending injury last year is certainly one that keeps, uh, just morale high with, you know, being funny, just her personality, Aly pluggy. Um, one of our setters is certainly those two are kind of the diet dynamic duo, uh, that are too. Um, but Briley is really pushing, you know, everybody as far as, you know, just taking kind of a leadership role, uh, in wanting to be kind of really good. Um, Lily liquid is not as quiet, uh, or not as outgoing as some others may be vocally, but, um, she's certainly one that kind of is the glue that holds everybody together. It seems. And then obviously there's personalities like Morgan stout, that's just contagious and infectious. Uh, and then you have, you know, so Sophia, uh, Sophie Childs and now we foster that are all a little bit more quiet, but in their own, right. They all kind of get along, um, with the rest of kind of the, the group. So, uh, it's a really fun dynamic, um, of, of just kids and they're really fun to be around.
Speaker 1 00:04:38 So spring is always a time for experimenting, moving people around doing wacky fun stuff. What was the, the big goal, kind of the overarching theme when you guys got started this spring?
Speaker 2 00:04:49 Um, one, we were really wanting to upgrade our defense. I think Lambo is going back to just his roots of what built the program. And it seems to be, uh, key climb the ladder in the Missouri valley, as he would say, uh, through his defensive effort, he kinda, he says take took the title from Northern Iowa. Uh, and I think now having gone around a few laps in our league the last few years, that's kind of ripe for the taking to be a team that's really going to be the team that's the defensive team. So that was number one. Um, so we really, as a group, we're trying to upgrade that. So we've done a lot of things, um, towards that, or we're putting the girls on the ground, you know, hundreds and hundreds of times a week and they're, you know, not complaining, you know, they're getting right after it. So it just shows the effort and the level, the level. And then now we're just, we're really trying to put our most potent lineup on the floor, at least, you know, as the guy that's in charge of the offensive stuff, I'm really wanting to have our most, our biggest threat as a scoring unit, uh, out there. And then hopefully we can play good enough volleyball to keep those guys out there.
Speaker 1 00:06:03 Yeah. When I talked to Chris the other day, he mentioned being the best defensive team in the American. How, how close is Wichita state? How far do you have to go to, to get up to the very top?
Speaker 2 00:06:12 I don't know the exact statistics, but I think we're closer than we realize it's going to come down to, you know, can we do a good enough job as blockers to put, to make kids hit the ball in the right place? And then do we have just the effort and skill? I think it takes to claim that title. Uh, I think we're, we're there. Um, but now it's, you know, can you, can you go do it when the lights come on? Um, so that's really going to be the fun kind of carrot we dangle out in front of them and say, Hey, we want to be the best team in the league. These are the things that we're going to have to be great at now. Can you go do it?
Speaker 1 00:06:48 Defense has always seems less fun than offense. Maybe harder to get people to buy in. How do you go about really making that, that carrot attractive to them?
Speaker 2 00:06:58 Um, well, Chelsea and Lambeau really take the credit for all of that stuff. They've just decided this is the direction we're going. These are the things that we're going to do. And you know, it's essentially getting get on the train or get off. There's not, it's not like they have too many situations. It's more of just been this leadership of, Hey, here's where we're going. This is what we're going to do. And, and then they're just, now she's doing it every day. The discipline of that. And the girls have really just kind of attached to that. And I think when we finally start playing matches and they really get to see how much they've improved, it's just going to be contagious because it's really fun when you're stealing kills from other people and then turning them into kills on our end. And it just becomes suffocating. And I think that's when you force really good teams into a lot of areas and then you start beating people when people are, they don't, they can't, you can't catch up that fast. It's something that you really have to implement over a long period of time.
Speaker 3 00:08:11 Hi, this is Rick Myanmar, president Wichita state university check out the latest episode of the forward together podcast. Each episode, I sit down with different guests from Shakur nation to celebrate the vision and mission of Wichita state university. Listen, wherever you get your podcasts,
Speaker 1 00:08:39 You played K state, Kansas state, uh, in your loan match so far this spring. What did you learn from that experience?
Speaker 2 00:08:45 Um, I think we learned there's chance to be even better than expected. Uh, K state was the team that finished the five, if I'm correct third in the big 12, uh, last year and they 12, obviously a really good league and, uh, of our four sets we played, we, you know, we'd beat them in three of them and a couple of them were kind of comfortable, but, uh, we did really well. Um, with some of the defensive stuff we've been working on. We gave them a lot of line, which generally we don't generally do. Uh, and we scored at quite a high rate without any real preparation to that. So that was really encouraging that we can, um, play a team like that. Cause usually we've, it seems as if we're like a little bit less physical, as far as the athletes, they just, you know, get some, you know, more, you know, taller can jump higher, maybe a little stronger athletes than we can get at times, but this was the first time walking into the gym and then watching us play, if we just had neutral color colors, you didn't know which team was, which you probably would have thought we were the big 12 team.
Speaker 2 00:09:57 We looked taller, we looked kinda stronger. Um, so that was really encouraging.
Speaker 1 00:10:02 Let's talk about Briley. Kelly had a fabulous year in 2021 first team, all conference. You really bloomed. I guess what we would have noticed most was her as an, as an offensive force at outside hitter. What's next for Briley.
Speaker 2 00:10:15 Um, next is getting her out there and staying out there all the time. And I think the biggest hurdle for her is just mentally, can she stay, you know, level, uh, throughout the whole, the whole year? Because I think a lot of times for her it's we have a higher opinion of who Briley Kelly is as a vital player and she does a of herself. So it's kind of, we're trying to get her to, Hey Riley, you may not have the best attacking numbers this week or last week. We really don't care. Um, because we have a whole season of data and your first team, all conference to back, the fact that you can do what you need to do as an attacker at the highest level. Now we're just trying to get her to be there as a pastor and a Digger. Um, and if she gets there, she's going to be one of the best players, if not the best player in the league, uh, for the next two years.
Speaker 1 00:11:14 So what is she working on this spring to become that six rotation person?
Speaker 2 00:11:19 Um, well she's her individuals are her little small group lessons. She's been with essentially what we call our little Barrows, our littles every day. Um, so she's getting trained like a little Barrow in the small group stuff. So lots of passing, lots of diving on the floor, lots of just all the digging stuff that Chris and Chelsea are doing. Um, so that's just really how she's been trained, uh, and that's what she needs to get better at. And we're starting to see improvements. Uh,
Speaker 1 00:11:50 So explain, I think we know about six players know how valuable they are, but explain strategically, how does that help you if you have people like that in your, in your line of the complaint all the way around?
Speaker 2 00:12:01 Well, a lot of times, um, when you have someone that can attack out of the back row, it's just like a, it's like, I mean, maybe it's an equivalent to, you know, a team that has really good three point shooters. You can just catch up faster with points because when rallies get started, balls get dug really fast. And if you have backer attackers, they're usually the most available, ready to attack. So if you don't have someone that's back there to tack the work that the front row players have to do of, you know, jumping out to block, to running off the net to then get ready to hit is just so much more work. And you don't always have the time that you do when you're a back row person, just kind of standing back there, whether it's at you or not, you're always ready to run forward to jump and hit.
Speaker 2 00:12:47 So that, that piece is a huge part, which is why you see like the McKenna Melville's at UCF, you know, at five Gill's game, cause she's back there for three rotations. Also getting set out of the back row where Briley was, you know, a three and a half kills per game, but she didn't really play that much back row. You could easily see that Briley could, you know, easily get it killing half more a game if we're setting her from back there. So that part's great. And then it gives you more flexibility of different substitutions or different ways you can play. If you have more people that can go all the way around, um, just gives you more flexibility for serving subs or blocking subs or all sorts of different options.
Speaker 1 00:13:29 You mentioned the middles who had an interesting 2021 Lauren McMahon was off to a really nice start, then got hurt. Morgan stout played well, incredibly entertaining just with her, her mood on the court. And then she was pretty limited in practice, especially when we got toward the end of the season. Uh, what's the goals for the middle, uh, the, see the spring.
Speaker 2 00:13:51 Um, well we certainly want to be the best middle team from a blocking and for sure, authentic standpoint, I already feel like we have the title for most offensive middle blockers in the conference. Um, so we don't want to give that up. There's just in this league, there's not as many teams that really use the middle blockers as a focal point of the offense, and we really want to do that. Uh, it's just harder to prepare. And then I think, you know, at least for the three, you know, that we're getting to play with Lauren, uh, Natalie Foster and Morgan stout is just having three middles that are that high level. It's just so competitive every day. Cause I think sometimes they, all three of them are worried, oh my God, am I going to be the one that's not out there, uh, playing which there's lineups where we can figure out ways to have all three of them on the court. So that could be an option. Um, and then just having people, uh, even, uh, Addison off of her, uh, coming off of her injury, it's just so nice having her in the gym. Um, she's so much more effective than I would have expected at this point. So we can just train so much differently. Um, having more people that can do those things so that part's really exciting. And hopefully we can do some cool stuff for the fans this year with, with a few players,
Speaker 1 00:15:12 Addison, you're talking about Addy badly. Is that pronounced correctly? Okay. Yeah. Freshmen from Texas. Okay. Most pleasant surprise of the spring. What jumps out at you there?
Speaker 2 00:15:23 Um, there's kind of a lot. Uh, I've been very happy, um, with our setters. Uh, Casey's coming off a second team, all conference and this is, I think she's even better than she was in the fall. Uh, she looked stronger, more fit. Um, I think the four days a week, at least out of her mouth, but she said of working out and, um, lifting in the weight room is really kind of helped her. She's feeling stronger. She's feeling better and just looking better. And then, uh, Haley pluggy also. I mean, it's not, it's not like Casey running away with this thing. She Haley's making it a lot more competitive than you would have maybe guessed. Uh, so that's been a pleasant surprise. Um, I think, uh, just all of our littles are defensive people. I think Laura is getting more comfortable. Um, obviously English much better.
Speaker 2 00:16:17 Her personality comes out a lot more. Uh, I think she's gonna surprise a lot of people with a lot of her defensive highlight reel kind of plays. Um, Lily's just getting really, really comfortable as a passer and I think more comfortable as a leader, that's going to make us a lot better. Um, so just the defensive stuff. And then, uh, for me I've been a huge fan of Natalie Foster. She's just, there's so many different things we can do with her as a player, um, which makes it fun. But you know, Sophie, uh, Childs is looking really good. Unfortunately she just got a concussion, so she's been out. Um, but she provides more options of, she could be an outside hitter and we can do other things. So there's, we just have so many different options. It's going to be pretty interesting of what we ended up settling into
Speaker 1 00:17:06 Casey. Let's out, took over that center spot kind of early last season, second team, all conference. And that's the position that since Emily Hiebert left, it's kind of been in flux for the shockers. How does it help having that consistency her coming back for a second year?
Speaker 2 00:17:22 Um, I think it's really important. One for us, we make things a little bit more confusing, um, than most coaching staffs. And we just put a lot on that setting position of knowing, you know, how we're going to try to attack a certain team and it could be different from week to week. So us understanding, you know, what she wants from me as a coach and then, uh, what she needs to communicate and kind of get worked out with just individual players is really important. So there's just a lot of that stuff. And then, you know, her and, and, uh, Hailey just getting a lot of time with each kid during the spring setting, setting them all, they, they kind of get that relationship so they can make quicker adjustments on the fly where they don't really need me to stop and go, oh, Hey, this ball needs to be a little higher, a little lower, a little this or a little that they just talk to each other and kind of figure it out on their own.
Speaker 1 00:18:15 So with all the experimenting that goes on, it seems like maybe Natalie Foster is leading the way and experiment. You're moving her around a lot of places outside the middle. Tell us about her spring and what you're trying to get accomplished with her.
Speaker 2 00:18:27 Um, well it's like we had a dream. It sure would be nice to have a 64 outside hitter, uh, that we can, you know, set eight, nine times a game and, you know, Briley got eight or nine attempts a game and let's close to three, four kills a game. Um, if we had another outside hitter that were close to those numbers, I mean, I think Natalie was getting closer to three kills the game just as a middle. Um, that certainly makes us better, especially when you have someone maybe like Lauren McMahon that could kind of go into more of where Natalie Foster was last year. Um, we certainly could upgrade there as a scoring units. Um, but you know, Morgan Weber is a, probably our best all around volleyball player. Um, you know, if she had one thing you wanted more of, it'd be more kills, more scoring.
Speaker 2 00:19:18 Uh, and a lot of the playing we've done recently early on she's showing at least statistically that she's scoring at a much higher rate than she was. So if she's scoring at the rate that we kind of would need her to score out, it's going to be really hard to get her out of an outside hitter role, which then you would find Natalie and in the middle. But I think for the spring, I would love to see if we can be as physical as we can be, um, all around the court. And then are we good enough volleyball players to do that as well? So, um, I would love to see Natalie on the left, she would just do things that other outside hitters in our conference can do. Just because of her experience in the middle.
Speaker 1 00:20:00 Chris lamb talked about wanting to see this team move from, I guess, the scrappy underdog, you know, last year kind of inexperienced kind of rising up, moving from that mentality to the attitude that you know, the shockers belong at the, at the top of the conference. How do you coaches help with that?
Speaker 2 00:20:18 I don't, I don't know. I think we talk about it a lot. Uh, he, we just say, look, this is the expectation the girls, the more you talk about it, the more we have them talk about it. Um, I think it starts to, you know, you begin to believe that you should be up there, but it's more about believing. It's more about, you know, putting in the work that you need to do and getting them to understand like, look I tell the girls all the time, everybody says, oh yeah, I want to be a college volleyball player or, oh, I want to win a conference championship. But then I would tell you if I'm being brutally honest and be like, no, you really don't because we've been a part of teams that win championships and the championship teams don't do that stuff. And that's what they have to learn. And then there's the trust of, Hey, when we're telling them that stuff, do they believe us? Are they going to buy into that? Um, and I believe our team has, and I, that's why I think we're gonna, we're gonna compete for championships for the foreseeable future.
Speaker 1 00:21:30 Thank you for listening to the roundhouse podcast, courtesy of Wichita state university, strategic communications. We appreciate your time. We encourage you to rate review, subscribe, wherever you get your podcasts, such as on iTunes or Google play. You can find more roundhouse
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Speaker 4 00:21:52 And they let him pass it up court. And then it gets picked off a long free by PENGOS no good. One second. It's over. It is over. And what your task has beaten. The number one team in the nation to go to the sweet 16, go crazy. What Utah.
