Volleyball Falls to Kansas at Home
October 15, 2014 09:51 PM | General
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – After taking the first set, the West Virginia University volleyball team dropped the next three as the Mountaineers fell to Kansas, 3-1, in set scores of 25-19, 10-25, 20-25 and 22-25 in Big 12 action on Wednesday evening at the WVU Coliseum.
The match marked the final tilt in a three-match home stand for the Mountaineers (12-8, 2-4).
Jordan Anderson marked her 23rd consecutive match in double figures with a 15-kill effort to lead the Mountaineers. Hannah Sackett also put forth a stellar effort, hitting for a team-best .360 clip with 12 kills. Caleah Wells nearly hit double digits as well, recording nine kills while Nikki Attea finished with six.
For the third straight match, Hannah Shreve led the blocking effort posting seven block assists and a block solo. Attea recorded five on the night, while Wells was good for four. Sackett added a trio and Brittany Sample posted up for a pair as the Mountaineers tallied 12.0 team blocks against the Jayhawks to tie their season-high.
Sample also dished out 33 assists and recorded the team’s lone ace of the day. She tied with Gianna Gotterba for the team high with 14 digs, while Attea added eight and Anderson was good for six. Melvina Brown also rotated in on the back row, digging four balls in the match.
WVU finished the night with 47 kills and 50 digs, hitting for a .149 clip.
Chelsea Albers led the Jayhawks with 15 kills and 10 digs, while Tayler Soucie had 11 kills, a block solo and five block assists in addition to a pair of aces. Kansas hit .245 as a team with 12.0 blocks and a trio of aces.
“They hit for a great clip, but it was more about our errors and what we needed to fix from that point on,” said Mountaineer coach Jill Kramer. “We gave them a little run in each of those sets, then we would get it close, then let them go back again. I liked our fight in the last two sets. I thought the girls were right there in it and getting after it.”
Using an impressive 8.0 team blocks, the Mountaineers powered past the Jayhawks in set one. After trailing 3-1 to start the set, Wells and Attea teamed for back-to-back blocks while Sackett added a kill to tie the set 4-4. Four in a row by WVU, including consecutive kills from Wells, gave the Mountaineers the 8-5 lead. After the Jayhawks came back to tie the set at 16-16, three straight blocks pushed WVU back in front 19-16. Kansas then cut the deficit to one before the Mountaineers used three more blocks to score five straight, winning the set 25-19 on an Attea kill.
The Mountaineers struggled to keep the momentum going in set two, posting just five kills. The Jayhawks jumped out to a 7-3 lead on an ace, then used a 9-0 run shortly after to take a 19-5 advantage. Gotterba and Sackett added points for the Mountaineers, but it was too little, too late. Kansas used a block and a kill to win the set 25-10.
The squads kept things close in set three, battling to a 6-6 tie then knotting the score again at 12-12 on a kill by Sackett. Kansas took a 14-12 lead on a WVU attacking error and Wells and Sackett each found the court in an attempt to cut the deficit. A 3-0 Jayhawk run, capped by a block, pushed Kansas in front 20-15. Anderson and Sackett each added a kill, but the Jayhawks used three straight kills to take the set 25-20 and take a 2-1 lead in the match.
Using Anderson’s eight kills, the Mountaineers fought until the end in set four but couldn’t quite overcome the Jayhawks. Kansas raced out to another early lead, this time at 6-2, before kills from Anderson and Attea, along with a KU error, helped cut the deficit to just a point, down 10-9. The Mountaineers kept things close, trailing by two at 18-16 on a KU service error. However, three straight points gave the Jayhawks a 21-16 lead on a block. Anderson notched a pair of kills while Shreve found the court as well, cutting the KU lead back down to two at 21-19. A pair of kills and a block set up set-point for the Jayhawks, but kills from Anderson and Shreve extended the set before an ace from Sample cut the KU advantage to two again at 24-22. However, the Jayhawks used a WVU error to take the 25-22 win, claiming the match 3-1.
After a week off, West Virginia will hit the road for the first time since early October. The Mountaineers will travel to Waco, Texas, to face Baylor in a Big 12 match on Wednesday, October 22, at 7 p.m. EST.
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