Volleyball set for first home match tonight

After hardy performances against top-ranked teams last weekend, the K-State volleyball team will bring its vigor back home for a week, starting with a match tonight against the University of South Dakota.

Senior outside hitter JuliAnne Chisholm said she was glad to finally play in Ahearn Fieldhouse , which has all new seating, again, even after a grueling weekend.

"We're excited to play at home," Chisholm said. "We are excited to play again. Once you get going, it's like you have game fever."

As the Wildcats return from the three-match Chevron Rainbow Wahine Invitational in Honolulu, Hawaii, last weekend, they are looking to make improvements after dropping all three matches. Even so, head coach Suzie Frtiz said her team was well under way.

"I think the overwhelming feeling that we have is that we got better," Fritz said. "I think that we have a very short window of time here to really be able to make the kinds of improvements that we're going to have to make to be able to compete. There's certainly a sense of urgency on our part."

The South Dakota Coyotes also opened their season last weekend, playing a handful of small teams and garnering a 2-2 record thus far. Against K-State (0-3), they are the underdog, having lost both of the previous matchups, including last year's defeat in four sets.

For South Dakota's offense, Kristin Kritenbrink, the senior outside hitter from Nebraska, seems to be the go-to player. With 115 total swings, freshman setter Tori Kroll sends many looks her way. However, Kritenbrink is currently sitting on a .165 attack percentage with 37 successful hits, numbers that are strong but indicate a lack of reliability. Kroll herself might be worth more attention from K-State; one-third of her sets have scored points for the Coyotes, and she has already racked up 11 kills and four aces in the four matches of last weekend.

Defensively, South Dakota should play pretty solidly. Its libero, sophomore Jill Fields, leads the team in digs per game, but not by much. Kritenbrink sits very close to her, which only increases her danger on the court. However, Kritenbrink does not hold much in the defensive angle of the front row, recording only a few blocks, but a good number are solos. It is sophomore middle blocker Taylor Russell who fills that gap; she has already reached the double digits in assisted blocks, with 10 in the past four matches. However, Russell is less well-rounded than a Coyote supporter might hope, hitting only .122 up front, which could be due to her age.

But K-State's own sophomore middle blocker, Alex Muff, has shown more balance on the court. In the first match of the season against UCLA, Muff recorded five assisted blocks, and then followed up the next two games with hitting percentages of .600 and .316. In the last match, her main opponents on the K-State stat board were Kaitlynn Pelger and Kathleen Ludwig.

Pelger, the true freshman middle blocker, played in the three matches thus far, but her profile is sure to change throughout the season, as it does for most freshman. Over last weekend, she made a significant and continual improvement in her attack numbers, going from a -.095 in the opening match to .345 to close the weekend. Ludwig, the established sophomore opposite hitter, recorded .000 against UCLA but rose to .429 on Sunday.

As usual, senior libero Lauren Mathewson has a solid lock on the back row, showcasing her talent as both a defensive anchor and team leader against the top rivals last weekend with a number of digs. She led the boards in all three matches, netting 11, seven, and 14 digs in the first, second and third matches, respectively. This gives her 3.20 digs per game, a statistic even more impressive considering the talent of the hitters on the opposing side of the net each match. For freshman outside hitter Courtney Traxson — who will be playing her first home match in purple tonight — this match is highly anticipated after a promising weekend away.

"I'm really excited," Traxson said. "We came out in Hawaii and played pretty good, and that was our first time coming out together, so I'm just excited to play again with everybody."

First serve is set for 7 p.m. in Ahearn Fieldhouse.