Sooners Close Spring at Home Against TCU

NORMAN – The Oklahoma volleyball team will wrap up the spring season with a pair of matches against TCU Friday and Saturday inside McCasland Field House.

Friday's match will air on Fox Sports Oklahoma at 7 p.m. CT. Saturday's match is set for a 4 p.m. start on FSOK.

Both matches will count towards the conference standings as the teams had their original series in the fall postponed due to issues with COVID-19.

WEEKEND STORYLINES

LAST TIME OUT
The Sooners split a pair of matches on the road at North Texas and TCU earlier this month. On March 4, OU faced UNT in Denton, Texas, falling 3-1. Sophomore Sanaa Dotson had an impressive night as she tallied a career-high 21 kills and was one dig away from a double-double. Against the Mean Green, the Sooners led in kills (56-43), digs (53-44), assists (48-37) and blocks (12.0-8.0).

On March 5, the Sooners faced TCU in a non-conference matchup. OU dominated from the beginning and broke a four-match losing skid as they swept the Horned Frogs in Fort Worth. OU outhit the Horned Frogs .391 to .233 on the day behind 46 kills. The Sooners held the advantage in assists (44-39), aces (5-1), digs (39-34) and blocks (6.0 to 3.0). Freshman Guewe Diouf led the way with 23 kills on a .500 clip. Sophomore Olivia Curtis had an incredible day with a career-high 41 assists.

The Sooners were slated to play Iowa State in a pair of conference matches March 19-20 but had to cancel those games due to COVID-19 protocols.

DOMINANT DIOUF
Freshman Guewe Diouf has had an incredible freshman season for the Sooners. Diouf has earned five Big 12 weekly honors, earning four Rookie of the Week nods and one Player of the Week accolade. Her five awards ties for the most in a single season (Sallie McLaurin, 2013). Diouf is currently on a streak of nine games with double-digit kills and has tallied 10+ kills in all but one match this season. Four times, she has posted 20 or more kills, including a season-high 28 against West Virginia on Nov. 20. Diouf has posted three double-doubles in 2021. Currently, Diouf is tied for first in the Big 12 in kills per set with a 4.56 mark.

KEEP IT 100
Sophomore Olivia Curtis has stepped into a new role this spring, racking up 100 assists in just four games. Curtis is averaging 7.69 assists per set and set her career high with 41 assists in a three-set match against TCU on March 5. In 12 matches in the fall, Curtis only tallied 78 assists for an average of 1.95 per set. Curtis has also added eight kills, compared to just two in the fall.

FALL RECAP
The Sooners played a conference only slate in the fall and finished with a 3-9 record. OU played 12 of their 16 conference matches with the matches against TCU and Iowa State postponed to the spring season. The Sooners swept the series with Kansas at home and split their series with West Virginia.

Diouf led the way for the Sooners in the fall with 202 kills and a 4.39 kills/set mark. Sophomore Sanaa Dotson added 118 kills for the Sooners to rank second on the team. Sophomore Grace Talpash notched 240 assists, while Sam Anthony added 95 and Olivia Curtis notched 78. Curtis also led the way with 12 service aces.

Defensively, senior Keyton Kinley notched 189 digs to lead the team. Diouf was just behind her with 90 digs on the year. Freshman Tyler Alcorn led the team with 49 blocks, followed by 42 from senior Sarah Sanders.

QUICK HITS

OU leads the all-time series, 15-6. The Sooners have won the last four meetings between the teams.
In the last four meetings between the two teams, the Sooners have given up just two sets.
When the teams last met in conference action in 2019, the teams played an epic fourth set that ended with the Sooner winning 36-34.

SCOUTING TCU

The Horned Frogs are 2-15 on the year with their only wins coming against Texas Tech and Texas State. Most recently, TCU dropped a tough five-set match to Tarleton State. Four different athletes have notched at least 100 kills with Julia Adams leading the way at 189. McKenzie Nichols has tallied over 622 assists to average 9.87 per set. Defensively, Dani Dennison leads the team with 266 digs.

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