Chapter #38 Wildcats-Moutaineers First Meeting

Thursday night coming off a bounce back victory over Nebraska-Omaha. The Kansas State volleyball team went back to work taking on the West Virginia Mountaineers for the first matchup in their history. On a night where the best player for the 'Cats joined a huge accomplishment the Wildcats made it look easy against West Virginia sweeping them 25-8, 25-19, and 25-17. It already marks for the 12th time this season that Kansas State has beat a team in straight sets. But this night when theme at Ahearn Fieldhouse was 70s night, junior Kaitlynn Pelger joined the 1000 kill club.

The Wildcats jumped on West Virginia (8-8, 0-3) early as the Mountaineers struggled to handle K-State’s serve and offensive firepower. K-State would go on a 12-0 in the opening set to take a 22-5 lead. West Virginia would fail to reach double digits in the first frame, marking the first time K-State has held a conference opponent under 10 points in a non-shortened fifth set in the rally scoring era, which started in 2001. Other than Pelger, the Cats receive another good performance from seniors Caitlyn Donahue, and Tristan McCarty. Kansas State moved their record to an overall 14-1 on the year and get their first conference win on the season 1-1. K-State returns to action quickly on Friday night when they hit the road down to Texas to take on the Baylor Bears.

*Eddie Grier III (EG3)

Chapter #37 Kansas State Volleyball Recap: Week #3

Kansas State volleyball team led by head coach Susie Fritz came off last weekend with sweep in the Tulsa Invatational where the 'Cats beat 3 teams. Two of those teams were ranked inside the Top 25 which was huge of the team. K-State defeated Tulsa last Thursday, followed that up with an upset of the #10 ranked opponent Minnesota. After getting hammered in the first set of the game, the 'Cats battled back in the second set then fell in the 3rd set, and they were about to lose the 4th set until a late rally against the Golden Gophers. Then K-State ran away with the 5th set to capture the victory. On Saturday, the Cats' took care of #20 Dayton in 3 sets to move to 12-0 on the year. K-State junior Kaitlynn Pelger took MVP honors in the tourney and was the Player of the Week, nationally.

Oklahoma
On the road to start off Big 12 play, the 'Cats on the road in Norman taking on the Sooners which lost a couple key players the year before. But on this night, K-State fell behind early and often against the Sooners and ended up losing their first game in 2012 by losing to Oklahoma in 3 sets. Once again as she always does night in and night out, Kaitlynn Pelger had another big game for the 'Cats leading the team with 13 kills followed by Lilla Porubek with 11 kills. Oklahoma defeated K-State 25-27, 19-25, and 21-25.

Chapter #36 Huge Test for Cats: Tulsa Tourney

The Kansas State volleyball team with their best start in school history at 9-0 will have a huge test this weekend in the upcoming Tulsa tournament in Oklahoma this weekend beginning with of course Tulsa of Thursday evening . K-State has overpowered most of their competition except for Oregon State in the first week of the season but still manage to win in 5 sets. The Cats' will need to get out of the gate this weekend if they want to continue their early season success especially Top 10 ranked opponent in Minnesota coming up on Saturday led by their best player Katherine Harms who averages 4 kills a game. #10 Minnesota will be playing 2 games on Friday, while K-State will be just playing the normal one game which will be at 4:20pm. Cats' wrapped up tourney play Saturday morning when they take on Dayton. The bigger question coming after these games will K-State still be unbeaten??


Tulsa
On Thursday night, the K-State volleyball team started out fast to defeat Tulsa in straight sets 25-19, 25-22, 25-18. The Cats led by the talented junior Kaitlyn Pelger who led the attack with 11 kills in this game while Kathleen Ludwig had another big game by adding 10 kills as well. The Wildcats in this contest found a way to slow down Tulsa's best player Tyler Henderson who had 18 kills but the rest of the Golden hurricanes couldn't get anything going. The Cats' continue to rack up the wins and going to the game with #10 Minnesota Friday afternoon at 10-0.

*Eddie (EGIII)

Chapter #35 Kansas State Volleyball: Early season recap

A few weekends ago (August 24-26) the K-State volleyball team (women) began it's season after making it the Sweet 16 one year ago. Kansas State hosted the Varney's Invitational at Ahern Fieldhouse. The Cats' ended up sweeping the weekend and starting off with a record of 3-0 so far early in the season. On Friday, K-State took down UC Irvine, then in the night cap in striaght sets defeated Oakland. The toughest test came on Saturday evening facing Oregon State. Behind in the 4th set the Cats' began to rally behind Juniors Kaitlynn Pelger and Lilla Porubek. K-State ended up winning set 4 then finished off the Beavers in the 5th and final set of the match 15-8. Pelger and Porubek had 43 of the 76 kills for the Wildcats. Senior Caitlyn Donahue made key plays down late in the game for K-State. Pelger, Porubek, and Donahue all receive 1st team honors of the Varney's Invitational.

Bluejay Invitational Recap
Kansas State volleyball team last weekend played up in Omaha, Nebraska where the Wildcats ended sweeping all three teams to win the weekend tournament. Denver, Creighton, and Syracuse. Along with that the Cats won every single game not losing a set (9-0). Kansas State defeated Syracuse 25-17, 25-14, 25-16 to seal the tourney let by Lilla Porubek and Kaitlyn Pelger. K-State volleyball will return to action next beginning on Wednesday when take on Missouri State flollowed by St. Mary's and on Saturday night Utah State.

*Eddie Grier (EG3)