Sooner Volleyball Tops KSU

The Oklahoma volleyball team pulled out a 3-1 victory over Kansas State at McCasland Field House Saturday night. The Sooners improved to 15-4 overall and 3-2 in the Big 12, while the Wildcats dropped to 13-5 and 1-4.

Oklahoma gained the edge with a 25-22 win in the second, but K-State evened things up 25-20 in the second. From there, the Sooners earned the win in set three and four by identical scores of 25-19.

"It's always good to bounce back with a win after a loss," started head coach Santiago Restrepo. "I thought we were able to keep our composure and hit well when we needed to. K-State is a very good blocking team and very well coached, but we were able to hit the ball through their holes, get a lot of deflections and then finally we served a little bit tougher than the first two sets. I think that was the key for us."

Senior middle blocker Sallie McLaurin (Midwest City, Okla.) and redshirt-freshman outside hitter Madison Ward (Lawton, Okla.) led OU with 15 kills apiece. McLaurin hit a match-high .414 as she has hit .400 or better in six of the last seven matches and contributed a match-high seven blocks. Ward recorded the first double-double of her career as she added 11 digs to her career-high in kills as she hit .289.

Senior outside hitter Keila Rodriguez (Gurabo, Puerto Rico) was the third Sooner in double figures. She totaled 12 kills and notched her team-leading sixth double-double of the seasons with a team-leading 20 digs.

"In order for us to continue being successful in the Big 12, we definitely have to have all of our cylinders working. We are not a team that relies on one or two players to carry the load. We are a team that needs everybody to contribute. For the most part, everyone contributed tonight. We had a lot of players in double digits for kills and digs and for us to have 12 blocks was pretty good."

K-State's Kaitlyn Pelger led all players with 17 kills, while Courtney Traxson chipped in with 13. Gina Madonia tallied a match-high 21 digs and setter Katie Brand dished out 46 assists.

For Oklahoma, sophomore libero Taylor Migliazzo (Kansas City, Mo.) finished second on the team with 19 digs, followed by senior defensive specialist Eden Williams (Amarillo, Texas) with 12. Sophomore setter Julia Doyle (Plymouth, Minn.) picked up a season-high 53 assists.

The Sooners hit .237 for the match and held the Wildcats to a .135 attack rate.

Oklahoma returns to action Saturday at Baylor in a 1 p.m. match.