The Kansas State volleyball team opened their season with a winning weekend as they went 2-1 at the Beaver State Classic in Corvalis, Oregon.
The Wildcats started the season with a four set win over Pacific on Saturday as three players ended the match in double figures in kills.
Junior Kylee Zumach led the team with 17 kills while junior Alyssa Schultejans finished with 13 an senior Bryna Vogel had 10.
“Our outside hitters were really good,” head coach Suzie Fritz told K-State Sports. “You talk about match management and when to live and when to kill, I thought they played like veterans. When it was tight, they showed poise and composure under pressure. Those are positive things going forward.”
Despite losing the first set, the Wildcats bounced back to win the final three sets including a thrilling 31-29 win in the fourth.
“We managed the match relatively well, both from an emotional perspective and trying to stay low error,” Fritz said. “I didn’t think we played particularly well in a lot of areas, but we didn’t hurt ourselves very much. We kept our service errors to a minimum, we kept our passing errors to a minimum, we kept our attacking errors to a minimum, and just stayed in the rally long enough to have something good happen.”
In the second match of the weekend, K-State dominated Idaho in a straight set win.
It was Zumach once again who led the offense for K-State as she finished with a double-double with 13 kills and 11 digs. The Wildcats finished with 25 more kills than Idaho in the winning effort.
Setter Sarah Dixon had a team high 33 assists and Reilly Kileen led the team with 16 digs.
The Wildcats were unable to go undefeated on the weekend after a loss to host Oregon State on Saturday night in straight sets. K-State fell 25-18, 25-19 and 25-20 and finished the tournament 2-1.
Two players for the Wildcats were named to the Beaver State Classic All-Tournament Team this year, as Kylee Zumach and Brynn Carlson were named with the honor.
Kileen had another impressive match as she finished with double figures in digs and Dixon had 32 assist and eight digs in the loss. The Beavers held the Wildcats to a hitting percentage under .200 while Oregon State hit over .300 in the match.
K-State will have their home opening match against Arkansas on Aug. 31, as they begin the K-State Invitational this weekend inside Ahearn Field House.
