WVU Falls in Five at K-State

Saturday, October 22

Manhattan, Kan.

7:00 p.m.

West Virginia University

11-12, 2-7Big 12

Kansas State

16-5, 5-3Big 12

Team	1	2	3	4	5	Final F
West Virginia	12	25	24	25	8	2
K-State	25	21	26	20	15	3

Swanegan-Main-093015.jpg

October 22, 2016 10:20 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

West Virginia Mountaineers

11-12, 2-7

Final

Kansas State Wildcats

16-5, 5-3

Final Stats

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Despite career nights from Mia Swanegan and Erin Slinde, the West Virginia University volleyball team dropped a five-set battle to Kansas State, 3-2, at Ahearn Field House in Manhattan, Kansas, on Saturday night. The Mountaineers (11-12, 2-7) fell in the Big 12 match to the Wildcats (16-5, 5-3) in set scores of 12-25, 25-21, 24-26, 25-20 and 8-15.

Swanegan and Slinde both set career blocking highs with 13 and 10 blocks, respectively. The team had 16 blocks in the match as Hannah Shreve and Payton Caffrey each added a trio. Shreve hit a team-best .312 in the contest.

“I thought we battled hard, and we never gave up,” said coach Reed Sunahara. “We made some mistakes down the stretch, at inopportune times. It hurts to come up short, but it's a process. We're getting better.”

Caffrey notched her 10th double-double of the season with a team-high 14 kills and 14 digs. Katelyn Evans netted nine kill and a pair of blocks. Swanegan, Shreve and Morgan Montgomery each had eight kills as WVU finished with 53 kills and a .149 attacking percentage.

Slinde also set a career-best with 27 assists in addition to four kills and five digs. Haley Roe had 17 assists and five digs.

Gianna Gotterba led the floor defense with 18 digs, while Gabrielle Cuckovich finished with eight. Taylor Cross had eight digs in the match, while Swanegan and Cuckovich each had an ace.

The Wildcats hit .542 in the first set, with the Mountaineers struggling offensively at .036. Despite early kills from Caffrey and Levak, K-State took a 5-3 lead to start the frame. A 3-0 run put KSU on top, 8-4, and forced WVU into a timeout to kill the momentum. Though West Virginia picked up on a point on a K-State service error, the Wildcats went on to take three in a row again for a 16-8 advantage. K-State kept the momentum, rattling off a trio of points on two kills and a block to bring up set-point. Shreve put down a kill to keep the set alive before a WVU attack out of bounds gave K-State the 25-12 win.

The Mountaineers seemed to kick their offensive slump in set No. 2, hitting .355 in taking the 25-21 victory. After the two teams traded some early points, a 5-0 Wildcat run put them ahead 10-6. West Virginia later returned the favor, using back-to-back blocks to rattle off four straight for a 16-15 advantage. A trio of Caffrey kills made it 22-20 in favor of the Mountaineers before Evans found the court on back-to-back rallies for the win.

Swanegan had a pair of kills and an ace as West Virginia took a 7-5 lead to start the third set. Swanegan put another through the pins, then teamed with Caffrey for a block before a Cuckovich ace made it a 13-9 WVU advantage. The Wildcats took four in a row for a 20-19 advantage before back-to-back Caffrey kills, along with a K-State attacking error, put the Mountaineers back on top, 22-21. Following a Wildcat timeout, Swanegan and Slinde each found the court to bring up set-point for West Virginia with a 24-23 lead. However a pair of WVU attacking errors helped a 3-0 K-State run that handed the Wildcats the 26-24 win and 2-1 lead in the match.

K-State worked its way to an 11-6 lead in the fourth. However, Slinde and Swanegan team for back-to-back blocks on a 6-0 scoring run that saw the Mountaineers take a 14-13 lead on a Caffrey kill. The duo then posted a trio of blocks as WVU rattled off seven straight to make it a 21-15 advantage. Montgomery put one down to bring up set-point for West Virginia with a 24-19 lead before pairing with Shreve for the set-winning stop as the Mountaineers claimed the 25-20 triumph to tie the match 2-2.

A pair of early service aces put the Wildcats on top 5-2 in the tiebreaking set. Swanegan put down kill following the WVU timeout, but K-State pushed its advantage to 9-5 on a kill. Montgomery found the court, trying to erase a four-point deficit down 11-7, but the Wildcats took advantage of a pair of WVU attacking errors in taking the 15-8 set win for the 3-2 victory.

Brooke Sassin and Bryna Vogel each had 16 kills for K-State, who hit .191 with 59 kills and 8.0 team blocks.

West Virginia returns to Morgantown next weekend to host Texas Tech on Saturday at the WVU Coliseum. First serve between the Mountaineers and the Red Raiders is set for 3:30 p.m.