PORTLAND, Ore. (K-State Athletics) – K-State was crowned the Hotel Vance Rose City Showdown Champions after defeating Cal State Fullerton in three straight sets (25-7, 25-21, 25-13) as the Wildcats went a perfect 3-0 in opening weekend action at Viking Pavilion.
Three Wildcats earned all-tournament honors with outside hitter Aliyah Carter, setter Izzi Szulczewski and middle blocker Sydney Bolding.
K-State (3-0) limited the Titans to just seven points in the opening set, nearly matching a program record (6) of fewest points allowed in the rally-scoring era.
Jason Mansfield becomes just the second Wildcat volleyball head coach to start off his career 3-0, joining Jim Moore who opened 4-0 in 1994.
Newcomer Liz Gregorski led the offense with a career-high 12 kills as the Appleton, Wis., product hit .273 on 33 swings with three errors.
Izzi Szulczewski paced the 5-1 offense with 24 assists to go with eight digs alongside Mackenzie Morris. Morris’ eight digs brought her career total to 1,307 making her the fifth player in the rally scoring era to reach the 1,300-mark.
K-State produced a season second-best 12.5 blocks in the match led by Sydney Bolding with eight. The Pickens, S.C., native rejected 16 attacks on the weekend, averaging 1.60 per set which ranks third in the Big 12.
For the second straight day, the Wildcats produced an incredible attack percentage as K-State hit .400 with 40 kills on 85 swings with just six errors. K-State picked up 35 assists and seven service aces while collecting 37 digs on defense.
K-State’s impressive defense forced Cal State Fullerton (0-3) to closely commit as many errors (22) as kills (23) in the match for the team to hit just .011. Lyla Traylor led the Titans’ offense with 10 kills along side nine digs while Ryleigh Garis guided the team with 22 assists.
SET-BY-SET
Set One
K-State opened the match with a 7-0 run – its longest run of the tournament – led off with a kill by Sydney Bolding from Izzi Szulczewski. The Wildcats defense rolled five blocks in the first set as they held the Titans to a -.114-attack percentage.
Set Two
The Wildcats fell behind for the first time in the match as the Titans put together an 8-3 scoring run to lead 12-7. After tying the set at 16-all with a kill by Aniya Clinton, K-State capitalized on an attack error to grab the lead. The Titans trimmed the gap to two, 21-19, until the Wildcats strung a 4-2 closing run to capture the second set.
Set Three
Clinton and Bolding each registered three blocks in the final frame as the defense continued to hold off the Titans, who totaled 13 points with a third set -.034 attack percentage. Gregorski led with six kills in the third for a set-high .353 attack percentage,
IN HIS WORDS
Head Coach Jason Mansfield
On the match overall…
“I think three matches in three days is really hard. To have less than 24 hours in the second and third match, I think I was worried that it was going to take its toll on us, but I’m proud that it didn’t, and people were ready to go. I thought we did a good job in the first set of really playing clean volleyball. And then just really happy that we got people in. The depth on this team, I think is a strength and we’re going to need people throughout the season. So I’m happy that people got in. They did a good job.”
Opening 3-0 in first year as head coach…
“I mean, winning’s fun, right. So I’ll take them anytime I can. But I think for me, we just wanted to come to this tournament and play well and play like we were capable of playing. So for me, that is the best thing that happened. We know how good we can be and if we happen to win three matches great. But yeah, really happy to be here, really excited to compete with this group.”
On the all-tournament selections…
“Aliyah just really was special yesterday and really kind of showed what she can do. She’s really been working hard on trying to be consistent and so I thought she showed a lot of good consistency this weekend. Fun for Izzi to come home, and for her to be in this program and play well. She adds so much value to our team. And then Sydney was just dominant. She was dominant in every match and I believe she is one of the best middles in the country and she played like it in those three matches. Proud of those three girls and obviously there’s a lot of other players that played well for us to help us win, but they were exceptional.”
INSIDE THE BOX
- Wildcats hit .400 with 40 kills on 85 attempts with just six errors
- K-State totaled 35 assists with seven aces, and 37 digs with 12.5 blocks
- Titans posted 23 kills with 22 errors on 91 swings to go with 22 assists, two aces, 36 digs and one block
- Liz Gregorski led the offense with a career-high 12 kills, hitting .273
- Izzi Szulczewski paced the offense with 24 assists
- Szulczewski and Mackenzie Morris posted eight digs each
- Shaylee Myers and Sydney Bolding each tallied eight kills
- Bolding produced a match-high .700 attack percentage along with a season-best eight blocks
- Four Wildcats started in each set with Liz Gregorski, Shaylee Myers, Izzi Szulczewski and Sydney Bolding along with starting libero Mackenzie Morris
BEYOND THE BOX
- The Wildcats went undefeated at the PSU Tournament to be crowned the tournament champions
- Three players earned all-tournament honors with Bolding, Carter, and Szulczewski
- K-State leads the all-time series 3-1 since the first meeting in 1989
- Wildcats led off the season 3-0 for the second straight season; 19th time in school history
- The Cats allowed just seven points in set one, nearly matching a program record (6) in the rally-scoring era
- Jason Mansfield is just the second K-State coach to start his career 3-0; joins Jim Moore in 1994 who started 4-0
- Mackenzie Morris sixth player in school history to generate 1,300 digs; fifth in the rally scoring era
- K-State is 15-5-1 against teams from the Big Sky Conference
WHAT’S NEXT
The Wildcats will host Omaha on Friday, Sept. 1 in the first-ever contest at Morgan Family Arena to open the home slate followed by a match against No. 5 Nebraska on Sept. 3. The home opener is slated for a 6:30 p.m. CT first serve against the Mavericks.
