MANHATTAN, Kan. (Kansas State Athletics) – K-State’s Mackenzie Morris joined the 1,000-dig club Saturday in helping her team force a fifth set against rival Kansas, but the Jayhawks managed to outlast the Wildcats, 25-19, 25-23, 20-25, 20-25, 15-7, in the season’s first Dillons Sunflower Showdown at Bramlage Coliseum.
Morris reached career dig No. 1,000 in just her 63rd match in a Wildcat uniform, becoming the fastest player in program history to reach the milestone in the rally-scoring era. The junior libero from Dallas, Texas, finished with a match-high 20 digs for her 16th career 20-dig outing.
K-State (9-5, 0-1 Big 12) owned a slim edge in total kills, 62-60, but hit .183 to Kansas’ .278 – marking a single-match high of any Wildcat opponent this season. The Cats out-killed KU 29-23 over sets three and four, helping erase a two-set deficit and force a decisive frame.
London Davis paced all players with 22 kills while hitting .647 for the Jayhawks (11-3, 1-1 Big 12).
Aliyah Carter equaled her season-best output with 20 kills while Shaylee Myers added 13 at a .407 clip. Middle blockers Sydney Bolding and Kadye Fernholz finished with 10 kills apiece.
Setter Loren Hinkle turned in her third straight double-double, as she handed out a career-high 57 assists to go with 10 digs. Elena Baka added 13 digs while Molly Ramsey’s dozen digs set a career high. Baka also chipped in a pair of aces.
The Wildcat defense produced 12.5 total team blocks and has now carded at least 10 blocks in seven of the last eight matches, including four straight. Bolding produced seven blocks while Hinkle ended with six and Fernholz logged four.
KU setter Camryn Turner handed out 41 assists to go with 16 digs and libero Kennedy Farris picked up 17 digs along with 11 assists.
FROM THE HEAD COACH
Head coach Suzie Fritz
On her thoughts on the match…
“A lot of ebbs and flows. I loved the game three and game four comeback, but then you can’t come back in game five and hit (.059). I felt a pretty significant letdown in terms of focus and aggressiveness. I think there’s a mentality that comes with winning in the fifth and it felt like we lacked it. It felt like we had the momentum going into it and missed a tremendous opportunity.”
On the team’s mentality after falling behind two sets…
“We’re competitive as heck. They do it every day. They challenge for playing time and get after each other every day and practicing well. We are putting ourselves in a position to play with just about everybody. We’ve had three pretty legitimate top-25 teams on our schedule back-to-back-to-back, and we are in them – we’re in all of them. But I think we are still trying to attack that breakthrough of consistency from point one. We have to play better at the beginning of the match, frankly, and we have to play better at the end of the match.”
On Mackenzie Morris…
“She’s special. I’ve been telling anybody that’ll listen, she’s special. Doesn’t say much, but what you see in a match is what you see every day and that’s pretty unusual, to be honest. There’s not that many players that you know exactly what you’re going to get, every single day. The effort, the focus, the plays you see in the match are the plays she makes every day. She rehearses her greatness and I think that is what makes her really special. She attacks greatness and settles for nothing less than and says very little about it.”
HOW IT HAPPENED
Set One – KU 25, K-State 19
Kansas hit .300 while limiting K-State to a .100 team efficiency behind four team blocks. Davis picked up four kills on six swings.
The Wildcats went on an early 7-1 run to take an 8-7 lead and, later, a three-point burst gave K-State an 11-9 lead. KU responded by rattling off the next five points. Two separate 3-0 scoring runs gave the Jayhawks a 24-16 advantage.
K-State thwarted three consecutive set-point tries before a kill by Caroline Bien handed KU the first set.
Carter put down four kills to lead K-State while Baka finished with three.
Set Two – KU 25, K-State 23
Seven unanswered points gave K-State its largest lead of the set at 14-8. KU chipped away at the deficit and a four-point spurt evened the score at 19 and with the score sitting at 22-22, a kill by Davis followed by a tandem block by Davis and Lauren Dooley brought the Jayhawks to set point.
Davis fifth kill of the second set put KU in front 2-0.
Despite a 16-13 edge in kills, K-State hit just .146 while the Jayhawks offense hummed at a .278 pace. Davis needed eight swings for her five kills.
Bolding and Carter led the way for the Wildcats with five kills each. Bolding did not commit an error on 11 attacks, hitting .455.
Kansas picked up five blocks in the set, with four block assists coming from Dooley.
Set Three – K-State 25, KU 20
K-State never trailed in picking up its first set victory. Carter put down five kills while both Bolding and Myers added three.
A pair of Davis kills led to a three-point run late in the set, evening the score at 20. Following a timeout, K-State strung together five straight points to take the set.
KU hit .154 – its lowest output of any set, as K-State picked up four blocks and 18 digs. Hinkle was responsible for three block assists while Ramsey added five digs.
Set Four – K-State 25, KU 20
For the second straight set, K-State never relinquished its lead in forcing a final set.
The Wildcats hit .353 for its highest single-set efficiency, logging 17 kills to KU’s 11. Fernholz and Myers led the way with six kills apiece, as neither committed an attacking error. Carter added five kills and the trio made up all 17 kills for the Cats in the set.
K-State jumped out to an 8-4 lead, including four straight points on the serve of Morris. K-State’s lead reached five at 20-15 and the teams traded points until a Myers kill sealed the set victory.
The Cats’ defense tallied three blocks in the set while KU did not record a single block.
Set Five – KU 15, K-State 7
In the decisive fifth set, it was Kansas that never trailed in earning its third straight win in the series. The Jayhawks tallied six of the set’s first seven points, with two kills from both Bien and Davis in that stretch.
The Wildcats were unable to put together consecutive points in the frame, hitting a match-low .059 (five kills, four errors, 17 attacks). Haley Warner was the only player to register multiple kills with two.
Davis logged five of her team’s 11 kills, needing just six swings in not committing an error (.833).
Kansas added three blocks to K-State’s one.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- K-State hit .183 as a team (62 kills, 30 errors, 175 attacks).
- Kansas finished with a .278 hitting percentage (60 kills, 18 errors, 151 swings).
- Morris’ match-high 20 digs put her over 1,000 career digs.
- It marked the 16th career match with at least 20 digs for Morris.
- Hinkle handed out a career-high 57 assists in producing her third straight double-double (10 digs).
- Carter equaled her season high with 20 kills, her 13th career 20-kill outing.
- Myers added 13 kills while hitting a team-leading .407.
- Bolding and Fernholz each logged 10 kills.
- Baka finished with 13 digs while Ramsey set a career high with 12.
- Baka picked up two of the Wildcats’ five aces for her eighth multi-ace match.
- The Cats totaled 12.5 team blocks, with seven coming from Bolding and six by Hinkle.
- Davis led all players with 22 kills at a .647 clip.
- Turner produced a double-double with 41 assists and 16 digs.
- Farris also turned in a double-double, leading KU with 17 digs to go with 11 assists.
- The Jayhawks’ .278 hitting percentage was the highest of any K-State opponent this season.
NOTES
- Morris became the fastest player in program history during the rally-scoring era to reach 1,000 career digs (63 matches).
- KU is the third straight team K-State has faced that was either ranked for receiving votes in the AVCA poll.
- K-State leads the all-time series with KU 67-57-1.
- The Wildcats are 30-22 at home all-time in the Dillons Sunflower Showdown.
- Fritz is 23-20 in her career against the Jayhawks.
- KU has won five of the last six meetings in the series, including the last three in Manhattan.
- Five of the last eight Dillons Sunflower Showdowns have gone the full five sets.
- The Cats are 1-3 in five-set matches this season.
- K-State has lost three consecutive matches for the first time this season.
- The Cats have produced double-figure blocks in four straight matches and in seven of the last eight matches overall.
UP NEXT
K-State travels to Texas Tech Wednesday for its first road conference tilt against the Red Raiders. First serve is set for 6 p.m. and will be broadcast on Big 12 Now on ESPN+ and the ESPN app. Rob Voelker will be on the call on News Radio KMAN with streaming audio available at K-StateSports.com/watch and on the K-State Sports app.
