Sooners Tame Mustangs

Saturday, September 21

Norman

4:00 p.m.

University of Oklahoma

8-3

SMU

7-3

SMU

Oklahoma

September 21, 2019 | Volleyball

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NORMAN – The Oklahoma volleyball team closed out the non-conference slate with a 3-1 win over SMU Saturday at McCasland Field House.

After giving up the first set, OU stormed back to win the next three straight to put the Mustangs away 23-25, 25-19, 25-19, 28-26. With the victory, OU improves to 8-3 on the year and remains undefeated (4-0) at home.

"We talked about heart going into the pregame, just our sense of urgency and how we approached every point, couldn't change whether we were up or down and I think we definitely showed that for 23 points in the first set then the remaining, you know, three sets after that," said head coach Lindsey Gray-Walton.

OU hit .244 in the match while holding SMU to just .182. The Sooners' stellar defense shone once again as OU players racked up 68 digs on the contest while tallying a season-high 14.0 blocks. Junior libero Keyton Kinley led the match in that category with 22 to her name. Paige Anderson posted two solo blocks on the night along with five block assists.

Offensively, Brianna Kadiku led the way for OU with 11 kills on a .421 clip. Saturday's contest marks the fifth time this season that the middle blocker has swung above .400 and her fourth double-digit kills performance of the year.

Three more Sooners chipped in with 10 or more kills as newcomer Sanaá Dotson put down 10; Sarah Sanders had 11; and Ashlynn Dunbar racked up 16 to go with 15 digs for her second straight double-double. Anderson was not far behind as she added nine kills on a .353 clip.

Kylee McLaughlin paced OU's offense with 50 assists, just one short of her season high.

SMU took a narrow first set 23-25. The teams traded points in the second set up to 13-all, but OU used a four-point run to gain separation and kept rolling from there to claim it 25-19. The Sooners jumped out to an early lead in the third and led by as many as five throughout the frame.

An extended fourth set saw ties up to 25-25. Dotson put down her 10^th kill of the day to bring up match point at 27-26 and Sanders and Kadiku threw up a wall on the outside to end the set 28-26.
"I see December type opportunities in the level of this team when we can be our best," said Gray-Walton.

"We have the size, we have the physicality, we have the ball control, we have the setting, so, we talk about the whole year being a three-part season, the pre-conference, conference and then if you do your job in those two parts, you'll create your third season for you. I think we've done a nice job, 8-3, we've built the resume that we wanted, now we got to go take care of our home opportunities, especially in conference play because we know how special those are."

Up Next
OU opens conference play at home Wednesday with TCU. The contest is slated for an 8 p.m. CT start and will be broadcast on ESPNU.

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