Together and Trust

By: D. Scott Fritchen

The first night, Kansas State made a rousing statement. The second night, the Wildcats added an exclamation point.

At least that's how everyone in purple and white viewed it as head coach Jason Mansfield and his coaching staff and players walked off the court after outlasting No. 25 North Carolina 3-2 last Friday and then defeating East Carolina 3-2 on Saturday at Carmichael Arena in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The pair of opponents entered a combined 14-2. K-State had never beaten North Carolina. It had never played East Carolina.

Two grueling battles elevated K-State to a 7-1 record, its best start under Mansfield, and further increased the confidence of a senior-laden squad that showed an indomitable will to win against talented opponents in an unfamiliar Power 4 arena.

"I'm really proud of us, but all day I had a feeling that we were going to win," said senior outside hitter Shaylee Myers, who earned Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week honors on Tuesday. "I think we all did. It was an unspoken thought of, 'We got this.' We outlasted them and it was so exciting and fun. We did it together. Great team wins."

They were two great matchups that allowed K-State to demonstrate its stuff on the road to finish the non-conference season.

"If we're ourselves and play the level that we've been playing," Mansfield said, "then we can compete against anyone."

Led by Myers' career-high 27 kills and Ava LeGrand's career-high 45 assists, K-State beat the Tar Heels in a five-set battle (16-25, 25-19, 25-11, 13-25, 15-10) that tested the fight and poise of a squad beat just one Top 25 opponent last season.

Then K-State topped East Carolina in five sets (25-20, 21-25, 15-25, 25-22, 15-10) in a battle that featured 37 ties and 14 lead changes and ended when K-State forced a winner-take-all fifth set and sank ECU behind LeGrand's career-high 49 assists and 22 digs for her fifth-career double-double.

"You want to be road tested before conference," Mansfield said. "North Carolina is just different, not just a Top 25 team, but it's so physical, and the crowd was good, but the first set wasn't us, and I was proud of how we responded. We played more aggressive and played our style. We didn't play great in the fourth set and had every reason not to play well in the fifth, but we flipped it.

"Then came the bounce back the next day, when emotionally and physically exhausted from facing North Carolina, we faced an East Carolina team with an 8-1 record. I'm really proud. We got everything out of the preseason schedule that we wanted."

K-State enters the Big 12 Conference season with a three-match winning streak. K-State also owns a .875 winning percentage, which ranks fourth in the Big 12 behind BYU 1.000, West Virginia 1.000, and Iowa State .909. The Wildcats are knocking on the door nationally. They received votes this week in the latest AVCA Division I women's volleyball poll.

As for K-State winning seven of its first eight matches of the season?

"It symbolizes growth," Mansfield said. "This thing started back in January with these 11 players deciding to stay, and then adding the six freshmen in the fall, and I'm really proud that we're trying to do this the right way, and we're trying to get these kids to believe in themselves and in each other. I'm happy that we've started off well.

"Now we have to keep it going and keep striving to have that level of consistency in preparation, training — everything."

K-State opens the Big 12 season against Arizona, 6-3, on Friday at 6:30 p.m. at Morgan Family Arena before facing No. 8 Arizona State, 9-2, on Sunday at 2:00 p.m.

"We start right off the bat with two really physical teams in Arizona and Arizona State," Mansfield said. "That's why we scheduled NC State and North Carolina and Santa Barbara in the non-conference. Those teams have helped us prepare for what we're going to see. We just have to figure out how we're going to slow down Arizona and be ourselves on offense. We have to do that every single match. It's what we've done so far. We've done a great job on defense slowing teams down in all except for one match. Every match is unique.

"If we can get a win on Friday, the confidence will continue to grow. Arizona will be a really tough team and are battle tested. Hopefully our environment is rocking, as I expect it to be. Our players play off that. Any win you can get in the Big 12 is big. We want to keep this thing going. We're really fortunate to start our conference season at home. We just have to go for it and keep doing what we've been doing."

K-State ranks in the upper-half of the Big 12 in virtually every major statistical category. Offensively, that includes points (sixth with 17.57), hitting percentage (seventh with .264), assists (fourth with 12.50) and kills (eighth with 13.32). It also includes blocks (sixth with 2.61), service aces (sixth with 1.64). Defensively, it includes opponent kills (fourth with 10.68), opponent service aces (first with 0.79) and opponent digs (fourth with 11.61).

Individually, LeGrand ranks fourth in the Big 12 with 10.07 assists per set — with many of her assists going to Myers, who ranks sixth nationally with 4.96 kills per set and sixth with 5.54 points per set this season. Myers, a native of Lincoln, Nebraska, became just the sixth player in K-State's rally-scoring era to record 27 kills in a single match against North Carolina. With her 23 kills against East Carolina, Myers now has four career matches with 20 or more kills, including three this season.

"Shaylee has improved every single year," Mansfield said. "We saw a glimpse last spring of just how special she could be against Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma. Then she had a really good fall camp, and she's carried it on. Since last January, she's carried that ability to hit every shot. She's so physical now. She's basically a nightmare for defenses because she has a lot of confidence and a great ability to attack and doesn't make a lot of errors. She's the complete attacker. I'm really proud of her. She deserves everything she receives."

Myers might just earn another Big 12 weekly honor as the season wears on. She was quick to share this week's league honor with her teammates.

"Honestly, during the game you don't know how many kills you have," Myers said. "You want to win and do what you can for the team. I had no idea I had 27 kills. That's crazy. It was a team effort. It took all of us."

It all ties back to the theme of this veteran K-State team, which met prior to season and came up with two key words that would represent what they were about going forward: "Together" and "Trust."

"It's our senior year," senior middle blocker Brenna Schmidt said. "We want to go out with a bang. The preseason and chemistry have been awesome. Our unifying words of 'Trust' and 'Together' — we want to do everything together and we trust each other. Doing those two things allow us to play freer and have confidence in each other and in our abilities on the court."

K-State knows it must stay together as it braves the rigors of a grueling Big 12 schedule and attempts to make some noise in the league standings.

The Wildcats entered the season lightly regarded and picked in the middle of the pack in the Big 12 preseason poll after finishing with a 10-17 record last year.

"We'd like a great start to conference, of course," Schmidt said. "Maybe it'll show people to start taking us a little bit more seriously. Through the years we've kind of been the underdogs and outsiders don't think we're going to be that great. They think, 'Kansas State — whatever.' These wins in the preseason and coming into the conference, people have to pay more attention to us."

They have a chance to open some eyes on Friday and Sunday at Morgan Family Arena.

"People can think what they want but we know our mindset and to see it translate to the court will be great," Myers said. "Being picked middle of the pack in the Big 12? I guess it is something to prove. We're better than that. We definitely want to leave it all out there.

"We're all really excited to play at home. Our atmosphere is unlike any other. There are so many people there, and it's so loud. It's just cool. These games are definitely important to kickoff Big 12 play. It'd be great to have another really successful weekend, and I think we will."

Kansas State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Ava LeGrand

Shaylee Myers

Brenna Schmidt

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