Volleyball Falls at Kansas
November 26, 2014 09:31 PM | General
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LAWRENCE, Kansas – The West Virginia University volleyball team dropped a 3-0 match to Kansas at the Horejsi Center on Wednesday, falling in set scores of 19-25, 23-25 and 15-25 in Big 12 action.
The loss drops the Mountaineers to 15-14 on the season and 5-10 in league play. They had previously won two in a row, sweeping both Texas Tech and Baylor. Kansas moves to 21-8 overall and 9-6 in conference action.
“To beat a team like Kansas, especially at home, you need to be consistent in all facets of the game,” said WVU coach Jill Kramer. “We made a lot of great plays, but needed to be much more consistent tonight.”
Jordan Anderson registered 10 kills to lead the Mountaineers, with Hannah Sackett adding eight. Evyn McCoy hit for a .462 clip with seven kills on the night, and Nikki Attea contributed five. West Virginia hit .194 as a team with 34 kills.
Hannah Shreve had a team-best six blocks for the Mountaineers, who recorded 8.0 in the match. Sackett was good for three, while Attea and Anderson each added a pair.
Anna Panagiotakopoulos led the squad with nine digs, while Attea recorded six and Anderson added five. Melvina Brown and Lamprini Konstantinidou each had four, with Konstantinidou adding 24 assists as well. Panagiotakopoulos also had the lone ace of the night for the Mountaineers.
The Jayhawks finished the night hitting .358 as a team with 48 kills and 9.0 team blocks.
Despite making several runs, the Mountaineers couldn’t steal a set from the Jayhawks. Kansas took a 6-4 advantage that later turned into a 10-6 lead. WVU made a 3-0 run behind a block from Shreve and Anderson to cut the deficit to one, down 10-9. A KU error followed by an Anderson kill tied the set, 11-11, before three in a row pushed the Jayhawks in front 15-13. Back-to-back kills by Sackett made it a one-point set once again, with Kansas up 17-16. However, another 3-0 run gave the Jayhawks a 22-17 lead. A WVU serve into the net gave Kansas the 25-19 win in the set as they took a 1-0 advantage in the match.
Down by 12 at one point in set two, West Virginia worked its way back with a 10-0 run to take the lead but couldn’t hold on for the win. A 7-0 run early in the set put the Jayhawks in front 9-2 before an Attea kill stopped the run. Two more 3-0 runs made it an 11-point lead for Kansas at 16-5 before the Jayhawks took a 20-8 advantage on a kill. With Anderson serving, the Mountaineers scored 10 unanswered points, including three kills from Anderson and a pair of blocks by Sackett and Shreve. A KU attacking error knotted the score, 20-20, before back-to-back kills from McCoy gave the Mountaineers their first lead of the night at 22-21. However, the Jayhawks scored the final three points to take the set, 25-23, and grab a 2-0 lead in the match.
Hitting under .100 for most of the stanza, the Mountaineers struggled to find an offensive rhythm in set three. An early 3-0 lead was quickly erased by a 4-0 KU run, putting the Jayhawks in front 6-4 on a kill. Back-to-back kills by McCoy tied the set, 6-6, before Kansas capitalized on a pair of WVU attacking errors on a 4-0 run to regain the lead at 13-9. KU rattled off four in a row, using a pair of blocks and an ace in taking a 20-11 advantage before McCoy ended the run with a kill. Anderson had a kill and Attea and Shreve teamed for a block, but it wasn’t enough as the Jayhawks used a kill to win the set 25-15 and claim the 3-0 victory.
West Virginia heads to Manhattan, Kansas, on Saturday to face the Wildcats of Kansas State in the season finale in a 9 p.m. ET match.
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