CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Wichita State got another excellent offensive outing from Alyssa Gonzales and fired eight service aces to roll past Charlotte, 25-22, 25-16, 25-15 on Friday night at Halton Arena.
The Shockers (10-9, 5-2) remained perfect in road conference matches, improving to 3-0 on the season.
Gonzales continued her recent stretch of stellar showings with 13 kills at a .440 clip, good for the match high in kills. She committed just two attack errors and finished with a kill percentage of .520 on her 25 attempts.
Wichita State had to rally late in the opening set, which they trailed 22-19 following a kill from Charlotte’s Selanny Puente. But WSU was able to string together a 6-0 run to close out the stanza, beginning and ending with kills from Izzi Strand. Morgan Stout added two terminations of her own during the run, helping the Shockers close out a 25-22 win.
There was no such drama over the final two sets. Wichita State pulled away for a 13-6 lead early in the second, thanks to a 6-0 run with Annalie Heliste at the service line. Heliste opened the spurt with one of her career-high-tying three aces, and Emerson Wilford bookended the spurt with kills to give WSU a comfortable advantage. Brooklyn Leggett put together her best set of the night, scoring four times on seven attempts without an error, guiding the Shockers to a 25-16 victory.
The Shockers again pounced on the 49ers (4-16, 1-6) early in the third. A Stout solo block, one of just two blocks on the night for WSU, gave the Shockers a 10-4 advantage they maintained the rest of the evening. Gonzales fired home four more kills to spearhead the Wichita State attack, including a two-hand push that found the back line and set the Shockers up at match point. Wilford sealed the deal on a 25-15 win with a solo block of her own.
In addition to Gonzales, the Shockers got balanced scoring from Leggett (eight kills), Stout (eight) and Wilford (six). Sarah Barham scored on all three of her attempts, a trio of the 29 assists for Strand. Katie Galligan and Strand tied for team-high honors with eight digs apiece, while Heliste set a new career high with eight assists.
The Shockers conclude their road swing on Sunday at East Carolina. First serve is scheduled for 11:00 am CT.
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