Volleyball Sweeps Texas Tech
November 15, 2014 07:00 PM | General
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University volleyball team ended a five-match losing streak with a 3-0 win over Big 12 foe Texas Tech in set scores of 30-28, 25-23 and 25-20 on Saturday afternoon at the WVU Coliseum.
It marked the first win for the Mountaineers (14-13, 4-9) since October 22 when they defeated Baylor, 3-1. The victory was also the first Big 12 sweep of the season for WVU and was the Mountaineers’ first sweep of a Big 12 team since November 16, 2013 when they beat TCU, 3-0. West Virginia moves to 4-4 all-time against Texas Tech (15-10, 3-10) and is 4-2 against the Red Raiders in league action.
“I thought this was a great team win,” said WVU coach Jill Kramer. “We did some things a little bit differently with the lineup and I like the way it worked for us. We didn’t play quite as clean as I think we would have liked but the big thing was we stayed the course when it got tight. After being up 2-0, we came out really strong and that was something we’ve really struggle with. I was happy we changed our energy going onto the court for the third set and made things happen.”
Jordan Anderson and Nikki Attea led the way offensively for West Virginia with 13 and 12 kills, respectively. Attea hit for a .423 clip on 26 swings with just one attacking error, while Anderson added six digs and a pair of block assists to the scoresheet. Hannah Shreve hit for a .455 clip with six kills to go along with a block solo and a block assist.
West Virginia continued its move to a 6-2 rotation with both Lamprini Konstantinidou and Brittany Sample seeing action at setter. Konstantinidou registered 27 assists along with 10 digs for her fourth double-double of the season. Sample had 12 assists, while Gianna Gotterba added in three.
Gotterba had a team-best 12 digs, while Anna Panagiotakopoulos registered eight. Evyn McCoy led the blocking with four of WVU’s six team blocks, also chipping in four kills.
WVU hit .227 as a team with 48 kills and 47 digs. Attea produced the lone Mountaineer service ace of the match.
The Mountaineers were able to overcome 11 attacking errors in set one on Anderson’s eight kills. A 6-0 run midway through the set put the Red Raiders in front 13-7 before Caleah Wells teamed with McCoy for a block, then added a kill. Anderson found the court to cut the deficit to three with Texas Tech leading 16-13. West Virginia tallied three in a row, tying the set at 20-20 on another kill from Anderson. Anderson added yet another, followed by a Tech attack into the net to set up set-point for the Mountaineers. However, the Red Raiders knotted the score at 24-24 and the two teams traded points to keep the set alive. A Texas Tech attacking error and a kill by Sackett put WVU in front 28-27, though the Red Raiders tied it up once again. However, another TTU error was followed by an Attea ace as the Mountaineers claimed the set 30-28.
Attea hit .571 with five kills to help the Mountaineers claim set two. Kills by Attea and Sackett helped West Virginia to an 8-8 tie before three in a row by the Red Raiders put them in front 12-10. Wells and Attea found the court to give WVU the one-point advantage at 14-13, but Texas Tech came back to tie the set 14-14. The back-and-forth play continued until back-to-back kills gave the Red Raiders a 20-18 advantage. A trio of attacking errors on TTU gave WVU the 23-22 lead, before Attea put down a pair of kills to win the set 25-23 and take a 2-0 lead in the match.
West Virginia hit .293 with just a trio of attacking errors in the third set. Panagiotakopoulos served three straight points to start things off before a pair of 3-0 scorings run moved the Mountaineers into a 9-4 advantage. A kills by Attea started and capped a 4-0 streak, pushing the WVU lead to 13-5. The Red Raiders strung together four in a row to cut their deficit to three with the Mountaineers leading 17-14 before Shreve put a pair through the pins to make it 20-16, WVU. Three Red Raider miscues made it 23-17 in favor of West Virginia before an Attea kill set up match-point at 24-18. A WVU service error and a Red Raider kill extended the match, but McCoy capped the set with a kill for the 25-20 win as the Mountaineers took the match 3-0.
Following a bye on Wednesday, WVU will finish out its home slate on Saturday, November 22, when they host Baylor in a time to be determined. The match will mark the Mountaineers’ annual Senior Day celebration.
How bout that @WVUVolleyball squad?! Always feels good to walk away with a W #HailWV
— Zacary J. Tardiff (@ZacaryJT) November 15, 2014
Andrew Powdrell | April 15
Thursday, April 16
Coach Pat Kirkland | April 15
Thursday, April 16
Coach Rich Rodriguez | April 15
Thursday, April 16
Alumni Series | Louisa Morgan Hoogduin
Wednesday, April 15
