The Mountaineers lost their sixth conference game Wednesday night in Orlando, but the young team continued to show they were more than their last place ranking in the Big 12 women’s volleyball standings would suggest.
West Virginia’s roster in the match consisted of only freshmen and sophomores besides junior OH Hailey Green, who leads the team in kills, redshirt senior setter Lauren DeLo, and fifth year libero Camilla Covas. As such, the Mountaineers have struggled to gain consistency this season, resulting in an 0-6 conference record and a 7-12 total record.
The UCF Knights, who are undefeated in Big 12 conference play, heavily pressured the Mountaineers on the net behind the setting of redshirt freshman Abby Schomers and a pair of 6’5″ blockers in freshman OH Avah Armour and MB graduate student Abby Hansen.
In the first set, this sheer power appeared to be too much for West Virginia’s defense, and UCF did not give out any free points either. The Knights had 14 kills and no attack errors in the set for a .636 hitting percentage and led by 13 points on six occasions in the set.
Down 21-8, the Mountaineers began to show they could handle the hitting and blocking dominance of UCF. They covered their hitters well off UCF blocks to gain their ninth point and dug powerful hits to keep a long rally the next point before it ended in a kill from an Avah Armour tip.
The Knights quickly rallied to finish the set, winning 25-11, but the Mountaineers showed UCF their potential and tried to capitalize on it in the second set. Early, UCF simply carried their momentum forward, as Abby Hansen shot three fierce kills behind the defense in the team’s first four points.
West Virginia kept the score close throughout the set, though, rallying for five straight points to tie the set 10-10. The tie remained for several points after, but it always remained in favor of UCF, and the Knights extended their lead back to three points after breaking the 13-13 tie.
WVU coach Reed Sunahara called a timeout to recover, and it allowed the Mountaineers to bring the score within one to force UCF’s own timeout from coach Jenny Maurer. WVU briefly took a 19-18 lead afterwards, but after making a service error, a block and long tip from graduate student Claudia Dillon in the middle set the precedent for the remainder of the set, and the Knights triumphed 25-22.
Down 2-0, West Virginia ramped up their play once again and immediately held the close lead held in the previous set by the Knights. With three service errors from UCF and Lauren DeLo setting a variety of hitters for kills, the Mountaineers held the leading end of the back and forth set until the Knights overtook them 11-10.
The set continued as fairly back and forth between the two teams, but Hailey Green slowly took over most of the offensive load as UCF benefited from West Virginia errors. Down 22-21, the Knights gained their last burst of momentum for a three point run that was interrupted by a Hailey Green kill before they could finish the job 25-23 to end the match.
Despite the team’s increase in errors and missed digs after the first set, the Knights remained a well-oiled machine throughout the match, with a total of 50 kills assisted 39 times by Abby Schomers. UCF also had three players with 10 kills or more in the match: Emily Wilson (12), Abby Hansen (11), and Claudia Dillon (10).
West Virginia finished with 32 kills in the match in comparison, with only seven in the first set, but the Mountaineers did finish with 30 digs, just behind UCF’s 35. Hailey Green, who had 12 kills and four errors on 26 attacks, was the only Mountaineer with double-digit kills.
The Mountaineers will return home to the WVU Coliseum on Saturday for their next conference match against the TCU Horned Frogs, who are 11-6.
