Riding a four-match losing streak, WVU Volleyball wrapped up its third and final tournament on Sunday with a bang, defeating tournament host Liberty three sets to none.
Sophomore setter Alexis Finnvold found her hitters against Liberty, tallying 31 assists in just three sets. Finnvold set 26 assists against Virginia and 36 against East Tennessee State on Friday. Both matches went to four sets.
Auburn transfer Cassidy Tanton was the leading attacker as she has been all season, hitting 12 kills and three errors on 31 attacks, but it was returning Mountaineers Quincey Coyle and Hailey Green that shocked Liberty’s defense.
Coyle tied Tanton for the most kills but did so on an efficient .455 hitting percentage, with 12 kills and two errors on 22 attacks. Green hit the ball even more efficiently, hitting 10 kills and one error on 16 attacks for a hitting percentage of .563.
The Liberty Tournament has shed a positive light on Green’s senior year, which has seen the captain take a back seat from last season. Green reached 1,000 career kills in the Mountaineers’ tournament opener against Virginia and finished with 32 kills on the weekend in just 63 attacks and with eight errors.
Defensively, 6-foot-1 middle Laila Ibrahim continued to dominate at the net, tying her season high of six blocks, including a powerful rejection on an overpass, with one blocking error. Ibrahim also hit four kills and two errors on nine attacks.
Green helped Ibrahim most at the net, assisting on four blocks from the right pin. In the back row, Tanton secured 12 digs, and libero Sydney Reed finished with 10, including a pivotal save to make the score 24-22 in the second set.
West Virginia will leave the Liberty Tournament 1-2 but with a lot of momentum after the win. The Mountaineers will now begin nonconference match play against Fairfield in Connecticut on Friday at 5 p.m. The match will be available to stream with ESPN+.
Photo from WVU Volleyball
