MORGANTOWN, W.Va.  – The West Virginia University volleyball team couldn’t quite take advantage of being on its home court for the first time in two weeks, as the Mountaineers dropped a 3-1 contest to Big 12 foe Oklahoma in set scores of 17-25, 12-25, 25-20 and 15-25, on Wednesday evening at the WVU Coliseum.

 

It marks the third straight loss for the Mountaineers, who move to 11-7 overall and 1-2 in Big 12 play. The Sooners improve to 3-0 in league action and 12-5 overall.

 

“I think we waited too long to start to get going in this match,” said coach Jill Kramer. “We’re been struggling through some things with the team the last few matches. It’s about just getting the right group of people out there that decide they’re going to work together, and I think that happened in the third set.”

 

The match was the squad’s annual Dig Pink game for breast cancer awareness. In addition to donning pink jerseys, the Mountaineers honored Stephanie Henson, wife of WVU wrestling coach Sammie Henson and a breast cancer survivor.

 

Jordan Anderson posted a team-best 14 kills and six digs for West Virginia, adding in a block assist and an ace as well. Caleah Wells had a season-high 10 kills, hitting .261 with a block assist and a pair of digs. Nikki Attea recorded eight kills for the Mountaineers to go along with a pair of block assists and eight digs.

 

Hannah Shreve led the squad with six block assists as the Mountaineers posted seven team blocks in the match. She also added an ace and six kills to her tally. Hannah Sackett had five kills and three block assists.

 

Brittany Sample and Lamprini Konstantinidou split time at setter, recording 20 and 15 assists, respectively. Sample dug six balls, while Konstantinidou had a pair of digs along with an ace and a block assist. Gianna Gotterba led the team with 16 digs, while Anna Panagiotakopoulos had six.

 

West Virginia hit a season-low .067 in the match, while Oklahoma hit .308 with 11.0 team blocks. WVU had 45 kills to OU’s 49. Madison Ward led the Sooners with 16 kills, hitting for a .395 clip. Micaela Spann had six total blocks while Julia Doyle had 40 assists.

 

The Mountaineers hit .132 in set one, with five kills from Wells, who hit .625 in the set. The Sooners took a 7-3 lead on a WVU blocking error, then stretched the lead to 14-8 after a 3-0 run.  Konstantinidou recorded an ace, and Wells and Attea each added a kill but OU was able took an 18-12 advantage. Konstantinidou struck with a kill but the Mountaineers couldn’t find their offensive rhythm and dropped the set 25-17.

 

Oklahoma hit .357 in set two with 12 kills as the Mountaineers recorded 10 kills. A trio of kills from Anderson, along with an attacking error on the Sooners, gave West Virginia a 4-1 lead early in the set. However, a 7-0 OU run gave them a 15-7 lead. Attea and Wells put down back-to-back kills to end the streak, as the Mountaineers trailed 15-9. Sackett and Wells each added another kill, but it wasn’t enough to cut into the deficit as the Sooners took set two 25-12 for a 2-1 lead in the match.

 

A 4-0 run that included an Anderson ace put the Mountaineers in front to start set three. However, the Sooners fought back and took a 6-5 lead on a WVU attacking error. The team played to four more ties before the Mountaineers took a 17-14 lead on back-to-back blocks. WVU managed to stay one step ahead of OU, with a 3-0 run that included a pair of Anderson kills pushing the Mountaineers’ lead to 23-19. A block by Attea and Shreve would give the set to WVU, 25-20.

 

Despite four kills from Sackett and three kills each from Anderson and Shreve, West Virginia couldn’t carry its momentum into set four as the Sooners hit .500. After a back-and-forth start to the set, OU went on a 7-0 streak to take a 12-5 lead before a kill from Sample ended the Sooners’ run. Despite back-to-back kills from Shreve and another from Sackett, Oklahoma put up four straight points to lead the set 21-12. Wells found the court to end the run, but it was too little, too late. The Sooners scored four of the last five points to take the set 25-15 and win the match 3-1.

 

The Mountaineers will welcome TCU to the WVU Coliseum on Saturday. The match is slated to start at 4 p.m.