Sooners Upset No. 14 West Virginia in Four

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Sooners Upset No. 14 West Virginia in Four

November 19, 2020 | Volleyball

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NORMAN – The Oklahoma volleyball team broke a four-match losing streak with a statement win, downing No. 14 West Virginia 3-1 inside McCasland Field House Thursday night.

After dropping the first set 22-25, the Sooners rallied off three straight set wins, 25-19, 25-21, 25-23 to earn their first win since Oct. 17.

"They're fighters. They're young. They have to figure out the energy it takes is sometimes so training to produce a W," head coach Lindsey Gray-Walton said. "I think what we can rely on is consistency in back-to-back weeks from our left sides. Even though we didn't win last week, they had career nights and so I think we can ride that. Obviously, we're running the 6-2 now. For Liv (Curtis) and Sam (Anthony) to be in the 20s, we're doing a nice job of passing and setting the ball and our attackers are taking care of it. You like seeing this type of stat sheet. 16 blocks, hit .286, that's a really clean night and that's exactly what we wanted out of them and they're capable, and now we're recreating that every day."

The Sooners out-hit West Virginia, .286 to .136 with a 53 to 49 advantage in kills. West Virginia led in digs, 51-45, but the Sooners once again held the advantage in blocks 16.0 to 7.0.

Guewe Diouf led the offense with a career best 24 kills on a .404 clip. Sanaa Dotson added a career-high 18 kills on a .208 clip. Diouf was a dig shy of her third double-double of the season as she tallied nine, while Dotson added five.

Olivia Curtis notched a career-high 25 assists, while Sam Anthony added a career best 21. Curtis and Anthony chipped in five digs and four digs, respectively.

Defensively, Keyton Kinley led the way with 16 digs. Tyler Alcorn notched eight blocks and Abby Butler got in on a career-high seven. Diouf, Dotson, Sarah Maras and Sarah Sanders each tallied four blocks apiece.

West Virginia took a closely contested first set, 25-22. In set two, the teams traded points with the match staying tied up to 18-18. OU would use a 7-1 run and a service ace from Anthony to take the second set, 25-19.

The Sooners won set three, 25-21. Again, the teams traded points with the final tie coming at 14-all. OU pulled ahead with a 3-0 run and capitalized on a Mountaineer error to take a 2-1 advantage in the match.

The final set saw West Virginia take a 16-13 lead, before OU used a 5-0 run to pull ahead, 18-13. With a 24-20 lead and match point, WVU used a 3-0 run to keep the Sooners from securing the win. An attack error by the Mountaineers would end the set, giving OU the match.

"It's fun to watch and fun to play that way," Gray-Walton said. "I think now, a little bit there, you could sense 'are we really leading? Are we really doing this?' and it was dicey there, even in the end. 24-20, let's finish it. Let's finish it at 25-20. And that's the young ones knowing you don't need to be highlight reel, you don't need to be big time, we just need the point and then we can go celebrate it. This is a culmination of both things coming together and let's see if we can recreate it two nights in a row."

OU is back in action against West Virginia Friday at 6 p.m. in the final game of the fall season.

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