The Kansas State volleyball team fought off an early attack from the University of Missouri Kansas City Tuesday night, but were able to come away with a four-set win over the Kangaroos inside Ahearn Field House.
The Wildcats dropped the first set before winning the next in route to their first win at home this season after losing the first three of the season.
The Kangaroos jumped out to a 5-1 lead before K-State was able to tie it up at seven. After the score was tied at nine, UMKC won the next seven of eight points and led 16-10. The Wildcats once again came back and tied the set at 19, but it was the Kangaroos who ended the set, winning it 25-21.
The second set was a lot better for the Wildcats as the Wildcats took a 12-4 lead very quickly. The Wildcats dominated the set 25-11.
In the third set, K-State won the first four points, but the Kangaroos tied the set back up at five. K-State won the set 25-18.
The final set of the match was dominated by the Wildcats as they had 18 kills in the set and won it 25-18.
The big stat of the match was the Wildcats holding UMKC to a hitting percentage under .100; K-State hit over .200.
K-State was led in kills by freshman Brynn Carlson, who had 15, while junior Alyssa Schultejans had 11 and Kylee Zumach finished with 10 in the winning effort. Zumach also hit .455, while Carlson was also very efficient with her hits with .400.
“They gave us their best effort tonight. To be honest … I was getting a little nervous,” K-State head coach Suzie Fritz said in a television interview after the match. “About 15 or 20 points in you knew they were ready to come to play today. To their credit, they found a rhythm, but we were fighting like crazy. We are becoming a better defensive team to score points with our serve, touch more balls at the net and make defensive plays. As the match went on, we got a lot better at it.”
K-State will travel to Omaha this weekend as they take on the University of Nebraska Omaha, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the University of Northern Iowa. They will return home on September 24th when they host in-state rival Kansas.
