Volleyball Prepped for Kansas
October 14, 2014 05:11 PM | General
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| Brittany Sample was one of four Mountaineers to records career highs in Saturday's win over TCU. |
| Photo courtesy of WVU Photography |
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Coming off a thrilling 3-2 win over TCU, the West Virginia University volleyball team looks to build upon that momentum when it hosts Kansas in Big 12 play on Wednesday at the WVU Coliseum. The match is set for 6:30 p.m.
The match is Faculty & Staff Appreciation Night for WVU, with all faculty and staff eligible for free admission with a coupon from a WVU volleyball player or by downloading the form on the promotions website. The first 200 students in attendance are eligible to enter a raffle to win a pair of Beats by Dre headphones to be given away during the match.
“We are excited to end this stretch of our home stand with Kansas,” said WVU coach Jill Kramer. “The team has been competing hard in the gym since our match this weekend and we’ve put great effort into improving certain aspects of our game. We need to continue to communicate as a high level tomorrow night and play point for point.”
The Mountaineers’ (12-7, 2-3) tilt with the Jayhawks (13-5, 1-3) will wrap up a three-match home stand in which they have gone 1-1 thus far. They dropped a 3-1 match to Oklahoma last Wednesday before earning their second conference win of the season by topping the Horned Frogs in five sets on Saturday.
The squads will meet for the seventh time since 1999, with Kansas owning a 6-0 lead in the all-time series. The two twice met as nonconference foes, with the Jayhawks taking a 3-1 win at the WVU Coliseum to start things off in 1999 and later earning a 3-1 victory in Lawrence in 2000. The series resumed in 2012 when West Virginia joined the Big 12, and Kansas has claimed all four league meetings.
Both teams recently snapped three-match losing streaks. Prior to their 3-2 win over TCU, the Mountaineers dropped a 3-1 Big 12 match at Iowa State (Oct. 14) and a 3-0 contest at Marshall (Oct. 1) before falling at home to Oklahoma. Prior to taking a 3-1 victory at Baylor on Friday, the Jayhawks recorded consecutive losses to No. 2 Texas (3-1), Kansas State (3-2) and Oklahoma (3-2).
Jordan Anderson put up a career-best 36 kills in the victory over TCU, reaching her previous career high of 24 in the third set. The sophomore outside hitter hit for a .516 clip in the match, including going 9-of-12 in the second set to hit .750. Her 36 kills are the most by a Big 12 player this season and the most by any Big 12 player since 2010 when Texas Tech’s Amanda Dowdy recorded 37. For her efforts, Anderson was named the WVU Student-Athlete of the Week.
In helping Anderson achieve her feat, Brittany Sample set a personal best of her own with 60 assists on WVU’s 79 kills. Transitioning back to setter from defensive specialist, Sample put up the fourth-best performance by a Big 12 setter this season. Middle blocker Caleah Wells also tied her career-best with 13 kills, while Hannah Shreve matched her previous career-high with six kills.
For the second straight match, a member of the WVU staff will face her alma mater as assistant coach Sara Kidd played for coach Ray Bechard and the Jayhawks from 1999-2000 after transferring to Kansas from James Madison. Kidd was a team captain, Big 12 All-Academic team honoree, Jayhawk Scholar and Dean’s List member for the Jayhawks.
The Mountaineers will hit the road next week when they head to Waco, Texas, for a Big 12 tilt at Baylor. The match is scheduled for a 7 p.m. EST start.
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