The Mountaineers found themselves swept for the third straight match Wednesday night as they fell to the Kansas State Wildcats at home.
West Virginia entered the match energetic and error-free, marked by early kills from the whole team and smart serving from sophomore right side Tierney Jackson. As the first set progressed, however, the Mountaineers and setter Lauren DeLo tended to rely more so on outside hitters Bailey Miller and Hailey Green, who combined for 11 of WVU’s 17 kills in the opening set.
With 34 attacks and three errors, the Mountaineers led the Wildcats in hitting percentage in the first set with a .412 percentage compared to Kansas State’s .389. The set remained very close throughout, though, allowing Kansas State to pull ahead to win 27-25 on their second of five aces in the match.
The Mountaineers stayed competitive for the remainder of the match, but, after the first set, the team seemed a step or two behind for the rest of the way. Falling 25-19, West Virginia’s hitting percentage dropped drastically in the second set to .167 with 11 kills and six errors.
Scoring for West Virginia was once again heavily dominated by Green and Miller in the second set, with the duo tallying six and three kills respectively. Kansas State’s lead hitter duo accomplished the same feat, with senior Aliyah Carter, a two-time unanimous selection to the All-Big 12 First Team, making six of her total 10 kills in the set and sophomore Shaylee Myers gaining three.
Though only totaling 12 kills in the set, Kansas State made up their points in other ways, as they had no errors in the second set and three aces to take down West Virginia’s momentum. This momentum carried through in the third set, as the Wildcats had three runs of three points in the match’s final set to win 25-20.
West Virginia attempted to shut down KSU’s momentum early by returning to a full-team approach offensively to go on an early five point run, which included four kills from four different Mountaineers. In the spirit of getting the full team involved, Reed Sunahara opted to replace Tierney Jackson at the right side with freshman Emma Winter, who had two kills and a block in the third set.
As a whole, West Virginia’s play continued to look one-dimensional against the well-rounded core of Kansas State. The team relied heavily on Hailey Green and Bailey Miller offensively, with Green’s 42 swings and Miller’s 26 accounting for 63% of West Virginia’s attacks in the match. Green also led the team in digs Wednesday night with 10.
The freshmen middles played consistently for WVU once again as well, with Emma Beretich making four blocks, two kills, and one error in the match while Maddy McGath finished with six kills despite four errors in the match.
The Mountaineers will complete their stint of home matches against Chicago State on Saturday at 1 p.m.
