Cats Wrap Up First Half of Big 12 Play Saturday

MANHATTAN, Kan. – The Kansas State volleyball team wraps up the first half of its Big 12 schedule when it meets West Virginia on Saturday at 12 p.m., CT at the WVU Coliseum.

K-State (9-11, 2-5 Big 12) and West Virginia (13-7, 2-5 Big 12) sit in a tie for fifth place in the Big 12 standings as the conference slate nears the midway point. Both teams have dropped five of their last six matches overall.

Last season, the Wildcats swept the season series with the Mountaineers, winning both in five sets, and have won the last four meetings overall. K-State is 4-1 all-time in Morgantown, with its only loss coming in 2014.

Saturday's match at WVU will stream live and free on WVUSports.com. Fans can also listen to Rob Voelker will call the action at k-statesports.com.

AT A GLANCE

K-State (9-11, 2-5 Big 12) dropped a four-set decision to No. 25 Baylor Saturday at Ahearn Field House.
Kylee Zumach (13) and Peyton Williams (11) each reached double-figure kills while hitting over .300 to pace the Wildcat offense. Williams hit a team-best .476.
Zumach, a redshirt junior, was the team leader in kills for the 12th time in 20 matches this season.
Williams has now hit .400 or better in nine matches this season to lead the team. The redshirt freshman middle blocker also led the defense with six blocks.
Senior Bryna Vogel recorded a team-high 22 digs to go with seven kills, pushing her over the 800-kill mark in her K-State career.
Redshirt sophomore setter Sarah Dixon picked up a career-high three service aces.
The loss was K-State's sixth this season against a ranked opponent (0-6).
The Cats have dropped five of their last six matches overall.
K-State's last three victories have all comes in five sets.

SCOUTING THE MOUNTAINEERS

West Virginia (13-7, 2-5 Big 12), along with K-State, sits in a tie for fifth place in the Big 12 standings.
WVU has dropped five of its last six matches after falling in four sets at No. 22 Iowa State Wednesday night.
As a team, the Mountaineers are tops in the conference in total service aces (125) and aces per set (1.43), led by sophomore Payton Caffrey with 29 (0.43 per set).
In conference-only matches, Mia Swanegan (.310) ranks 10th in hitting percentage while Caffrey (3.32) is 10th in kills per set.
Swanegan (1.14, 5th) along with Katie DeMeo (1.03, 8th) each rank in the league's top 10 in blocks per set.

INSIDE THE SERIES

K-State leads the all-time series, 8-2, dating back to 2012 when West Virginia joined the Big 12.
The Wildcats have won the last four meetings in the series, including a pair of five-set wins in 2016.
K-State is 4-1 all-time in Morgantown, with its only loss coming in five sets in 2014.
K-State has won its last two trips to Morgantown.
Four of the 10 all-time meetings have gone the full five sets.
The string of four straight wins is the third-longest active streak against a conference foe (6 vs. Texas Tech, 5 vs. Oklahoma).

RETURN TO FORM

K-State redshirt junior outside hitter Kylee Zumach has returned to a level that earned her All-America honors after her freshman season in 2014.
In 2014, she led K-State in kills 19 times and has done so 11 times already this season.
Zumach had reached double-digit kills in 18 of 20 matches this season - six more times than she did last season and has now done so 55 times in her career.
She has 945 career kills and is poised to become the fifth Wildcat to join the 1,000-kill club to play their entire career in the rally-scoring era (since 2001).
Earlier this season, Zumach became the 11th member (rally-scoring era) of the 1,000-point club, now with 1,067.0 career points.
Zumach has already reached a single-season high in digs, as she has eclipsed 100 digs for the first time in her career.
The Buffalo, Minnesota, native recorded back-to-back double-doubles in the season's opening weekend - and had just one career double-double entering 2017.
Her 18 service aces are also a single-season high, as she had just 20 in her entire career entering the season.

LAST SIX MATCHES

After starting 8-6 through the season's first 14 matches, K-State is 1-5 over its last six matches to fall below .500 at 9-11.
The Wildcats have faced four top-25 opponents
In that stretch, the Cats are hitting just .181 as a team, 60 points under where they were through the first 14 matches (.241).
Middle blocker Peyton Williams is the only Wildcat hitting over .215 over the last six matches (.327).
K-State is producing 11.79 kills/set in the last six compared with 13.22 after the season's first 14 matches.
Conversely, the team's digs per set have gone up from 13.69 to 16.42 over the past six matches.

MILESTONE WATCH

K-State head coach Suzie Fritz sits at 325 career wins in her 17th season at K-State.
Her career total is fifth-best ever in the Big 12 and is five away from moving into a tie for fourth and 11 shy of equaling the third-best total in league history.
Zumach (945) and Vogel (805) sit within reach to join the 1,000-kill club.
Junior Alyssa Schultejans eclipsed 500 career kills earlier this season.
Vogel eclipsed 800 career digs earlier this season and sits at 883.

NICE DIGS

K-State's 74 digs last Wednesday night at Iowa State were one shy of matching the program's all-time record in a three-set match - and most since the 2002 season against Missouri.
With their performance, the Cats moved from 9th to 3rd in Big 12 matches this season in digs per set (15.12 from 13.24).
The match saw four Wildcats in double-figure digs - a first this season - including career-high outputs from setters Sarah Dixon (17) and Brooke Smith (16).

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Players Mentioned

Sarah Dixon

Alyssa Schultejans

Brooke Smith

Bryna Vogel

Peyton Williams

Kylee Zumach

Kansas State University Athletics