MORGANTOWN, W. Va.– For the second time in as many weeks, the West Virginia University volleyball team will trek to Kansas, this time traveling to Manhattan for a Big 12 match at Kansas State. The Mountaineers and the Wildcats are set to square off at 3 p.m. ET on Saturday inside Bramlage Coliseum.
WVU spent last weekend in Lawrence, Kansas, as the Mountaineers faced then-No. 12 Kansas. The Jayhawks took a 3-0 victory from the Mountaineers at Horejsi Family Athletics Center.
West Virginia will meet Kansas State seventh time in Big 12 play. The Wildcats own the 6-2 series lead, though the Mountaineers took the last meeting between the two, earning a 3-2 in Manhattan to close out the 2014 season. K-State was ranked in three of the previous meetings, but does not appear in the AVCA poll this season.
The Wildcats are 9-7 overall and 1-3 in league play, with their lone Big 12 win coming in the form of a 3-0 sweep of Baylor on September 26. Brooke Sassin ranks fourth in the Big 12 with 3.61 kills per set, while setter Katie Brand is second with 11.05 assists per set this season. K-State has two players in the top ten in digs in Brand (3.10 per set) and Bryna Vogel (3.06 per set). Katie Reininger leads the Wildcats with 0.98 blocks per set, while Zsofia Gymies is close behind at 0.93 blocks per set.
Both the Mountaineers and the Wildcats have faced Kansas and TCU in league play this season. TCU took a 3-2 victory over K-State on October 3, and topped WVU, 3-1, on September 30. Kansas defeated the Wildcats, 3-1 on September 23 and swept the Mountaineers, 3-0, last weekend. Most recently, K-State dropped a 3-0 match at Iowa State.
West Virginia traveled to Manhattan to close out the 2014 regular season and scored a 3-2 upset win over the Wildcats, who spent part of the season ranked inside the AVCA’s top-25. Jordan Anderson had 26 kills in the match, while then-sophomore Hannah Shreve had six blocks. It marked WVU’s first ever win over a top-25 RPI team, as K-State had an RPI of 18.
K-State holds a special place in the WVU volleyball record books, as a 2013 home victory over the Wildcats marked the first Big 12 win in program history for the Mountaineers. West Virginia earned a 3-1 triumph of the Wildcats on September 27 of that year at the WVU Coliseum.
The Mountaineers capped their nonconference slate on Wednesday, dropping a 3-1 match to Robert Morris. Morgan Montgomery had 22 kills in the loss, while Hannah Shreve and Caleah Wells each tallied six blocks.
West Virginia returns home for a two-match home stand next week, starting with Texas Tech on Wednesday. The Mountaineers and Red Raiders will meet in a 6 p.m. match at the WVU Coliseum.
