Kansas State volleyball opened a two-match series against TCU by getting swept. This marks the second sweep in a row, also falling to Rice who received Top 25 votes as well as the Horned Frogs.
The Wildcats played competitively in the first set, keeping it close from start to end. Once the game was tied at 15 a-piece, TCU began a scoring run capitalizing on a kill from middle blocker Brianna Green and four straight errors caused by K-State. This helped the Horned Frogs earn a five-point lead, eventually helping them win set one 25-20.
The second set was not as competitive. The Wildcats failed to put blocks on the stat sheet, finishing the second set with just three blocks while TCU finished with 13. The Wildcats also found themselves racking up many more attack errors than TCU, ending the second set with 21 attack errors compared to the Horned Frogs’ 10. TCU won in convincing fashion at 25-16.
The Wildcats looked like a much better team in the third set. K-State and TCU tied each other 11 times in this set, making it quite the battle. K-State’s outside hitter Aliyah Carter and fellow outside hitter for TCU Melanie Parra both seemed to be leading their teams in the set and all game. Both combined for 10 kills in the hard-fought final set. Wildcat outside hitter Shaylee Myers had a pivotal solo block that helped bring the game within one point with a score of 24-23, but the Horned Frogs finally put it away off a kill from veteran outside hitter Taylor Raiola.
Carter finished the night with 15 kills, scoring five in each set compared to the last match where she only put up five kills in one set. She had some backup as middle blocker Sydney Bolding and outside hitter Aniya Clinton combined for 14 total kills with seven each.
The Wildcats looked as if it could have kept the game alive in Set 3. Head coach Jason Mansfield motivated his team going into the set.
“Everybody’s just waiting for us to play well,” Mansfield said. “They agreed so they did something about it, which I’m proud of, but we are right there from being the team we want to be, and we have to keep walking towards it.”
K-State and TCU will match up again Sept. 22 at home.
