Head coach Jen Greeny remains without a Big 12 match victory through two conference matches.
The Mountaineers went on the road to Iowa State for their second Big 12 match of the season following their 3-0 loss to Cincinnati at home. After going down two sets early, WVU fought for a fifth set but gave the Cyclones their first conference win.
Defensively, West Virginia struggled immediately out of the gate, allowing four kills and an ace in the first five points of set one. Iowa State gave the Mountaineers no chances, relying on errors for just six points in the first set.
The 25-14 Cyclones win was followed by a 25-15 win in set two, this time carried more by WVU mistakes. The Mountaineers nearly doubled their total errors from set one to set two, posting 11 in the set, including five missed serves.
Middle hitters Laila Ibrahim and Maddy McGath were bright spots as the Mountaineers went down 0-2. The pair combined for nine kills, including six in the first set, with just four errors, two of which were missed serves by McGath.
Setter Alexis Finnvold fed her middles more in the third set, and it worked. McGath contributed five kills while Ibrahim posted three in the 25-18 set win. Ibrahim also closed two blocks with right side Lauren Bodily for points while McGath blocked one swing with senior captain Hailey Green on the outside.
Bodily stepped up once again in Saturday’s win, building on her success at home as her role increased. The 6-foot-4 right side shot three kills in set four as Iowa State became more effective defending the middles.
Bodily replaced junior starter Quincey Coyle in the lineup after the first set, with Green moving to outside for Bodily to play opposite. Coyle appeared in all five sets as a server and passer in the back row. She hit one kill and one error in eight attacks in the first set.
West Virginia narrowly won set four, going on a 5-1 run to end the set after trailing 22-20. Auburn transfer Cassidy Tanton, who leads the team in kills this season, hit all three of WVU’s kills in the run while Iowa State made errors on the other two points to give WVU the win.
With the momentum of the third and fourth sets in their favor, the Mountaineers battled in set five but fell 17-15 after pushing the score to a win-by-two decision. WVU led as much as 11-6 in the set before allowing a 5-1 Iowa State run that featured two kills each from setter Morgan Brandt and pin Kiersten Schmitt. After going up 14-13, in need of one point to win the match, WVU allowed a 4-1 run that gave Iowa State the match, which ended on an error by Tanton.
Despite the defensive struggles that kept libero Sydney Reed to just 13 digs in five sets as WVU’s leading passer, WVU did shine offensively. Tanton and McGath both hit efficiently, with Tanton hitting 15 kills and just three errors on 51 attacks and McGath hitting 13 kills with four errors in just 27 attacks.
The Mountaineers will continue their Big 12 road trip on Wednesday at UCF. The match will kick off at 7 p.m. on ESPN+.
Photo by Korey Moore, Blue Gold Sports
