Kansas State University Athletics
Sunday, September 15
Manhattan, Kan.
12:30 p.m.
Kansas State University
2-5,0-0Big 12
1
vs
3
North Carolina
6-1,0-0ACC
1
2
3
4
F
North Carolina
26
25
25
25
3
Kansas St.
28
13
23
22
1
Carter Reaches 1,500 Kills, Cats Fall in Four to UNC
Sep 15, 2024 | Volleyball
MANHATTAN, Kan. – Senior Aliyah Carter became the fifth player in program history to achieve 1,500 career kills Sunday afternoon, but North Carolina defeated K-State in four sets, 26-28, 25-13, 25-23, 25-22, to take the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas Classic tournament title at Morgan Family Arena.
Carter, a product of Dubuque, Iowa, tallied her 15th kill of the match in the fourth set to reach the milestone, and ended the day with 16 kills and seven digs. With 1,501 career kills, Carter ranks fifth all-time in K-State history, while she is 12 kills away from surpassing former Wildcat Kaitlynn Pelger as the all-time rally-scoring era leader. Carter's 16 kills also mark her 18th consecutive match with 10-plus kills.
UNC (6-1) held K-State to a season-low .109 attack efficiency, as the Tar Heels totaled 14.0 blocks, that included 10 from Jackie Taylor and nine by Emani Foster. Offensively, the Tar Heels were led by 20 kills from Mabrey Shaffmaster, who earned tournament MVP recognition.
The Wildcats (2-5) had two players produce 10 or more kills in the match with Carter (16) and Meg Brown (13). The duo each finished the weekend with 33 kills (4.13 per set) and earned a spot on the all-tournament team.
Izzi Szulczewski dished out 41 assists with 13 kills for her second consecutive double-double – the most by a Wildcat this season.
Senior libero Ella Larkin turned in 17 digs and Symone Sims added a career-best 16, while redshirt-freshman Makinsey Jones and Brown combined for six total blocks.
K-State returns to Morgan Family Arena Thursday night to take on UC Santa Barbara in the opening match of the annual K-State Invitational. The Wildcats will take on the Gauchos at 6:30 p.m., before closing the tournament Sunday against Oklahoma at 4 p.m.
Tickets are available through the K-State Athletics ticket office at 1-800-221-CATS and www.kstatesports.com/tickets, starting at just $10 when purchased in advance.
Tournament Champion: North Carolina (2-0)
All-Tournament Team
Mabrey Shaffmaster, UNC - MVP
Safi Hampton, UNC
Maddy May, UNC
Meg Brown, K-State
Aliyah Carter, K-State
Libby Steinhart, Lipscomb
FROM THE CATS
Jason Mansfield, K-State Head Coach
On improvements that need to be made before conference season…
"The biggest thing is our offense hasn't been very strong, and that's my fault. We need to put our players in better positions to be successful, but we've been inconsistent this season. We're getting enough kills, we're making too many errors, and getting blocked too often. We train it and we talk about it, but it's not happening in the matches the way that we want it to. The puzzle just hasn't fit together the way that we want to, especially with our lineup, and we're still searching for that. They're a good defensive team, but we've been struggling offensively pretty much the whole year, except the match against UMBC. So that's on us as coaches to try to figure it out and solve the problem."
On what UNC did today to make things difficult defensively…
"They run a six two, so they have three attackers in the front row all the time, and so when they pass well, which they did, their offense is tough. They have three athletic attackers in the front row and are very athletic team. [Shaffmaster] had 20 kills. She's one of the best outsides in the country, and we couldn't slow her down. So that was a big part of their offense. But we got to serve a little bit tougher to try to get them off the net."
On the message to bounce back after set 2…
"They just served us really tough and got to us, and it was really hard for us to get in any rhythm because we were on the defensive as passers the whole set, they served really aggressively, and we just didn't handle it well. So, after that set they did a good job of resetting. We passed much better in the third set and left [Gregorski] in to try to help us in service, and she did a great job there."
SET-BY-SET
Set One – K-State 28, UNC 26
K-State jumped out to a 6-1 lead, forcing a timeout from the UNC bench. The Tar Heels responded with three straight points to bring the score within one, but the run was short-lived, as the Wildcats strung together a 6-2 scoring run to stretch the lead to five, 12-7.
With four consecutive kills and a 7-3 scoring run, UNC tied the set 22-22. Following a K-State timeout, Carter and Brown each connected on a pass from Szulczewski to get set point.
UNC avoided set-point and rallied to take a one-point lead, 26-25, but two kills by Brown and solo block from Schmidt handed the Cats the initial set.
K-State held a 17-16 edge in kill production led by six from Brown, who hit .385 with one error.
Set Two – UNC 25, K-State 13
UNC 12-3 immediately responded in the second with a 12-3 scoring run, taking control of the set.
UNC hit .385 (13 kills, 3 errors) while K-State was held to a -.057 hitting efficiency with 7 kills and nine attack errors.
Set Three – UNC 25, K-State 23
After five score ties, UNC capitalized on a kill from Shaffmaster and attack error to lead 11-9. K-State continued to trail 15-13 at the media timeout before rallying with a 3-0 run, highlighted by back-to-back kills from Carter and Gregorski's ace.
Brown laid down the hammer on a free ball at the net leading to K-State's 21-18 lead. The Tar Heels came back with a 7-2 closing run.
UNC's defense limited K-State to a .065 hitting percentage, as the Tar Heels held a 4.0-3.0 block advantage. Shaffmaster produced a set-high six kills with one error on 15 swings.
Set Four – UNC 25, K-State 22
With the help of three blocks, UNC led 13-9 to force a timeout from K-State, before stretching its lead to seven. K-State used a 4-0 scoring run to bridge the gap to three, 18-15, but was unable to overcome the deficit to drop the final set.
UNC hit a match-best .378 in the fourth led by eight kills from Shaffmaster and four team blocks, while K-State hit a .225.
INSIDE THE BOX
BEYOND THE BOX
– k-statesports.com –
How to follow the Cats: For complete information on the K-State Volleyball, visit www.kstatesports.com and follow the team's social media channels on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and Facebook.
Carter, a product of Dubuque, Iowa, tallied her 15th kill of the match in the fourth set to reach the milestone, and ended the day with 16 kills and seven digs. With 1,501 career kills, Carter ranks fifth all-time in K-State history, while she is 12 kills away from surpassing former Wildcat Kaitlynn Pelger as the all-time rally-scoring era leader. Carter's 16 kills also mark her 18th consecutive match with 10-plus kills.
UNC (6-1) held K-State to a season-low .109 attack efficiency, as the Tar Heels totaled 14.0 blocks, that included 10 from Jackie Taylor and nine by Emani Foster. Offensively, the Tar Heels were led by 20 kills from Mabrey Shaffmaster, who earned tournament MVP recognition.
The Wildcats (2-5) had two players produce 10 or more kills in the match with Carter (16) and Meg Brown (13). The duo each finished the weekend with 33 kills (4.13 per set) and earned a spot on the all-tournament team.
Izzi Szulczewski dished out 41 assists with 13 kills for her second consecutive double-double – the most by a Wildcat this season.
Senior libero Ella Larkin turned in 17 digs and Symone Sims added a career-best 16, while redshirt-freshman Makinsey Jones and Brown combined for six total blocks.
K-State returns to Morgan Family Arena Thursday night to take on UC Santa Barbara in the opening match of the annual K-State Invitational. The Wildcats will take on the Gauchos at 6:30 p.m., before closing the tournament Sunday against Oklahoma at 4 p.m.
Tickets are available through the K-State Athletics ticket office at 1-800-221-CATS and www.kstatesports.com/tickets, starting at just $10 when purchased in advance.
Tournament Champion: North Carolina (2-0)
All-Tournament Team
Mabrey Shaffmaster, UNC - MVP
Safi Hampton, UNC
Maddy May, UNC
Meg Brown, K-State
Aliyah Carter, K-State
Libby Steinhart, Lipscomb
FROM THE CATS
Jason Mansfield, K-State Head Coach
On improvements that need to be made before conference season…
"The biggest thing is our offense hasn't been very strong, and that's my fault. We need to put our players in better positions to be successful, but we've been inconsistent this season. We're getting enough kills, we're making too many errors, and getting blocked too often. We train it and we talk about it, but it's not happening in the matches the way that we want it to. The puzzle just hasn't fit together the way that we want to, especially with our lineup, and we're still searching for that. They're a good defensive team, but we've been struggling offensively pretty much the whole year, except the match against UMBC. So that's on us as coaches to try to figure it out and solve the problem."
On what UNC did today to make things difficult defensively…
"They run a six two, so they have three attackers in the front row all the time, and so when they pass well, which they did, their offense is tough. They have three athletic attackers in the front row and are very athletic team. [Shaffmaster] had 20 kills. She's one of the best outsides in the country, and we couldn't slow her down. So that was a big part of their offense. But we got to serve a little bit tougher to try to get them off the net."
On the message to bounce back after set 2…
"They just served us really tough and got to us, and it was really hard for us to get in any rhythm because we were on the defensive as passers the whole set, they served really aggressively, and we just didn't handle it well. So, after that set they did a good job of resetting. We passed much better in the third set and left [Gregorski] in to try to help us in service, and she did a great job there."
SET-BY-SET
Set One – K-State 28, UNC 26
K-State jumped out to a 6-1 lead, forcing a timeout from the UNC bench. The Tar Heels responded with three straight points to bring the score within one, but the run was short-lived, as the Wildcats strung together a 6-2 scoring run to stretch the lead to five, 12-7.
With four consecutive kills and a 7-3 scoring run, UNC tied the set 22-22. Following a K-State timeout, Carter and Brown each connected on a pass from Szulczewski to get set point.
UNC avoided set-point and rallied to take a one-point lead, 26-25, but two kills by Brown and solo block from Schmidt handed the Cats the initial set.
K-State held a 17-16 edge in kill production led by six from Brown, who hit .385 with one error.
Set Two – UNC 25, K-State 13
UNC 12-3 immediately responded in the second with a 12-3 scoring run, taking control of the set.
UNC hit .385 (13 kills, 3 errors) while K-State was held to a -.057 hitting efficiency with 7 kills and nine attack errors.
Set Three – UNC 25, K-State 23
After five score ties, UNC capitalized on a kill from Shaffmaster and attack error to lead 11-9. K-State continued to trail 15-13 at the media timeout before rallying with a 3-0 run, highlighted by back-to-back kills from Carter and Gregorski's ace.
Brown laid down the hammer on a free ball at the net leading to K-State's 21-18 lead. The Tar Heels came back with a 7-2 closing run.
UNC's defense limited K-State to a .065 hitting percentage, as the Tar Heels held a 4.0-3.0 block advantage. Shaffmaster produced a set-high six kills with one error on 15 swings.
Set Four – UNC 25, K-State 22
With the help of three blocks, UNC led 13-9 to force a timeout from K-State, before stretching its lead to seven. K-State used a 4-0 scoring run to bridge the gap to three, 18-15, but was unable to overcome the deficit to drop the final set.
UNC hit a match-best .378 in the fourth led by eight kills from Shaffmaster and four team blocks, while K-State hit a .225.
INSIDE THE BOX
- After dropping the first set, UNC won in four – 26-28, 25-13, 25-23, 25-22.
- K-State was held to a season-low .109 hitting percentage with 52 kills on 175 attempts.
- UNC hit .241 (59 kills, 20 errors, 162 swings).
- The Tar Heels held a 14.0-7.0 advantage in blocks led by 10 from Taylor and nine by Foster
- Carter led K-State with 16 kills and Brown had 13 with three blocks alongside Jones.
- Szulczewski had 41 assists with 13 digs for her fourth double-double of the season.
- Larkin led with 17 digs and Sims added 16.
BEYOND THE BOX
- UNC is 2-0 in the all-time series against the Cats.
- The Wildcats are 10-5 at home under head coach Jason Mansfield.
- Carter reached her 1,500th kill in the fourth set – ranks fifth all-time with 1,501 career kills
- Carter reached double digit kills for the 18th consecutive match.
– k-statesports.com –
How to follow the Cats: For complete information on the K-State Volleyball, visit www.kstatesports.com and follow the team's social media channels on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and Facebook.
Team Stats
UNC
KState
Kills
59
52
Errors
20
33
Attempts
162
175
Hitting %
.241
.109
Points
76.0
64.0
Assists
55
49
Aces
3
5
Blocks
14
7
Game Leaders
Kills-Aces-Blocks
Kills
16
Aces
1
Blocks
1
Kills
5
Aces
2
Blocks
0
Kills
5
Aces
0
Blocks
0
Players Mentioned
OH
/ Volleyball
MB
/ Volleyball
L/DS
/ Volleyball
L/DS
/ Volleyball
S
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