Ahearn Field House has been friendly to the K-State volleyball team this season.
    The No. 15 Wildcats (20-4, 10-3 Big 12 Conference) have lost just one match in Manhattan this year - a 3-1 defeat to then-No. 2 Nebraska on Sept. 17. In all, K-State has posted a 10-1 home record, including a 6-1 mark in league play.
    “It’s a little bit easier when you don’t have to figure in the travel,” said coach Suzie Fritz. “You get more rest. You get more opportunities to sleep in your own bed, catch up with your life, your school. You know, everything is just easier.”
    Fritz and the Wildcats will look to capitalize on their home-court advantage when they welcome Oklahoma (10-12, 6-8 Big 12) to Manhattan at 7 tonight.
    The match, which is the Wildcats’ third straight in Ahearn and their final home match until Nov. 15, will be televised live on K-State TV, cable channel 8.
    In the last meeting between K-State and Oklahoma, the Wildcats were forced to come back from an 0-2 deficit in Norman, Okla., on Oct. 11.
    Fritz said K-State wasn’t prepared for the Sooners last time out, but she thinks her team has improved since then.
    “I don’t know if we’re better prepared, but I think we’re better, period,” she said. “We played very tight and very unprepared the first time around. Without question, I think we’re a better team now than we were for the first go-around.”
    The comeback win snapped the Sooners’ four-match winning streak against the Wildcats, which dated back to the beginning of the 2006 campaign.
    Oklahoma, which upset then-No. 3 Texas in Austin on Oct. 29, has been led this season by sophomore middle blocker Francie Ekwerekwu and freshman outside hitter Caitlin Higgins, who are averaging 2.69 and 2.57 kills per game, respectively.
    K-State will counter with a pair of senior outside hitters. Rita Liliom and Nataly Korobkova have both been dominant at the net for the Wildcats, as they are averaging 4.14 and 3.24 kills per game.
    K-State has faced Oklahoma 69 times prior to tonight’s meeting. Since the beginning of the series, Oklahoma holds a 44-24-1 lead.
    However, K-State has controlled the series in the Big 12 era, as the Wildcats have won 18 of 25 meetings since the inception of the conference in 1996.    
    That span includes a streak of 14 straight wins by K-State from 1999-2005.

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