The Kansas State Volleyball team played a pair of five-set matches Saturday at the Hurricane Invitational hosted by the University of Miami. The Wildcats defeated Illinois State in their first match and fell to Miami in the night match. Below is a recap of both matches.
By Chris Kutz, K-State Athletics Communications
KANSAS STATE 3, ILLINOIS STATE 2
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Behind three players with double-doubles and a program-record 118 digs, K-State climbed back from a 2-1 deficit and beat Illinois State in five sets (23-25, 25-21, 25-27, 25-12, 19-17) on Saturday at the Hurricane Invitational in the James L. Knight Sports Complex.
Junior Brooke Sassin and sophomore Bryna Vogel both notched their first career double-doubles, with the duo recording career-highs in kills and digs. Sassin had a match-high 20 kills, on 64 attacks and a .266 hitting percentage, to go with her 19 digs while Vogel registered 13 kills and 23 digs, the most by a K-State outside hitter since 2001 when Lisa Mimick and Jennifer Pollard each had 25 vs. Arkansas in the NCAA Tournament.
Redshirt junior Katie Brand, while piloting the offense of K-State (2-0) to a .258 clip, had 56 assists and a career-high 24 digs to tally her 32nd career double-double. It was her first career 20-20 double-double, though, and first by a Wildcat in the rally-scoring era. Brand’s 24 digs were also the most by a Wildcat setter since Disney Bronnenberg had 24 as well on October 23, 1998 at Texas.
Junior Kersten Kober brought the number of Wildcats with 20 or more digs to three as she had 25 to go with her eight assists. The libero’s fourth career match with 20 or more digs was her first since October 1, 2014 (at KU).
The digs, surpassing the previous school record of 117 set on October 10, 1990 vs. KU, were a major part of the K-State defense limiting Illinois State (0-2) to 70 kills on its 226 attacks (.212). In K-State’s second and fourth set wins, the Redbirds hit just .146 and .100, respectively.
In the fifth and deciding set, the Wildcats allowed Illinois State to hit .275 – its highest clip in a set since the first – but K-State was errorless on all 42 of its attempts. It proved crucial as the Wildcats had match point seven times, with the deciding point coming the way of Alyssa Schultejans’ 10th kill of the day. The freshman entered the match in the third after sophomore Kylee Zumach walked off the court on her own power with an injury.
To help it reach the fifth, K-State was powerful in the fourth, turning in 16 kills on a .400 attack percentage, while holding the Redbirds to just eight kills. Sassin (6), Vogel (5) and Schultejans (4) combined for 15 of the Wildcats’ 16 kills. K-State also sided out in all 12 of its opportunities to limit any momentum gained by Illinois State.
The momentum was in the Redbirds’ favor after the third as K-State, with set point in hand at 24-23 after a kill by Brand, allowed a set error by Makenzie Holcomb and back-to-back Illinois State kills to put itself in a two-sets-to-one disadvantage in the contest.
The Wildcats were forced to bounce back from a first set in which it had six attack errors, after eight total in its season-opening sweep of Florida A&M on Friday evening. Vogel and Zumach’s four kills were key parts of the second set win, with a pair of kills by Zumach and a set-deciding kill by Vogel being part of a 6-2 run to end the second. Katie Reininger, who had a career-high three aces in the match, also had two aces during the run.
MIAMI (FLA.) 3, KANSAS STATE 2
For the second time on Saturday, K-State came back to force a match to five sets, but in the evening tilt against tournament host Miami, the Wildcats allowed five straight points to end the fifth set and suffered a 3-2 loss (25-21, 22-25, 25-20, 20-25, 15-10) at the James L. Knight Sports Complex to end the Hurricane Invitational.
The defeat for K-State (2-1) snapped its 12-match winning streak in true road non-conference matches, a stretch that dated back to 2011. Saturday also marked the Wildcats’ first five-set loss in any non-conference match since September 12, 2010 (at No. 16 Kentucky).
K-State out-killed Miami (3-0), 71-65, in the match as four Wildcats reached double-figures in kills, led by juniors Brooke Sassin and Katie Reininger with 17 apiece. Reininger, who also had a team-best six blocks, used her .556 hitting percentage to match her career-high in kills while Sassin recorded her second straight double-double as she also had 10 digs.
Sophomore Bryna Vogel notched a double-double as well, her second of the day, as the outside hitter had a career-high 16 kills and 14 digs.
Freshman Alyssa Schultejans had a career-high 11 kills on her 33 attempts. The outside hitter had 10 over three sets earlier in the day against Illinois State.
Redshirt junior Katie Brand added her 33rd career double-double with 53 assists and 10 digs. The setter guided the K-State offense to a .280 hitting percentage, including a .412 clip in the second and .361 in the fourth – both Wildcat wins.
The K-State defense was able to slow down the Miami offense after a .379 clip in the first, but in the match-deciding fifth, the Hurricanes turned in a .421 hitting percentage while the Wildcats hit .190.
K-State led as late as 7-6 in the fifth and managed to tie it at 10-10 on a Miami attack error, but the Hurricanes used a 5-0 burst to close out the match. Kelsie Groot, who had a match-high 19 kills, turned in three over the run while one of the Hurricanes’ 12.5 blocks ended the contest for match point.
The Wildcats were able to even the match after dropping the first and third sets with an overwhelming offense. In the second, despite 10 ties and five lead changes, K-State had 19 kills to Miami’s 10 to knot it up at 1-1. With the score tied at 19-19, a tandem of Sassin and Vogel allowed the Wildcats to pull away and score six of the final nine points. Sassin had three of her six kills in the set over the final six K-State points while Vogel chipped in two of her four second set kills.
After dropping a third set in which it trailed as much as eight points but closed it to four at 22-18, K-State came out in the fourth and separated itself from Miami when it was 10-9 Hurricanes. A Makenzie Holcomb kill triggered an 8-1 burst for the Wildcats, forcing Miami to burn both of its timeouts in an attempt to stop the Wildcat momentum. Three consecutive kills by Sassin, who had five total in the fourth, opened up a 17-11 lead for K-State – an advantage that was only narrowed to as close as three at 19-16.
Despite the loss, K-State managed to come out of its opening weekend with a winning record for the fourth consecutive season.
K-State now returns home for the Varney’s Invitational in Bramlage Coliseum September 4-5. The Wildcats open up their home slate with a noon match against Green Bay on September 4 before hosting Cal at 7:30 p.m. later that evening.
