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WVU Set for Season Finale at No. 5 Texas
November 25, 2016 01:04 PM | Volleyball
AUSTIN, Texas – The West Virginia University volleyball team will cap the 2016 regular season on Saturday when the Mountaineers take on No. 5 Texas at Gregory Gym in Austin in a 2 p.m. ET contest.
The match will be broadcasted on the Longhorn Network, ESPN3 and the WatchESPN App. Live stats will be provided through Gametracker.
Saturday marks the 10th all-time meeting between the Mountaineers and Longhorns and the second match of the season between the two. Texas has been nationally ranked for all previous meetings, and was ranked No. 1 for a pair of contests in 2013. The first meeting between the two came in September of 2012 and was WVU’s first-ever Big 12 contest. The Longhorns are 9-0 in the series.
In facing the No. 5 Longhorns on Saturday, the Mountaineers will face an opponent ranked in the AVCA Coaches’ poll for the seventh time this season. WVU is still on the hunt for the program’s first win over a top-25 foe and came close on Nov. 16 when the Mountaineers took No. 4 Kansas to five sets, falling 3-2 to the Jayhawks.
“Texas is one of the best teams in the nation every year,” said WVU coach Reed Sunahara. “They consistently advance to the Final Four and have won national championships. Saturday is going to be a good challenge for our team. We will need to be on top of our game and execute well. We need to limit our mistakes and stay consistent.”
Payton Caffrey had a team-high 26 kills and added nine digs as the Mountaineers fell to the No. 5 Longhorns, 3-1, on Sept. 20 at the WVU Coliseum in Morgantown. Katelyn Evans had 11 kills, while Gianna Gotterba had 14 digs and Mia Swanegan had a team-best three blocks. West Virginia hit .172 with 62 kills and four team blocks in the loss.
For the second straight match and 10th time this season, the Mountaineers went to five sets against TCU on Wednesday. WVU fell, 3-2, to the Frogs to move to 4-6 on the season in five setters. The Mountaineers have played a deciding set on seven occasions in league play and are 2-5. West Virginia has played five-set matches against Indiana State, Marshall, Morehead State, Iowa State and Kansas and has twice gone to five against both K-State and TCU.
Closing out the regular season on Saturday, the Mountaineers end the season after making several improvements from 2015. The squad has more than doubled its win total, posting 12 wins thus far after winning just five matches in 2015. WVU’s win over Texas Tech in mid-September was the first Big 12 win since 2014 and the first ever for Sunahara. The Mountaineers later added two more. West Virginia claimed seven Big 12 weekly awards after being shut out in 2015. Caffrey was named the Rookie of the Week on five occasions, while Swanegen was twice named the Defensive Player of the Week.
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