Wichita State volleyball lost twice Sept. 12 at the Mizzou Invitational, falling 3-1 to Arkansas State and 3-0 to host Missouri at Hearnes Center in Columbia, Mo.
The Shockers dropped to 3-6 on the season, according to Wichita State Athletics. Next up is a rematch with No. 22 Kansas at Charles Koch Arena.
Kansas swept the Shockers 25-9, 25-21, 25-14 on Sept. 8 in Lawrence, where the Jayhawks hit .417 as a team, according to the Lawrence Journal-World.
Arkansas State 3, Wichita State 1
The morning match was the closer contest. Arkansas State took the first set 25-19, but the Shockers rallied from a 23-18 deficit in the second set, scoring five straight to tie it at 23-23. McKenzie Jones and Olivia Cohee delivered kills on the final two points to force a 26-24 win and even the match.
Arkansas State answered by hitting .457 in the third set. In the fourth, the Red Wolves jumped out 12-5. Wichita State clawed back to 23-22, but Devyn Lewis closed the match with consecutive kills for Arkansas State.
Jones led the Shockers with 12 kills on .296 hitting. Maddie Wilson added 11 kills at a .375 clip, and Cohee finished with 10. Jenna Cubbage posted nine kills and a team-high 17 digs, while setter Jordan Heatherly recorded 26 assists and eight digs. Gabi Maas added 16 digs.
Lewis paced the Red Wolves with 15 kills. Libero Mia Maloney tallied a match-high 28 digs.
Missouri 3, Wichita State 0
The evening match was lopsided. Missouri hit .368 and piled up 10 team blocks to sweep the Shockers 25-19, 25-13, 25-18.
Wichita State tied the first set at 13-13 before the Tigers pulled away. The second set was the low point: the Shockers hit -.030 while Missouri cruised to a 25-13 win. The Shockers scored four straight in the third set, including two Wilson kills, to cut the deficit to 12-10, but Missouri pulled away again to finish the sweep and improve to 5-2.
Cubbage and Wilson led the Shockers with seven kills each. Heatherly had 20 assists and Maas recorded 11 digs. Paige Felder and Grace O'Reilly each logged nine kills for Missouri.
A young team searching
Head coach Chris Lamb, in his 27th season at Wichita State, entered 2026 after losing nearly two-thirds of last year's kills to graduation and injury. The Shockers were picked fourth in the American Athletic Conference preseason coaches poll after going 19-11 and 10-6 in league play in 2025.
"Who's gonna be that 'Steady Eddie' for two and a half months? You know, that's always the challenge," Lamb said in an Aug. 26 preseason interview with the Wichita Eagle.
Sophomores Jones, Cohee and Cubbage have shouldered the offensive load. Jones posted 12 kills against Arkansas State and in Friday's four-set win over FGCU, where Wilson led the team with 13 kills on .440 hitting, according to beat writer Taylor Eldridge on X.
The Shockers host No. 22 Kansas on Sept. 15 at 6 p.m. at Charles Koch Arena.
