Volleyball Faces TCU
October 28, 2014 09:52 AM | General
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| The Mountaineers head to Texas with a 2-0 record in the Lone Star state. |
| Photo courtesy of Steve Prunty |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University volleyball team will head south for a pair of matches this week, the first of which will be a rematch with TCU in Fort Worth on Wednesday evening. The contest is set for 7:30 p.m. ET.
The Mountaineers (13-9, 3-5) have faced every Big 12 opponent at least once this season. Since joining the Big 12 in 2012, they are 8-32 overall in league play and are 5-19 the first time they play a conference foe and 3-13 in the rematch.
West Virginia took a thrilling 3-2 win from the Horned Frogs (12-10, 2-6) at the WVU Coliseum on October 11. Jordan Anderson had a career-best 36 kills in the match, hitting for a .516 clip. The Mountaineers hit .310 as a team and had three players finish in double figure kills and four in double-digit digs.
For the second straight week, a number of Mountaineers will be playing in front of the home crowd as Brittany Sample (Lewisville), Caleah Wells (Red Oak) and Anderson (Flower Mound) all hail from the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. But the homecoming is most special for WVU coach and San Antonio-native Jill Kramer, who makes her return to her alma mater. Kramer is the Horned Frogs’ all-time kills leader and is ranked in the top 10 in a number of categories in the TCU record books. She was a member of TCU volleyball’s first ever graduating class, and played for the Horned Frogs from 1996-99.
The Lone Star state has been good to the Mountaineers this season, as they will boast a record of .500 or better in matches played in Texas. WVU took a 3-1 win at Texas Tech on September 27 and defeated Baylor 3-1 in Waco last week. In addition to Wednesday, they will return on November 12 to face No.5 Texas in Austin.
The Mountaineers are coming off a heartbreaking 3-2 loss to No. 22 Kansas State on Saturday at the WVU Coliseum. It marked the third time this season West Virginia has gone to five sets, with all three matches coming against Big 12 teams. Two of those tilts were with nationally ranked opponents, as West Virginia took the first two sets from No. 2 Texas before dropping the final three on September 24 at home.
In Saturday’s five-set match, a number of players had career days. Nikki Attea was one of the highlights in the match, recording a career-best 25 kills to go along with 12 digs for fourth double-double of the season and hitting an impressive .512 in the process. Hannah Shreve had a personal-best 10 kills, while Gianna Gotterba had 21 digs for a career high. Evyn McCoy posted a season-best 10 kills as well, hitting for a .360 clip.
“Saturday was a tough loss, but I’m very proud of how consistent we played and how we stuck together,” said Kramer. “I think we can take a lot of positives from it. We’re all excited to play in Texas this week and are looking forward to seeing a lot of familiar faces on Wednesday evening.”
The Mountaineers will travel from Texas to Oklahoma on Saturday for an 8 p.m. ET tilt with the No. 25 Sooners in Norman.
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