NORMAN, Okla. – Sophomore outside hitter Morgan Montgomery tallied nine kills, but the West Virginia volleyball team had 21 attacking errors in a 3-0 loss at Oklahoma in Big 12 action on Wednesday evening at McCasland Field House in Norman. The Sooners (12-15, 6-9) topped the Mountaineers (5-23, 0-15) in set scores of 25-18, 25-16 and 25-18.

 

“Morgan had a nice match,” said coach Reed Sunahara. “She took some nice swings. We wanted to do a better job against Kierra Holst, but in doing so we failed to cover some of their other players. I’m looking for a better all-round effort on Friday. We will look to make some improvements between now and then.”

 

Montgomery hit for a .286 clip in the loss as the Mountaineers totaled 33 kills and hit .124. Senior middle blocker Caleah Wells notched seven kills and hit .357 and joined Montgomery in the blocking effort as each produced a block assist. Sophomore middle blocker Mia Swanegan found the court six times and posted a block assist as well.

 

With the Mountaineers going for 4.0 team blocks, junior middle blocker Hannah Shreve led the effort with a pair of block assists in addition to four kills, hitting .250 in the process. Junior right side Dzeni Hadzisehovic came in off the bench in the third set and went for five kills at a .500 hitting clip.

 

Junior setter Haley Roe dished out 28 assists, while sophomore libero Gianna Gotterba dug a team-best 10 balls. Roe also went for six digs, with freshman defensive specialist Abby Brown chipping in five.

 

The Sooners hit .314 with 39 kills and 10.0 team blocks in the match.

 

West Virginia found itself in a 10-6 hole in set one, but four straight Sooner attacking errors helped the Mountaineers tie the set 10-10. However, a 4-0 OU run provided separation between the two with Oklahoma taking a 14-10 advantage. Wells and Montgomery found the court for the Mountaineers, but OU pushed its lead 20-15 on a block. Abby Brown recorded a service ace, but four straight errors by West Virginia handed the set to the Sooners, 25-18.

 

A pair of early Swanegan kills put the Mountaineers on the board in set two, but the Sooners raced out to a 6-2 advantage. Another short OU scoring streak put WVU into a 15-6 deficit before a cross-court kill from Wells ended the run. Montgomery put one on the court before back-to-back errors by the Sooners aided the Mountaineers in cutting into the deficit as they trailed 21-14. Consecutive kills by OU put them at set point with a 24-14 lead. WVU stayed alive on a kill from Shreve and an OU ball handling error, but the Sooners took the 25-16 win on a kill to lead 2-0.

 

Undeterred by a WVU timeout at the start of the third set, Oklahoma rattled off four in a row early for a 9-3 advantage. Wells put down back-to-back kills, then added another as the Mountaineers trailed 11-6 in the set. Roe and Wells put points on the board, but West Virginia couldn’t dig itself out of the hole as the Sooners led 18-12. A Sooner ace put Oklahoma at set point, 24-15, before the Mountaineers strung together three straight points on back-to-back kills by Hadzisehovic to stay alive. However, the Sooners put one on the court to cap the set, 25-18, and take the match 3-0.

 

West Virginia will close out the season on Friday when the Mountaineers head to Fort Worth to face TCU in a 3 p.m. ET match.