Mountaineers Claim Comeback Win Over Eagles

Saturday, September 3

Charleston, W.Va.

10:30 a.m.

West Virginia University

3-3

Morehead State

2-4

Team	1	2	3	4	5	Final F
Morehead State	26	25	24	19	8	2
West Virginia	24	16	26	25	15	3

team-main-090316.jpg

September 03, 2016 02:20 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

Morehead State Eagles

Final

West Virginia Mountaineers

3-3

Final Stats

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Playing its third straight five-set match, the West Virginia University volleyball team rallied from a two-set hole to win a 3-2 thriller over Morehead State in the Capital Classic at the Charleston Civic Center on Saturday morning.

Payton Caffrey collected her second career double-double, notching 26 kills and 10 digs to go along with a pair of blocks. Caffrey, who hit .262 with an ace in the match, had 80 kills on the weekend for an average of 5.33 kills per set.

Katelyn Evans also had a solid outing for the Mountaineers, hitting .212 with 14 kills and five digs. Charleston native Hannah Shreve had seven kills and finished with a .333 attacking percentage.

Natania Levak posted a team-best four blocks, while Erin Slinde added a pair as the Mountaineers totaled 5.0 team blocks in the match. Slinde registered 21 assists, and Haley Roe dished out 25 across five sets. Gianna Gotterba had a team-best 14 digs, and Taylor Cross added 10 as three players finished in double figures.

Four different Mountaineers recorded a service ace. West Virginia hit .186 with 51 assists on 60 kills.

“I thought we were resilient,” said second-year head coach Reed Sunahara. “I'm proud that we never gave up and kept at it.”

Neither team found much momentum in the first set as they traded service errors, combining for a total of 14 throughout the set. A late 5-0 run for the Eagles pushed them in front 20-16, but kills from Caffrey and Levak, along several MSU errors, knotted the score at 24-24. After 13 ties and a pair of lead changes, the Eagles won the set with a kill and an ace, 26-24.

West Virginia tallied five of the first six points of set No. 2, taking a 5-1 advantage. The Eagles rattled off four straight to tie the set, 9-9. Morehead State put together another 4-0 run, taking a five-point lead at 17-12. The Mountaineers couldn't put together a solid run as MSU scored five straight to take the set, 25-16, on a service ace.

The Mountaineers again got off to a hot start, as Caffrey nailed three straight kills for a 5-0 lead. However, three straight attacking errors on WVU and an MSU kill brought the Eagles within two at 9-7. West Virginia kept a slim lead until the Eagles rallied late to score five straight for a 24-22 lead. A pair of Caffrey kills, combined with a pair of MSU errors, gave WVU the 26-24 victory as they trailed 2-1 in the match.

The two went back-and-forth to start the fourth before the Eagles grabbed an 8-12 advantage. A trio of Caffrey kills and a Gotterba ace evened the score before the momentum swung the Mountaineers' way for a 17-13 lead after back-to-back MSU attacking errors. A pair of crucial kills by Evans pushed WVU's advantage to 23-16 before the Eagles rallied for three straight. However, an Eagle service error and another kill from Evans gave West Virginia the 25-19 triumph to tie the match, 2-2, and send it to a fifth set.

A trio of freshmen in Caffrey, Levak and Evans, found the court to help West Virginia to a 7-2 lead to start the tiebreaker set. From there, the Mountaineers never looked back. With the team hitting .353, Levak teamed with Montgomery and Caffrey for a pair of late blocks before Caffrey buried a kill for the 15-8 win as the Mountaineers claimed the match, 3-2.

The Mountaineers head to California for a four-match road swing. They're set to face Cal, Santa Clara and Grand Canyon on Sept. 9-10 at the Cal Tournament in Berkeley before traveling to Stockton to take on Pacific on Sept. 12.