Cats Complete Comeback in Sunflower Showdown

Wednesday, October 23

Manhattan

6 p.m.

Kansas State University

7-12, 2-5Big 12

Kansas

6-11, 2-5Big 12

Kansas

K-State

Oct 23, 2019 | Volleyball

Box Score Box Score Photo Gallery Match Highlights

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Behind four players in double-figure kills, K-State battled to erase a two-set deficit and stun in-state rival Kansas in five sets in the Dillons Sunflower Showdown Wednesday night at Ahearn Field House, 31-33, 22-25, 25-22, 25-22, 15-9.

Freshman Anna Dixon matched her career high with 21 kills while Brynn Carlson picked up five of her 15 kills in the fifth set to help K-State (7-12, 2-5 Big 12) defeat KU (6-11, 2-5 Big 12) for the third straight time. The Cats held a 75-54 advantage in total kills, as they snapped their season-long five-match skid.

"I thought we showed a lot of perseverance," head coach Suzie Fritz said after the match. "You know all the buzz words for staying at something: perseverance, grit, determination. It's something we've been trying to build. We've talked a lot about having the confidence that one bad moment doesn't have to lead to another.

"We have the capacity to overcome ourselves in some ways. I was really proud of them for that. To go down two, that's a pretty steep hill to climb and I thought we just steadily got better and better as the match went."

Carlson put down four consecutive kills to help the Cats build a 5-0 lead to begin the final set. K-State went on to an 8-3 lead as the teams changed ends. The Cats closed the match by tallying four of the final five points, including kills by Dixon, Gloria Mutiri and Peyton Williams. K-State picked up 13 kills and hit .400 in the fifth set.

"I want to point out Jacque Smith, who we brought in in the fifth, and put together a four-point scoring run (on her serve) at the end and made two key digs and a couple key plays there," added Fritz. "That's MVP stuff for me, coming off the bench and being able to do that and helping your team in the fifth and being ready when we need you."

After the first two sets saw a total of 29 tie scores and 10 lead changes, the Wildcats trailed just once over the match's final three sets (1-0 to begin the third set). K-State hit over .300 in Sets 3-5 while holding the Jayhawks to .200 or below in each set.

"We showed determination that I think we forgot we had," said Williams, whose 13^th kill of the night sealed the victory. "It took tremendous grit to be down two in the beginning and come back and not give up. You know it's against KU, so you've got a little extra, but still we showed a lot of perseverance as a team."

K-State's 75 kills marked a season best, as the Wildcats hit .257 to KU's .191. The Cats set a season high in service aces with 12, as Teana Adams-Kaonohi, Dixon and Loren Hinkle each registered three.

Hinkle led K-State with 13 digs while setter Sarah Dixon produced her fourth straight double-double with 41 assists and 11 digs.

The opening set matched a season-long game for K-State, as the frame held 19 tie scores and eight lead changes. The Cats had four set-point opportunities while fighting off four set points before KU's Zoe Hill ended a 3-1 run with a kill.

Set 2 saw 10 more tie scores and a late three-point burst that included kills by Dixon and Mutiri got the Cats within a point at 22-21. Dixon added six kills and hit .385 while Mutiri added three. Mutiri ended the night with a dozen kills.

"I didn't think we played poorly in the first game," Fritz said. "I thought we let up a little bit in the second, but I thought we played rather consistently from start to finish, with one exception: we are missing too many serves. But outside of that, I thought the other parts were pretty good. We tried a little different look with both setters in the match, so managing the substitutions is a little bit more complicated but our kill production was up quite a bit from where it's been, and that was the goal and I think we accomplished that."

"It helped that (the first two) sets were both really close" Williams added. "We were like, 'we're better than this, there's just a couple points we need to change … it's on us, we can do it.' It took us recognizing that the ball was in our court."

K-State opened up leads as large as eight points in the third set and seven in the fourth. Dixon added five kills in the third while the Wildcat offense hit at a .303 clip. Five different Cats collected multiple kills in the fourth set while hitting .324.

Combined over the last three sets, K-State produced 17 more kills than the Jayhawks (43-26).

"There's probably a little extra on it, because they're an hour and a half down the road," said Fritz. "It's hard to ignore the K-State-KU thing."

Morgan Christon led Kansas with 18 kills while Ashley Smith added 14 and Rachel Langs 11. Allie Nelson dug a match-high 19 balls to lead four Jayhawks in double digits.

The Wildcats take on Iowa State at Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa on Saturday at 8 p.m. The match will air live on Cyclones.TV. Rob Voelker will have the call on News Radio KMAN (93.3 FM, 1350 AM) with free, live audio available at K-StateSports.com/watch.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

K-State hit .257 as a team (75 kills, 27 errors, 187 attacks).
KU turned in a .191 hitting percentage (54 kills, 24 errors, 157 swings).
K-State's 75 kills marked a season high.
The Wildcats set season highs in service aces (12) and service errors (20).
Four Cats reached double-digit kills: Dixon (21), Carlson (15), Williams (13), Mutiri (12).
Dixon's 21 kills equaled her career high and marked her second straight outing with 21 kills.
Vernon hit a team-high .417 to go with a team-best six blocks.
Vernon led K-State in blocks for the sixth consecutive match.
Each team reached double-digit blocks, K-State with 10 and KU with 12.
After the first two sets held 29 tie scores and 10 lead changes, the final three sets had just two ties and one lead change.
Sarah Dixon turned in her fourth consecutive double-double (41 assists, 11 digs), her team-leading 11^th of the season.

NOTES

K-State lead the all-time series with Kansas, 66-52-1.
The Cats are 30-19 all-time at home vs. the Jayhawks.
Fritz is 22-16 in her career vs. KU.
The Wildcats have won three meetings.
The three-match winning streak is the longest since the Cats won four straight from 2010-11.
K-State ended its season-long five-match skid.
The match marked the ninth five-set match K-State has played this season (4-5), one shy of tying a single-season program record.
K-State now has two victories this season when trailing 2-0.
The Cats have trailed by two sets and won in five in each of the last two meetings with KU.
K-State has two 2-0 comeback wins in a season for the first time since 2014 (2).