MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University volleyball team heads to the Lone Star state for a pair of matches this week, as the Mountaineers will take on No. 5 Texas on Thursday in an 8 p.m. ET match at Gregory Gym in Austin before traveling to Waco on Saturday for an 8 p.m. tilt with the Bears at the Ferrell Center.
Thursday’s contest against the Longhorns will be televised on the Longhorn Network. Check local listings for channel information.
WVU (5-16, 0-8) is coming off a week-long hiatus, and most recently took a 3-0 loss to Kansas State on Oct. 28 at the WVU Coliseum. Dzeni Hadzisehovic had 11 kills and a trio of blocks in the loss. Mia Swanegan posted a career-best six block assists, also adding six kills while hitting a team-high .417 in the match. West Virginia out-blocked the Wildcats, 7.0 to 4.0 in the loss, led by Swanegan with Bridgett Talia and Hadzisehovic each adding three.
WVU and Texas (19-2, 9-1) meet for the eighth time in program history and the fourth time in Gregory Gym. The No. 5 Longhorns own all seven prior meetings, though the Mountaineers took them to five sets last season in Morgantown, marking the first time they had ever taken a set against the perennial contenders. Previously ranked No. 2, the Longhorns dropped to No. 5 in the most recent AVCA poll after a 3-0 loss to TCU last week. Amy Neal (4.25 k/s) and Chiaka Ogbogu (.404 hitting) lead the offense and rank atop the Big 12 rankings, while setter Chloe Collins boasts 11.02 assists per set. Neal also leads the league in service aces with 28 (0.41 per set), while Ogbogu ranks second with 1.29 blocks per set. Libero Cat McCoy is fifth in digs at 4.11 per set.
In the first meeting of the year between the two, the then-No. 2 Longhorns took a 3-0 victory from the Mountaineers on September 25 in Morgantown to open Big 12 play. Morgan Montgomery had 12 kills for West Virginia, followed by Bridgett Talia’s seven. Brittany Sample had 23 assists in the match while Caleah Wells, Hannah Shreve and Swanegan each had a block solo and a block assist.
Saturday will mark the 11th all-time meeting between the Mountaineers and the Bears (14-9, 2-7). Baylor owns the 7-3 lead in a series that first began in 1986, though West Virginia has taken three of the last four meetings. The two have met seven times as league foes with Baylor holding a 4-3 advantage in Big 12 play. Setter Amy Rosenbaum ranks eighth in the league with 6.00 assists per set while Andie Malloy is fourth with 24 aces. Tola Itiola averages just over a block per set, good enough for eighth in the league, and Jane Brusek ranks eighth in digs with 3.28 per set.
The Bears earned a 3-0 victory over the Mountaineers on October 17 in Morgantown. Montgomery had a team-high 13 kills in the loss, with Shreve and Talia adding a trio of block assists. Haley Roe had 25 assists and hit .600 with four kills in the match. The loss ended a three-match win streak against Baylor, as WVU had taken both contests in the 2014 season.
Both of WVU’s seniors hail from the state of Texas. Middle blocker Caleah Wells is from Red Oak, where she competed for Red Oak High. Wells helped Red Oak to the 2010 regional finals and 2011 regional semifinals. Setter Brittany Sample hails from Lewisville and graduated from Hebron High. After transferring to Hebron from Brandeis High at the start of her junior season, Sample led the Lady Hawks to the 2010 Texas 5A state championship and earned mention on the 5A all-state tournament team.
Though she is not a native Texas, Swanegan played for TCU her freshman season and is coming off of a career day against K-State. The sophomore middle blocker went for a season/career-best six block assists against the Wildcats. Swanegan, a Blue Springs, Missouri, native, has worked her way into the rotation for the Mountaineers and is averaging 1.82 kills per set with 0.71 blocks per set this season.
Following the road trip, WVU returns home to host Iowa State on Wednesday, Nov. 11, in a 6 p.m. match at the Coliseum.
