Mountaineers Sweep Eagles in Home Opener

Friday, September 16

Morgantown, W.Va.

7:00 p.m.

West Virginia University

6-5

Winthrop

6-6

Team	1	2	3	Final F
WINTHROP	17	21	20	0
West Virginia	25	25	25	3

Caffrey-Main-091616.jpg

September 16, 2016 09:19 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

Winthrop Eagles

6-6

Final

West Virginia Mountaineers

6-5

Final Stats | Photo Gallery

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Registering her sixth double-double of the season, rookie Payton Caffrey made herself right at home in Morgantown as she led the West Virginia University volleyball team to a 3-0 sweep of Winthrop on Friday night at the WVU Coliseum on the first day of the WVU Invitational. The Mountaineers (6-5) downed the Eagles (6-6) in set scores of 25-17, 25-21 and 25-20.

Caffrey netted 10 kills and registered a team-best 10 digs, hitting .207 in the win. She also posted a trio of block assists and both of WVU's service aces. Mia Swanegan had eight kills and hit .222 with a pair of block assists, while Hannah Shreve had seven kills and a trio of block assists.

Erin Slinde hit a team-best .857 with six kills and dished out 16 assists. She split time at setter with Haley Roe, who assisted on 18 of the Mountaineers' 42 kills. Natania Levak had a pair of blocks and added five kills as well.

Gianna Gotterba and Taylor Cross each notched seven digs. West Virginia finished the match hitting .182 with six team blocks and 34 digs.

“It's good to play at home, and it's good to get the first one out,” said second-year head coach Reed Sunahara. “I thought we were a little sloppy at times but we rebounded, and I thought we played well when it counted.”

Back-to-back kills from Slinde, followed by back-to-back aces from Caffrey, pushed WVU out to a 14-3 advantage on a 7-0 run and the Mountaineers never looked back. Levak netted a trio of kills to make it a 10-point advantage at 21-11, and the Eagles were able to capitalize on a trio of Mountaineer miscues to make it 23-15. With WVU hitting .360 in the set, a kill from Shreve handed the Mountaineers the 25-17 victory and a 1-0 lead in the match.

Shreve and Slinde each found the court early in the second set, putting WVU up 7-4. The Mountaineers gave up a 4-0 run to the Eagles, who used a pair of blocks to tie the set at 11-11. A big swing by Caffrey stopped the streak, and she teamed with Swanegan for block to make it a 14-12 WVU advantage. The Mountaineers held off a late Winthrop scoring run as the Eagles came within two, down 23-21. An Eagle attacking error brought up set point and Caffrey and Swanegan again paired at the net to give West Virginia the 25-21 win and 2-0 lead.

West Virginia found itself in a 5-3 hole early in set No. 3 before Shreve, Levak and Morgan Montgomery came through on big swings to take back the momentum at 6-5. The teams traded points throughout the set before WVU scored four straight in taking a 20-16 lead on a Caffrey kill. She wasn't done there, as three straight kills by the freshman won the set, 25-20, as the Mountaineers registered the 3-0 sweep.

Brianna Gray finished with a team-best six kills from the Eagles, who hit .012 with 22 kills and seven blocks.

West Virginia will host Akron at 12:30 p.m. before closing the WVU Invitational with a 7 p.m. match against Dartmouth.