Hoosier Classic Up Next for Sooners

NORMAN – The Oklahoma volleyball team is on the road again for the second week of the 2019 season as it heads to Bloomington, Ind., for the Hoosier Classic.

The Sooners will open the tournament with Oregon State Thursday at 4 p.m. CT before Friday matchups with Yale at 11 a.m. and host Indiana at 6 p.m.

Live stats will be available for all matches of the tournament. Additionally, matches can be streamed on BTN+ with a subscription.

GAMEDAY STORYLINES

LAST TIME OUT

The Sooners went 1-2 on opening weekend at the Ram Volleyball Classic hosted by Colorado State.

OU dropped to Cal 3-0 in the first match of the season, 25-11, 25-20, 28-26. Keyton Kinley led OU in digs with 13, while Kylee McLaughlin dished out 27 assists. Middle blocker Paige Anderson recorded seven kills while newcomer Sanaá Dotson added five of her own on a714 clip. Brianna Kadiku put up four blocks for the team-high, with three of those coming in the final set.

The Sooners rebounded with a five-set win over Chicago State, 23-25, 25-17, 25-16, 23-25, 15-10. McLaughlin recorded her first double-double of the season, putting up 51 assists to go with 19 digs, while outside hitter Ashlynn Dunbar led the match in kills with 21 on a .395 clip. Kinley tallied a match-high 27 digs in the contest.

OU outkilled the Chicago State 65-54 and hit .256 as a team. The Sooners tallied 80 digs to the Cougars' 74 and recorded 12 blocks in comparison to Chicago State's five.

Oklahoma was defeated by Colorado State 3-0 in the final match of the tournament, 25-13, 25-20, 25-20. Dunbar led the way for Oklahoma once again with nine kills to her name. After taking over as libero, Aysia Harty led the Sooners in digs with seven, while McLaughlin put up 25 assists.

Dunbar was named to the Ram Volleyball Classic All-Tournament team after tallying 35 kills in three matches. 21 of the grad transfer's kills came against Chicago State as she swung on a .395 clip.

PLAYING BEYOND THEIR YEARS

Three of OU's four freshmen saw action at the Ram Volleyball Classic as Dotson, Olivia Curtis and Abby Butler all made contributions.

Dotson entered the Cal match in the final set and racked up five kills on seven attempts with no errors to swing .714. The Houston, Texas, native also assisted on two blocks in the frame.
Dotson tallied 18 kills across three matches over the weekend and averaged three kills/set.

Curtis got the start at outside hitter against Cal in the first match of the season.

Middle blocker Butler had eight kills against Chicago State and assisted on five of OU's 12 blocks in the contest.

WE MEET AGAIN

Oklahoma setter McLaughlin spent the first year of her career at Oregon State before joining the Sooners. While at OSU, McLaughlin was one of four players to appear in all 121 sets and started all 33 matches.

McLaughlin led the Beavers with 1,294 assists, good for the sixth-most in OSU single season history and second-most by a freshman in OSU history. Her 10.69 assists per set are also second in OSU freshman history. The Carrolton, Texas, native received AVCA Pacific North Freshman of the Year and Pac-12 Freshman of the Year accolades and was named to the Pac-12 All-Freshman team.

QUICK HITS

Juniors McLaughlin and Kinley were named to the Preseason All-Big 12 team. Both players were unanimous selections after earning All-Big 12 first team honors in 2018.
Four of OU's 2019 regular season opponents earned berths in the 2018 NCAA tournament, including Colorado State Invitational host Colorado State, Indiana Invitational opponent Yale and conference foes Texas and Baylor.
Additionally, OU Nike Invite opponent Georgia Tech and Big 12 rival Iowa State made the 2018 National Invitational Volleyball Championship field with the Cyclones bringing home the title.

SCOUTING REPORT

OREGON STATE

The Beavers are 2-0 on the year after posting sweeps of UC Irvine and Boston College last weekend at the Oregon Classic in Eugene, Ore.

Outside hitter Chloe Brown led the way for the Beavers with 25 kills and 21 digs on the weekend. Setter Maddie Sheehan dished out 68 assists while adding 29 digs.

The all-time series between the teams is tied at 2-2. OU has won the last two meets, defeating the Beavers 3-0 in Madison, Wis., in 2006 and 3-1 in Moscow, Idaho in 2007.

YALE

Yale will open the 2019 season at the Hoosier Classic. The Bulldogs are coming off of a 19-5 season in 2019, which culminated in the team's seventh Ivy League Championship in 10 seasons.

Yale returns three All-Ivy selections, including the league's 2018 Player of the Year Frances Arnautou and Rookie of the Year Ellis DeJardin, along with Samantha Bray who earned second-team honors.

Saturday's contest will mark the first-ever meeting between the Sooners and the Bulldogs.

INDIANA

The Hoosiers enter the tournament at 3-1 after hosting the Indiana Invitational last week. Indiana tallied a 3-1 victory over FIU (24-26, 25-14, 25-12, 25-16); a 3-1 win against Marshall (25-13, 25-21, 20-25, 25-17); and a sweep of UT-Martin (25-18, 25-13, 25-21) in the tournament before falling to Santa Clara in three sets (25-22, 26-24, 25-22).

Outside hitter Breana Edwards led the way with 67 kills on the weekend for an average of 4.79 kills/set on a .296 clip. Three Hoosiers recorded five aces in Indiana's four matches last weekend.

Indiana leads the all-time series 2-1. In their last meeting, OU swept the Hoosiers in Tuscaloosa, Ala., in 2005.

UP NEXT

The Sooners are home to host the OU Nike Invitational Sept. 13-14. The tournament field includes Arizona State, Louisiana and Georgia Tech.

OU opens the tournament with Arizona State at 7:30 p.m. CT on Sept. 13 before facing Louisiana at 11 a.m. and Georgia Tech at 7 p.m. on Sept. 14.

For updates, follow @OU_Volleyball on Twitter or like Oklahoma Volleyball on Facebook.