From K-State Sports
West Virginia overcame a one-set deficit behind 22 kills from Katelyn Evans Saturday afternoon to give K-State a four-set loss, 18-25, 25-17, 25-18, 25-19, at Ahearn Field House.
The Mountaineers (9-8, 1-4 Big 12) held an 18-kill advantage in the match, including a 52-33 edge over the day’s final three sets. K-State (6-11, 1-4 Big 12) hit .254 as a team while WVU produced a .291 team efficiency.
“I think our ability to hit .254 is a step in the right direction,” head coach Suzie Fritz said after the match. “Just the fluidity with which we play right now, it sounds cliché, but we have to find some level of consistency, some standard that we can play at for longer stretches of time. That continues to be our challenge on a day-to-day basis and in matches. We are just feeling way too many ebbs and flows – giving up too points in bunches.”
Evans registered her match-high kill total while hitting .375. Audrey Adams added 10 kills while hitting at a match-best .400 clip in handing K-State its fourth straight loss.
Freshman Anna Dixon led the Wildcats with 11 kills, her seventh straight match in double figures. Gloria Mutiri recorded nine kills and hit .296 while Peyton Williams hit .353 with eight kills.
“I thought Gloria (Mutiri) had a really nice match, hitting .296,” added Fritz. “We’ve got to figure out a way to get Peyton (Williams) more involved. I think we have to take care of the ball better so that we can distribute the ball better.”
Holly Bonde picked up six kills on 12 swings without an error and Brynn Carlson chipped in six kills. Megan Vernon led the Cats with four block assists.
The opening set was the lone set in which K-State led in kills and hitting percentage, as the Wildcats hit .360 in picking up 11 kills while limiting WVU to a .091 efficiency on 10 kills. Carlson tallied four of her six kills in Set 1 while Vernon added two block assists. K-State used a 7-1 scoring run midway through the set to claim a 1-0 lead.
West Virginia went on to hit over .275 in each of the next three games, including a match-high .484 in the final frame, and totaled at least 16 kills in each of the final three sets.
Evans needed just 14 attacks to record seven kills (no errors) in the second set, as an 11-2 WVU run extended a one-point Mountaineer lead to a nine-point advantage.
The Cats never led in Set 3 but trimmed the deficit to four points following a late four-point scoring burst that included kills by Mutiri and Vernon. Five different Mountaineers registered multiple kills in the set, picking up 16 as a team. Mutiri ended the frame with four kills on 10 attempts without an error.
A three-point Wildcat run cut WVU’s lead to a single point at 17-16 in the fourth and, later, K-State was within two points at 20-18. West Virginia closed the match by scoring five of the final six points, capped by Evans’ 22nd kill of the day. Evans totaled eight kills in the set while Kristin Lux came off the bench for six on nine attacks.
WVU held a 19-11 edge in kills in Set 4 and hit .484. Dixon led the Cats with five kills in the final set.
Setter Sarah Dixon turned in her second straight double-double with 31 assists and 14 digs, her team-leading ninth double-double of the season.
Libero Loren Hinkle picked up 11 digs and a team-high two service aces. K-State ended the day with six aces recorded by five different Wildcats.
Mutiri recorded three blocks while Williams added two.
