WVU Sweeps TTU for Big 12 Win

Saturday, September 24

Lubbock, Texas

2:00 p.m.

West Virginia University

9-6, 1-1

Texas Tech

10-7, 0-2

Team	1	2	3	Final F
West Virginia	25	25	25	3
Texas Tech	19	23	20	0

Swanegan-Main-091915.jpg

September 24, 2016 04:06 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

West Virginia Mountaineers

9-6, 1-1

Final

Texas Tech Red Raiders

10-7, 0-2

Final Stats

LUBBOCK, Texas – Hitting a season-best .361, the West Virginia University volleyball team took a 3-0 sweep of Big 12 foe Texas Tech for its first conference win of the season on Saturday afternoon at United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock, Texas. The Mountaineers (9-6, 1-1) took the match in set scores of 25-19, 25-23 and 25-20.

The Big 12 victory was WVU's first since November of 2014, making it the first Big 12 win for Coach Reed Sunahara.

“I thought we executed the game plan well when we needed to,” said Sunahara. “Our passing was very consistent and kept us in the set. We were able to overcome some miscues, especially in that second set. It's always good to get a Big 12 win.”

Payton Caffrey and Mia Swanegan led the Mountaineers with 14 and 12 kills, respectively. Swanegan also had a team-best five blocks and a career-high three service aces, hitting .440 in the match. Caffrey had eight digs and a trio of block assists in addition to a pair of service aces.

Hannah Shreve netted nine kills and four blocks, hitting .438. Katelyn Evans hit .429 with six kills as four Mountaineers finished the match hitting .300 or better. Morgan Montgomery had six kills, hitting .250 with a trio of blocks.

Erin Slinde assisted on 21 WVU kills, adding a pair of blocks as well. Haley Roe had 19 assists, while Gianna Gotterba led the floor defense with 12 digs and a pair of aces. Gabrielle Cuckovich finished with six digs in the match.

West Virginia had 48 kills and just nine errors on 108 total swings with 10 team blocks.

The squads kept it close for most of the first set before three kills and a block assist by Swanegan made up part of a 6-0 Mountaineer run that gave them a 16-12 lead. Swanegan added an ace – her second of the set – for an 18-13 lead. Tech rattled off four straight to shrink its deficit to three, down 21-19. Swanegan and Caffrey teamed for the block and Gotterba served her second ace of the day to win the set, 25-19.

The Red Raiders scored five in a row to take a 7-2 advantage to start the second set. The Mountaineers worked their way back from the deficit, using a trio of kills and an ace by Caffrey to tie things up at 10-10. Texas Tech stayed a step ahead of West Virginia, taking a 19-16 lead on a kill. Evans, Shreve and Montgomery each netted a kill to bring WVU within one at 20-19. A kill from Caffrey and back-to-back scores by Swanegan put WVU at set-point with a 24-22 lead before Caffrey buried the ball and put the set away for the 25-23 win and a 2-0 lead in the match.

An early 4-0 run pushed the Red Raiders ahead 7-5 in the third set before A pair of TTU attacking errors tied the set, 7-7 and the teams continued to trade points. Back-to-back kills by Caffrey gave WVU a 15-13 lead before Swanegan and Evans teamed for block to make it 16-13. Tech came back to tie the score 17-17 after WVU was called for a double hit, with Sunahara calling a timeout to regroup. The Mountaineers scored five straight out of the stoppage before Montgomery found the court to bring up match point. Swanegan put down her 12th kill of the night to give WVU the 25-20 win as the Mountaineers took the 3-0 sweep.

Three Red Raiders finished with seven kills as Texas Tech hit .205 with 33 kills and seven team blocks.

West Virginia will host TCU on Wednesday at the WVU Coliseum. First serve is slated for 6 p.m.