Cats Push No. 9 Creighton to Five Sets in Exhibition
Aug 19, 2017 | Volleyball
GAME RECAP // EXHIBITION
3
2
9
CREIGHTON
BLUEJAYS
0-0 (0-0 BIG EAST)
RV
K-STATE
WILDCATS
0-0 (0-0 Big 12)
LEADERS:
LEADERS:
Alyssa Schultejans: 18 kills, .267%
Sarah Dixon: 44 assists, 10 digs
Bryna Vogel: 11 kills, 11 digs
| TEAM | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Creighton | 22 | 24 | 25 | 27 | 15 |
| K-State | 25 | 26 | 22 | 25 | 8 |
- ? GAMECENTER
- ? BOX SCORE
MANHATTAN, Kan. - The K-State volleyball team took the opening two sets in an exhibition match with No. 9 Creighton Friday night before the Bluejays stormed back to steal a five-set victory (22-25, 24-26, 25-22, 27-25, 15-8) at Ahearn Field House.
Four Wildcats produced double-figure kills, led by junior outside hitter Alyssa Schultejans with a match-high 18, while seven made their K-State debuts in the first preseason match allowed under new NCAA rules. Senior preseason All-Big 12 selection Bryna Vogel (11 kills, 11 digs) and redshirt sophomore setter Sarah Dixon (44 assists, 10 digs) each posted double-doubles on the night.
“We got out of it what I think we wanted to get out of it,” said head coach Suzie Fritz of the exhibition. “We wanted to try a lot of things, and we stayed pretty committed to that. I threw a lot at them, I asked them to do a lot. I asked them to play, sometimes, out of position. We tried a lot of different lineups and we used a lot of different personnel. Now that’s something that you don’t get to do in a normal match, you don’t get to try that many things. That’s what we wanted.
“I told them I felt like I created some of the chaos,” Fritz added. “I created some difficult situations for them, and they managed it extraordinarily well. I thought it showed a lot of maturity to adapt and go with it and adjust.”
K-State hit better than .330 in each of the first two sets and closed the opening frame on a 6-1 run, aided by a pair of late kills by Kylee Zumach, to take the set 25-22. In the second set, the Cats faced set point before Zumach recorded back-to-back kills to end the set, 26-24. Zumach collected nine of her 13 kills in the first two sets.
Schultejans posted eight kills with one error on 15 swings (.467) in the second set while junior middle blocker Macy Flowers led K-State with five kills in the opening set. Dixon, making her Wildcat debut, handed out 25 assists in the two K-State set victories.
Creighton’s defense slowed down the Cat offense in the third set, holding K-State to a .109 efficiency (13k-83-46ta), with the ninth-ranked Bluejays claiming the set, 25-22. Flowers again paced K-State with five kills in the third while Schultejans and Vogel each picked up three kills.
K-State held match point at 25-24 in the fourth set before CU rattled off the set’s final three points to force a deciding fifth set. Creighton hit a match-best .441 (19k-4e-34ta) in the fourth set while K-State posted a .371 percentage (17k-4e-35ta). Five different Wildcats had multiple kills in the fourth, with Schultejans collecting five more.
Creighton ended the final set on a 9-3 run to close out the come-from-behind victory and forced K-State into as many errors as it had kills (7).
Defensively, three Cats reached double-digit digs – Vogel, Dixon and junior-transfer Reilly Killeen, getting the starting nod at libero in her first match in a K-State uniform. Sophomore Elle Sandbothe, a member of the All-Big 12 Freshman Team in 2016, led the Cats with five blocks.
Freshmen Brynn Carlson and Alex Haffner each made their collegiate debuts, as Carlson recorded seven kills and two blocks while Haffner dished out five assists. Junior-transfer (Nebraska) setter Brooke Smith tallied five assists and three digs.
“I think we are trying to keep the competitiveness high,” said Fritz. “They have a lot of competitive battles within the team. We have a lot of people working really hard and fighting for playing time. There’s no question that the advantage goes to players that have done it before … but I think we’ve got a number of newcomers that are really creating some wonderful competitive battles. I think it’s making them all better, really.”
K-State officially begins its 2017 season at the Oregon State Invitational in Corvallis, Oregon, on Friday, August 25 against Pacific at 2:30 p.m. CT. The Cats will then square off with Idaho and Oregon State on Saturday, August 26 before their home opener vs. Arkansas on August 31.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
• K-State posted a .247 attacking efficiency on the night while Creighton finished with a .299 hitting percentage.
• Flowers recorded a team-best .421 hitting percentage (11k-3e-19ta).
• Three Cats – Flowers, Vogel and Zsofia Gyimes – finished the match hitting over .350.
• Seven players made their debut in a Wildcat uniform – Carlson, Dixon, Brooke Heyne, Haffner, Killeen, Smith and Peyton Williams.
• K-State hit better than .330 in three different sets. Creighton hit higher than .440 in the final two sets.
• Creighton had no attacking errors in the final frame.
• K-State tallied 70 kills to CU’s 69.
• The Bluejays outdug the Cats, 76-65, and outblocked K-State, 15-8.
• CU’s Lydia Dimke recorded a triple-double: 14 kills, 47 assists, 10 digs.
