Chapter 39: K-State Volleyball Recap: Week #5

Baylor

Last weekend, the Kansas State volleyball team snapped a four game road losing streak to the Baylor Bears last Saturday afternoon in Waco (Sept 29). Kaitlynn Pelger had one of her best matches of the season to this point. The Wildcats defeated Baylor 18-25, 25-22, 25-23, and 25-16. Courtney Traxson played her best game of the year, shy from her personal best game for K-State. Traxson came off the bench for Suzie Fritz team and provided a huge spark for the Cats' when they needed it most. Had 10 kills on the night, meanwhile senior Caitlyn Donahue had 55 assists in this game two shorts of her best. Other highlights for K-State Kuuiel Kabalis had a career high in digs with 17. Torri Campbell and Laura Jones for Baylor led the way in kills but it was not enough for the Bears to overtake the Wildcats.

#22 Iowa State
Kaitlynn Pelger came into this game coming off another player of the week award from last weekend's action. Another plus for Pelger, she and her teammates came out and stunned the #22 ranked Iowa State in striaght sets at Ahern Fieldhouse on Wednesday night (Oct 3). Pelger led the way with 5 kills along with 6 swings, Alex Muff and Lilla Porubek also helped the Cats against the Cyclones. Kansas State came into this contest ranked #14 and right from the start just took it to the Cyclones who had no answer all night long. Iowa State had an oppurtunity to seal the second sets but the 'Cats rallied back to steal the set and pretty much closed the door on Iowa State for the match. Kansas State with the sweep 25-15. 27-25, and 25-17. The Wildcats move to 16-1 on the year and 3-1 in the Big 12 with #9 Texas coming to Manhattan on Saturday night. This will be the biggest test for K-State to see if they can contend for the Big 12 title. Game at Ahern Fieldhouse starts at 7pm Saturday night.

*Eddie III (EG3)

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)

Chapter #34 Chris and Megan's Wedding

Haha, yeah...I'm a little late with blogging as for late but I'm trying to get back into the swing of things with school starting back up and trying to get everything all in order here for the fall semester. Anyway, a few weeks ago I got to be apart of a wedding; I went to a wedding in the middle of this summer which was my first, and now I was in my good friend's wedding a couple months later in August (August 11th) Chris and Megan Karlin. It was definitley an honor to be apart of their special day knowing them for over 2 years now. I came back to Manhattan that Wednesday couple days before the wedding day because as earlier I mention that I was in the wedding as an usher. But going back a little bit, I wasn't sure if I was going to make it to their wedding (Karlins). But I was able to make it staying at Willie's place on the first night. Then,  hanging out with Chris and the guys the first then helping them get set up with their wedding on Friday with Megan and the rest of the family. That goes for Chris's as well. It was really nice to get to know Chris and Megan family during the 3-day stay in Manhattan (Kansas). On wedding day, the guys Chris, Shane, and myself got to the church early along with Matthias (Megan's brother) got into our very nice clothes and got ready to Chris/Megan get married. Being usher for their wedding pretty good! Family from both sides came of course a lot of people that I kenw at this wedding as well beside the married couple now were their and I know quite a bit actually. After the ceremony and everything and a chance to take some pictures with the group. And yes, we got creative it was a ton of fun...the entire day itself was just a blast. It's about some 3 weeks later but congrats again to my good friends now married Chris and Megan. And thank you for letting me part of your wedding day! I'm blessed to have them in my life.

People that I met during the wedding:
Chris and Megan's Parents
Matthias
Morgan
Miranda
Marissa
Sara
and a few more

Until next time,
*EG3

Chapter #33 Lake or Break

Just a couple of weekends ago, I had a chance to go back to Wilson Lake in Wilson, Kansas to spend the Sunday afternoon with friends from Barton County Community College that I went to school for 2.5 years. Some of them who were out at the lake...there was like including myself 8 of us. A couple of them I met my Sophomore year. Haha, yes there was suppose be a few more out there on the lake with but on well.

Water and me don't really get along that well; I mean I can drink gallons of it all day long if I wanted to but swimming in it is a whole different challenge for me. The last time I was out there, I was at a different side of the lake and when tubing a couple years ago. It was my first summer in the state of Kansas, I was with a couple of friends and went tubing back then I didn't know what it was called. Let's just say that I somehow survived that activity. Going to Wilson, this time was very different...road trip there was cool; after a busy summer it was my last weekend in the Hat for awhile. Riding along with Brittany and Joann overall was good but somehow I didn't feel safe in the car, lol. Maybe the first hour of the trip all I hear from them was knives, hot dogs and other things and yeah but I guess it's good thing though not in a bad way. Anyway, we all got to Wilson in one piece waited for other people to get to the mini restaurant intown and then we were on our way there after a few more u-turns and so on. Our group went to the other side of the lake where there was kids. Wilson is pretty decent in size so it wasn't that bad. Playing, walking, volleyball in the lake just your normal hangout during the summer. After a few hours there pictures and hugs followed, then I with Brittany and then replace Joann with Kaitlin when took a look at her (Kaitlin) hometown which is pretty small. In Kansas I have seen my share of small towns and it was nice to see how everyone in the small town works and I'm sure everyone in town knows your name. I have not mention food, lol. Well it depends on which store you go to but on the way back to our locations me, Brittany, and Kaitlin stopped at a convenience store and order food, and it was pretty good hot and fresh too...just saying haha. Overall, the entire day was awesome just get away from our normal lives and enjoy some fun for a day.

People I was with:
Brittany
Joann
Kaitlin
Erica
Cassie
Reba
Mahlia
Kyle

Until next time
*EGIII