Mountaineers Fall to No. 5 Longhorns

Tuesday, September 20

Morgantown, W.Va.

6:00 p.m.

West Virginia University

8-6, 0-1

Texas

9-2, 1-0

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
Texas	24	28	25	25	3
West Virginia	26	26	18	15	1

Roe-Main-092016.jpg

September 20, 2016 09:34 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

5 Texas Longhorns

9-2

Final

West Virginia Mountaineers

8-6

Final Stats

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – After taking the first set, the West Virginia University volleyball team was unable to capitalize on the early momentum and dropped its Big 12 opener, 3-1 to the No. 5 Texas Longhorns at the WVU Coliseum in Morgantown on Tuesday. WVU (8-6, 0-1) fell to Texas (9-2) in set scores of 26-24, 26-28, 18-25 and 15-25.

“I thought we did some nice things,” said second-year head coach Reed Sunahara. “Texas is ranked No. 5 in the country for a reason. They really put pressure on us, and we need to learn how to respond to that.”

Reigning Big 12 Rookie of the Week Payton Caffrey just missed double-double No. 8 of the season, netting a team-high 23 kills and nine digs. She hit .259 in the match. Katelyn Evans hit .250 with 11 kills and a trio of digs, while Natania Levak had eight kills. Erin Slinde hit a team-best .545 with seven kills and 19 assists.

Slinde also led the blocking effort with four block assists, while Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week Mia Swanegan finished with three. Swanegan also chipped in six kills.

Haley Roe assisted on 29 of WVU's 62 kills, adding seven digs as well. Gianna Gotterba boasted a team-high 14 digs in the match, followed by Taylor Cross with 13. Gotterba had one of the team's three aces, while Caffrey recorded the remaining two.

West Virginia hit .172 with 4.0 team blocks in the loss.

Behind seven kills from Caffrey, West Virginia topped Texas, 26-24, in the first set. A pair of Caffrey aces bookended back-to-back blocks by the duo of Swanegan and Slinde for a 6-0 Mountaineer run that put them ahead 8-4 in the set. The Longhorns took three straight to later tie the set at 10-10 before consecutive Caffrey kills once again put WVU on top, 15-13. Texas came back to even the score at 20-20, 22-22 and again at 24-24 before Caffrey found the court to bring up set-point, where a Longhorn attacking error gave West Virginia the win.

The Mountaineers hit .227 in the second set, but despite their best efforts, couldn't pull out the victory. WVU and UT traded early scoring runs to a 5-5 tie, keeping it close for most of the set. A UT service error and a Caffrey kill put the Mountaineers up 18-16, forcing Texas into a timeout. The Longhorns came out of the stoppage to take a 21-20 advantage, as WVU used its second timeout of the set. With Texas at set point, Caffrey extended the set on a kill before a UT hitting error made it set point for West Virginia. Following a timeout, the Longhorns scored four of the last five points to take the set, 26-28, on a service ace to tie the match 1-1.

The Longhorns capitalized on several early hitting errors by the Mountaineers for a 6-4 lead. Another 4-0 run made it 11-7 on a Longhorn kill before Evans, Caffrey and Levak each recorded kills to bring WVU within two, down 14-12. Back-to-back attacking errors on WVU pushed the Texas advantage to five at 18-13, and the Longhorns never look back, taking the set 25-18 for a 2-1 lead in the match.

Texas rattled off four in a row for a 4-1 lead in set three before a 5-0 run withstood a WVU timeout for an 11-5 lead before a kill from Evans ended the streak. Caffrey put down a pair of kills and Slinde added one to keep the Mountaineers within five, down 18-13, but four in a row for UT put the score at 22-13, and the Longhorns put the set away with a kill, taking a 25-15 win for the 3-1 victory in the match.

Micaya White had 18 kills for the Longhorns, who hit .344 in the match. Orie Agbaji had eight blocks as UT posted 17.0 team blocks.

West Virginia heads out on its first Big 12 road trip this weekend, traveling to Lubbock, Texas, for a 2 p.m. ET tilt with Texas Tech on Saturday.