MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University volleyball team will close out its home schedule on Saturday when the Mountaineers host No. 9 Kansas at the WVU Coliseum in Morgantown on Saturday. First serve is slated for 3:30 p.m.
Prior to the start of the match the team will honor seniors from both programs, which includes a trio of Jayhawks and a pair of Mountaineers. Tickets are available at the WVU Ticket Office or in advance at WVUGame.com.
“It’s going to be a challenging match against not only one of the best teams in the Big 12, but one of the top teams in the nation,” said coach Reed Sunahara. “They’re a solid team across the board. We’ve been working hard on making improvements in practice, and we’ll look to transition these into our play in the match. We aim to get better every time we step on the court. It will also be bittersweet as we honor two seniors who have made great contributions to our program.”
Setter Brittany Sample departs West Virginia after putting herself in the record books during her career. Sample sits seventh all time with 2,882 career assists and ranks eighth all-time with 8.12 assists per set. She boasts 766 career digs and 99 total blocks with a career-best of 60 assists set against TCU in 2014. Sample has been named to the Academic All-Big 12 Second Team, has twice earned tournament MVP honors and was named to a pair of all-tournament teams. She will graduate this December with a degree in industrial engineering. Sample, from Lewisville, Texas, will be joined by her parents Glen and Jessica.
Middle blocker Caleah Wells also ranks among the Mountaineers’ best as she completes her career. Wells is ninth all-time at WVU with 254 career block assists and has missed just one match in her career for a total of 405 sets in 117 matches. She has tallied 281 total blocks and 741 kills with a career high of 17 in a five-set win over Marshall this season. Wells has also been named to a pair of all-tournament teams in her time with the Mountaineers. She will graduate with a degree in psychology. Hailing from Red Oak, Texas, Wells will be escorted by her parents Samuel and Calinda.
West Virginia (5-20, 0-12) is coming off a 3-0 loss to Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas, on Friday, Nov. 13. Morgan Montgomery had 15 kills with a trio of blocks to lead WVU in the loss. Gianna Gotterba led the floor defense with 19 digs and had the lone service ace of the night.
The Jayhawks enter the match up 23-2 overall with an 11-2 mark in the Big 12 after losing to just No. 5 Texas in league play.
The Mountaineers and the Jayhawks meet for the 10th time on Saturday, with Kansas owning a 9-0 series lead. The series began in 1999 when KU took a 3-1 win at the WVU Coliseum and continued in 2000, with Kansas claiming another 3-1 triumph. The two became conference foes in 2012 with the Jayhawks leading 7-0 in the Big 12 series. Kansas has been ranked inside the AVCA top-25 poll for five of the seven conference matches. Their current No. 9 ranking would be the highest that WVU has faced them at.
West Virginia will close out the regular season on the road as they play three games in four days next week. The Mountaineers will play back-to-back matches at Oklahoma on Nov. 24 and 25 at 8 p.m. ET at McAllister Fieldhouse in Norman before heading to Fort Worth to finish the season at TCU on Nov. 27.
