MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University volleyball team will play both home and away this week, as the team is set to host Iowa State on Wednesday at the WVU Coliseum at 6 p.m. ET match before traveling to Lubbock, Texas, on Friday for a 6 p.m. ET tilt with the Texas Tech Red Raiders at United Supermarkets Arena.
The Mountaineers will celebrate Military Appreciation Night against the Cyclones. Military members will receive free admission to the match and special concessions deals by presenting a military ID. General admission tickets are priced at $5 for the match and are available at the WVU Ticket Office or at WVUGame.com.
“I would like to see some more consistency,” said coach Reed Sunahara. “We have good runs, but we can’t string them together. It’s something we are dedicated to in practice as we look to improve each and every time we hit the court.”
West Virginia and Iowa State meet for the 11th time in series history and the eighth time in conference play. The Cyclones own a 9-1 lead in the overall series and are 7-0 in Big 12 matches against the Mountaineers. WVU’s lone win of the series came in 1998 in the form of a 3-2 victory in tournament play and marked the second meeting in a series that started in 1994. The Cyclones come to Morgantown with a 15-7 overall mark and an 8-3 record in conference play. ISU leads the league in service aces with 1.5 per set and is second in digs at 16.71 per set.
WVU traveled to Ames, Iowa, on Oct. 21 for its first meeting of the season with the Cyclones, falling 3-0 at Hilton Coliseum. Morgan Montgomery led the Mountaineers with 10 kills, six digs and a pair of aces while Caleah Wells added seven kills and a pair of solo blocks. ISU hit .381 with 8.0 team blocks and 43 kills in the match.
The Mountaineers are 4-5 against the Red Raiders, whom they face on Friday, as the two prepare for the 10th all-time meeting. WVU is 4-3 against TTU in the Big 12 and has won four of the last five meetings, including both matches in 2014. Texas Tech is currently 13-13 overall and 2-10 in the Big 12. The Red Raiders boast an opponent hitting percentage of .194, good for fourth in the league and are fifth in assists (12.41) and kills (13.25) per set.
The Red Raiders traveled to Morgantown on October 14 and took a 3-0 victory back to Lubbock. Mia Swanegan had a team-best 10 kills and hit for a .300 clip for West Virginia, while Montgomery tallied nine kills and seven digs. Hannah Shreve led the team with five total blocks and notched six kills as well. WVU hit just .134 in the loss.
West Virginia is coming off an 0-2 trip to Texas that saw the Mountaineers fall 3-0 to No. 5 Texas in Austin last Thursday before taking a 3-0 loss at Baylor in Waco on Saturday. Montgomery had a team-best 15 kills in the loss to the Longhorns, hitting .244 with a pair of aces in the process. Dzeni Hadzisehovic led the Mountaineers with nine kills and a .318 attacking percentage in the loss to Baylor. Swanegan also had eight kills and hit .388 in the loss. Melvina Brown led WVU’s floor defense on the week, collecting 14 digs on the week with eight against Baylor and six at Texas.
A sophomore outside hitter, Montgomery played her way into the Mountaineer record books this season. The Centennial, Colorado, native tallied her 300th kill of the season against Texas, putting her sixth in program history in kills by a sophomore. Her 3.22 kills per set, should she end the season with that average, would put her third in program history amongst sophomores.
Following the trip to Texas, WVU returns to Morgantown to cap its home slate on Nov. 21. The Mountaineers will host No.10 Kansas in a 3:30 p.m. Senior Day match at the WVU Coliseum.
