MANHATTAN, Kan. (K-State Athletics) – Kansas State led off the K-State Invitational with a straight-set win on Thursday evening in front of a home crowd as the Wildcats swept Long Island, 25-20, 25-11, 25-10.
The victory over LIU extended the Cats win streak at the invitational out to 13 with a perfect 13-0 record since 2017.
K-State (6-2) generated a hit efficiency of .253 against LIU with 37 kills on 87 swings with 15 errors led by redshirt freshman Aniya Clinton. A native of Midland, Texas, Clinton posted a match-high 11 kills and hit .304 followed by Aliyah Carter with eight kills.
Izzi Szulczewski led the Thursday matchup with three of the Wildcats’ seven service aces. The junior dished out 20 assists to go along with two blocks and five digs.
Defensively, K-State held LIU (1-11) to hit -.047 with just 16 kills and 20 errors on 86 attempts. K-State is 4-0 when holding opponents to a .100 or below attack percentage.
Graduate student Sydney Bolding had six blocks, marking her sixth match of the season with six or higher. Kadye Fernholz followed Bolding with three blocks bringing her career total to 305 while Mackenzie Morris registered 12 digs.
FROM THE HEAD COACH
Head Coach Jason Mansfield
Overall statement…
“Just like us, LIU is a program that is trying to build, and they have a lot of youth on their team. I think their coach is doing a good job of getting them to compete, they certainly did that in the first set. I was proud of the fact that we got a lot of people in, and multiple people stepped up. We’re still searching to be better in the first set, but I love how we performed midway through that first set and the rest of the match. It’s been our focus the last couple of matches, but we’re searching and we’re certainly capable of being better.”
SET-BY-SET
Set One – K-State 25, Long Island 20
The Wildcats fell behind, 8-3, in the opening set before putting together a 4-0 scoring run to bring the score within one. Back-to-back kills from Aliyah Carter leveled the set at 9-all before another successful run handed K-State a substantial 19-13 lead.
Carter recorded five kills while Aniya Clinton hit .333 to lead the set. The Sharks were limited to hit .067 led by Amaris Smith and Bria Plante with two kills each.
Set Two – K-State 25, Long Island 11
K-State took advantage of five attack errors to jump out to a 10-2 lead until attacks by Kadye Fernholz and Carter stretched the Cats lead out to 12, 16-4.
Set Three – K-State 25, Long Island 10
In the third set, three consecutive kills from Clinton handed the Wildcats an 8-1 lead to take control of the match.
The Wildcats hit a match-high .419 in the final set, connecting on 15 swings with two errors. Clinton recorded five kills followed by Brenna Schmidt with four.
INSIDE THE BOX
- Wildcats recorded their second win at home in a three-set win, 25-20, 25-11, 25-10
- The win improved the Cats record to 6-2 overall and 2-1 at home.
- LIU dropped its fifth straight game, moving to 1-11 on the year.
- The Wildcats are 4-1 when hitting above .200.
- K-State hit .253 with 37 kills on 87 attempts and 15 swings.
- Aniya Clinton generated a match-high 11 kills followed by Aliyah Carter with eight
- Izzi Szulczewski recorded a season-high three service aces.
- Szulczewski posted 20 assists with five digs and three kills.
- Defensively, the Wildcats limited LIU to hit -.047 with 16 kills
- Sydney Bolding had a match-high six blocks including two solo stops
- K-State totaled 10 blocks, its fifth double figure match of the season
BEYOND THE BOX
- K-State earned its 899th victory and second in Morgan Family Arena
- The Wildcats earned their first win over a team from the Northeast Conference
WHAT’S NEXT
The Wildcats will conclude the K-State Invitation on Saturday, Sept. 16 against Rice (4-4) with first serve scheduled for noon p.m. Saturday’s match will be on Big 12 Now on ESPN+ and the ESPN app.
