Wildcats, Cyclones Clash on ESPNU Wednesday

MANHATTAN, Kan. – The Kansas State volleyball team enters the second half of its conference schedule with a nationally televised match against 22^nd-ranked Iowa State Wednesday night at Ahearn Field House.

The match will be broadcast on ESPNU with first serve set for 8 p.m., as K-State (9-12, 2-6 Big 12) seeks to avenge a three-set loss earlier this season to Iowa State (14-4, 5-3 Big 12) in Ames.

The Wildcats and Cyclones have split the season series each of the past five seasons, with each side winning on its home floor. Iowa State will be the seventh ranked opponent the Cats have faced this season, including its No. 23 ranking in the season's first matchup two weeks ago.

K-State is coming off a match against West Virginia in which it matched its season high with 18 team blocks, led by Macy Flowers (9) and Peyton Williams (8) who each produced career highs.

Wednesday's match will also stream live on WatchESPN and the ESPN app while fans can also listen to Rob Voelker will call the action on KMAN 1350 AM, 93.3 FM and at k-statesports.com.

AT A GLANCE

K-State (9-12, 2-6 Big 12) is now tied in sixth place in the Big 12 after a five-set loss at West Virginia Saturday.
Redshirt freshman Peyton Williams led the Wildcat offense with a dozen kills and a .375 hitting percentage, the second time this season she has led the team in kills.
Defensively, Macy Flowers (9) and Williams (8) each registered career highs in blocks while the Cats equaled their season high with 18.0 team blocks.
Elle Sandbothe contributed a season-best seven blocks while Kylee Zumach matched her career-best output with five.
K-State played its first errorless set of the season Saturday against West Virginia, as it hit .500 (17 kills, 0 errors, 24 attacks) in a 25-19 fourth-set win.
Sarah Dixon (26 assists, 10 digs) and Bryna Vogel (11 kills, 13 digs) each recorded double-doubles.
Dixon leads the team with nine double-double efforts while Vogel is second with seven. The two have combined for 16 of K-State's 21 double-doubles this season.
Saturday's match at WVU was the third straight five-set match between the teams, dating back to last year.
K-State has now played seven five-set matches (3-4), its highest total since 2014.
K-State's last three victories have all come in five sets.

SCOUTING THE CYCLONES

Iowa State (14-4, 5-3 Big 12) sits alone in fourth place in the Big 12 standings after a pair of home wins last week.
ISU middle blocker Grace Lazard claimed Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week after the junior finished with a career-best 11 blocks against West Virginia.
Through nine weeks, Iowa State has claimed the conference's defensive player of the week award five times with three different Cyclones (Lazard, Hali Hillegas, Alexis Conaway) earning the nod.
The Cyclone defense ranks first in team digs per set with 17.21 - more than a full dig per set higher than second place (KU, 15.96).
ISU ranks second in blocks per set (3.16) and opponent hitting percentage (.150 - both second-best in the Big 12.

INSIDE THE SERIES

Iowa State leads the all-time series 50-41 after a sweep of K-State in Ames two weeks ago.
The Wildcats and Cyclones have split the season series in each of the past five seasons - each side winning on its home floor.
In the season's first matchup, ISU limited the Cats to season lows in both kills (23) and hitting percentage (.015).
In Manhattan, K-State is 22-18 against the Cyclones and have won the last five home meetings.
Head coach Suzie Fritz is 17-16 against Iowa State in her career.

VS RANKED OPPONENTS

Wednesday's match vs. No. 22 Iowa State will be the seventh match against a team ranked in the AVCA Top 25 (0-6).
It is the second time this season the Cats will have faced a ranked ISU squad.
Dating back to last season, the Cats have lost their last 11 matches to ranked opponents.
K-State is 1-18 in its last 19 matches against ranked teams, going back to 2014.
The last win against a top-25 team was a four-set win at No. 6 Hawaii on Aug. 27, 2016.

BATTLE OF THE BLOCK

After not recording a single team block at Texas on Sept. 30, K-State has picked up 58 total blocks in the five matches since.
In that five-match span, the Wildcats have twice reached 18 blocks - a season high.
Following the Sept. 30 match with the Longhorns, K-State was averaging just 1.79 blocks per set as a team.
In the five matches since, the Cats are putting up 2.76 blocks per set and have been led by three different players averaging better than a block per set (Peyton Williams, Elle Sandbothe, Macy Flowers).
Williams and Flowers each recorded new career highs in blocks against WVU with nine and eight, respectively. Sandbothe added a season-high seven on Saturday.

ACES IN SPADES

In conference-only matches, K-State is best in the Big 12 with 38 service aces and rank second with 1.12 aces/set.
Setter Sarah Dixon has reached new career highs in the category in back-to-back matches, recording four aces at WVU after three against Baylor.
Dixon's four aces against the Mountaineers all came in a 12-0 Wildcat run in the first set of the match.
In conference matches, Dixon along with Kylee Zumach rank in the league's top five.
Fellow setter Brooke Smith leads the team with 21 aces (0.21 per set) on the season.
This season, Zumach has doubled her career total with 20 aces behind five matches with multiple aces.

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 21 matches this season - six more times than she did last season and has now done so 55 times in her career.
She has 954 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).

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Players Mentioned

Sarah Dixon

Macy Flowers

Elle Sandbothe

Brooke Smith

Bryna Vogel

Peyton Williams

Kylee Zumach

Kansas State University Athletics