Caffrey Sets Rookie Mark in Loss at No. 6 KU

Thursday, October 20

Lawrence, Kan.

7:30 p.m.

West Virginia University

11-11, 2-6Big 12

Kansas

18-2, 7-1Big 12

Team	1	2	3	Final F
West Virginia	18	20	22	0
Kansas	25	25	25	3

Caffrey-Main-091616.jpg

October 20, 2016 09:51 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Payton Caffrey set a Mountaineer freshman record as the West Virginia University volleyball dropped a 3-0 Big 12 match to No. 6 Kansas at the Horejsi Center in Lawrence, Kansas, on Thursday evening. The Mountaineers (11-11, 2-6) fell to the Jayhawks (18-2, 7-1) in set scores of 25-18, 25-20 and 25-22.

Scoring her 15th kill in the third set, Caffrey set a new freshman record with 401 kills on the season. She added another to bring her tally to 402, which is ninth on the program's top-10 list for single season kills. Caffrey ended the night hitting .231 with 16 kills, a service ace and a block assist.

“Kansas is one of the top teams in the league and the nation for a reason,” said coach Red Sunahara. “They're all well-trained athletes. I thought we competed well, but we came up short. As for Payton it's a great honor. I hope she continues to do what she's doing. She's adding a lot of value to our team.”

Morgan Montgomery had eight kills, hitting .211 in the match, while Mia Swanegan hit .227 with seven kills. Natania Levak and Erin Slinde each had a pair of kills as well as WVU hit .175 with a total of 35 kills on the night. Slinde also registered a service ace.

Erin Slinde assisted on 20 kills, while Haley Roe added five assists. Roe added seven digs behind Gianna Gotterba's team-high 14 dug balls. Taylor Cross also had seven digs, while Gabrielle Cuckovich added four to the scoresheet.

With five block assists, Hannah Shreve led the WVU blocking effort. Levak posted a trio of block assists as the Mountaineers totaled 6.0 team blocks.

Five aces in the first frame helped the Jayhawks take the set, 25-18. Back-to-back KU kills, followed by consecutive WVU attacking errors made up a 4-0 run that put the Jayhawks up 9-3. Back-to-back service aces put Kansas in front, 16-8. Caffrey netted consecutive kills to bring WVU within six, down 18-12. Montgomery and Levak each found the court as well, but back-to-black blocks ended the set in favor of the Jayhawks.

Kansas started the second set on a 4-0 streak before a kill from Swanegan put the Mountaineers on the board. The Mountaineers capitalized on several KU attacking errors as Shreve paired with Montgomery and then Slinde on blocks to tie the set, 7-7. A 5-0 run midway through the set put Kansas on top 17-13. Caffrey added back-to-back kills, but the Jayhawks used a service ace and a kill to bring up set point with a 24-18 lead. A KU attacking error and a Swanegan kill extended the set before a block gave the Jayhawks the 25-20 win and the 2-0 lead.

The Jayhawks once again jumped out to a 5-1 lead, using a pair of WVU errors on a 5-0 scoring run. Following a WVU timeout, Caffrey put down a kill, followed by a KU attacking error to bring the Mountaineers within three down 6-3. Kansas scored four more in a row for a 12-6 advantage. Swanegan and Slinde found the court before Caffrey scored a service ace to cut the WVU deficit to five at 17-12. Caffrey and Levak each added another kill on a 3-0 Mountaineer run that was stopped by a KU timeout. Swanegan again found the court to extend the set with Kansas service match point before a Jayhawk attacking error brought WVU within two at 24-22. However, Kansas took the next rally with a kill to win the set, 25-22, and the match, 3-0.

Kelsie Payne had a team-high kills for the Jayhawks, who hit .245 with 40 kills and 7.0 blocks.

West Virginia heads to Manhattan, Kansas, on Saturday for a 7 p.m. ET tilt with Kansas State.