K-State Claims Sunflower Showdown In Four
Nov. 14, 2007
MANHATTAN, Kan. –
Wednesday’s match looked promising for the Kansas volleyball team as the Jayhawks posted a quick 30-21 win in game one over 12th ranked Kansas State. However, K-State came back to win the final three games (30-26, 30-14, 30-26) to post a 3-1 win over the Jayhawks. With the loss, <?xml:namespace prefix=”st1″ ns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags”?>Kansas dropped to 12-16 on the season and 5-13 in Big 12 matches, while KSU improved to 21-7 and 13-5 in conference play.<?xml:namespace prefix=”o” ns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office”?>
Three Jayhawks tallied double figure kills in the effort led by junior Savannah Noyes with 14, just one shy of her season high, on a .400 hitting efficiency. Freshmen Jenna Kaiser and Karina Garlington followed with 12 and 11 kills, respectively. Garlington also added 10 digs for the second double-double of her career.
Defensively, freshman Melissa Manda dug up a team best 17 balls. Sophomore Katie Martincich added 11 digs along with 26 assists for a double-double. Junior Natalie Uhart led the team with six total blocks and also pitched in nine kills.
“We started off pretty well and really dominated in game one,” said coach Ray Bechard. “We were really pleased with our performance. We came out slow in game two and didn’t capitalize when we needed to near the end. Game three was a reversal of [game] one and in game four they just made more big plays.”
“For two hours we competed hard,” Bechard added. “It was a well contested match.”
In game one, Kansas took a 7-6 lead and never looked back as it held onto the lead for the remainder of the contest. KansasState had a 7-2 run near the end but was not enough to overcome the 14 point lead KU had built up due in large part to five consecutive points at the 17-9 mark. Kansas saw four players with service aces – two from Manda and one each from Brown and Martincich – and took advantage of nine hitting errors by the Wildcats.
The Jayhawks found themselves down early in game two when KansasState opened the contest with a 7-1 run. Kansas battled through coming back from a nine point deficit at one point to overtake the lead at 25-24 on a 7-2 run. KU again had the lead at 26-25 but the Wildcats reeled off five unanswered points to end the game 30-26 over Kansas. Noyes added another five points in game two, including three of KU’s last four points.
In the third game, Kansas had no answer for a hot KansasState offense that hit a match-high .452. The Jayhawks struggled with their hitting committing 10 errors on a .023 clip as they were topped 30-14.
Kansas again found itself down early in game four and trailed to the Wildcats for the entire match. The Jayhawks made a 7-2 run near the end to come within two of KSU at 26-24 but couldn’t make the push they needed to pull ahead. KansasState won the game 30-26.
Kansas returns to Lawrence this Saturday for its final home match of the season against IowaState. Game time has been bumped up from its original start time to 11 a.m. Saturday is also senior day as seniors Emily Brown and Caitlin Mahoney will be honored following the match.
