The Mountaineers had no answer for the Jayhawks’ persistent hitters on Thursday as 14th ranked Kansas swept WVU’s women’s volleyball team.
West Virginia improved their offensive consistency and kept attack errors down in this 10th conference match, but Kansas was relatively unphased by their efforts. The Jayhawks had three players in double digits for digs in the three sets, including freshman libero and two-time Big 12 Rookie of the Week Raegan Burns.
As a result, the Jayhawks converted this into their own offensive charge, putting heavy pressure on the Mountaineers’ back row leaders of Camilla Covas, Samiha Foster, and Quincey Coyle.
Kansas juniors, middle blocker Toyosi Onabanjo, right side London Davis, as well graduate student Reagan Cooper hit through WVU’s blockers with ease. When West Virginia digs came over the net or led to a play, Kansas frequently responded with either a block or a simple return resulting in just as powerful of a hit as the initial one.
With this continuous effort, the Jayhawks made just four errors in the match’s final two sets, where they had a total of 66 attacks for 31 kills. West Virginia finished with 32 kills for all three sets and made 11 errors in the final two sets in 67 attacks.
These statistics do not jump off the page for WVU, but they arose simply due to an inability to defeat the Kansas defense. Outside hitters Hailey Green and Bailey Miller were successful at points in overwhelming the Jayhawks, but their combined 22 kills came at the cost of 12 errors between the pair.
Freshmen middle blockers Maddy McGath and Emma Beretich played a consistent match offensively despite struggling on the block. McGath finished with six kills in 17 attempts, primarily using her 6’2″ stature to tip right over the Kansas front row.
Coach Reed Sunahara and the Mountaineers will look to make the necessary adjustments to fight back against the powerhouse on Friday night. West Virginia is currently 2-8 in conference play.
