Volleyball Headed West for Gonzaga Invitational

Friday, September 3

Spokane, WA

6:00 PM

University of Oklahoma

Air Force

Photo by: Ty Russell

Volleyball Headed West for Gonzaga Invitational

September 02, 2021 | Volleyball

Match Notes Live Stats Watch (Gonzaga Match Only)

By: Lindsey Morrison

Oklahoma

Air Force

Seattle

Gonzaga

Gonzaga Invitational / Sept. 3-5 / Charlotte Y. Martin Centre / Spokane, Wash.

NORMAN — The Oklahoma volleyball team will travel to Spokane, Wash., for its first road trip of the season at the Gonzaga Invitational Sept. 3-5. OU opens the tournament against Air Force on Friday at 6 p.m. with Saturday's match set for 1 p.m. against Seattle. The Sooners will close out the weekend on Sunday at 4 p.m. against host Gonzaga.

Live stats will be available through GoZags.com. A live stream will not be available for either neutral site matches, but Sunday's Gonzaga match will air on the WCC Network.

WEEKEND STORYLINES

LAST TIME OUT
The Sooners went 0-3 on opening weekend at the Oklahoma Invitational inside McCasland Field House. OU opened the season with a close five-set loss to Oregon State 25-20, 20-25, 25-22, 22-25, 15-12. Megan Wilson made her collegiate debut with 15 kills while transfer Savannah Davison chipped in 12 kills and nine digs. Libero Callie Kemohah led the way with 22 digs and setter Peyton Dunn collected an impressive 41 assists.

Game two of the weekend saw the Sooners drop a four-set match to Lipscomb, 25-22, 22-25, 27-25, 25-21. Wilson once again led the attack with 19 kills. Dunn added 37 assists with nine digs.

Against Houston, the Sooners nearly pulled off the reverse sweep falling 3-2 in the final match of the weekend, 25-22, 25-16, 22-25, 14-25, 15-13. Davison turned in a career-high 25 kills with Kemohah recorded a career best 23 digs.

SETTING THE TONE
Freshman setter Peyton Dunn made an immediate impact as the starting setter in Oklahoma's first three games of the season. Dunn recorded at least 35 assists in all three games, notching a career-high 50 against Houston. She also tallied 14 digs for her first double-double of the season. The Parker, Colo., native added 41 digs in her collegiate debut against Oregon State and added 37 against Lipscomb.

FRESHMAN IMPACT
All five of OU's freshmen saw action during opening weekend, with four of five starting at least one match. Peyton Dunn and Callie Kemohah started all three matches while Kristen Birmingham and Megan Wilson each started one.

Wilson led the way with 53 kills across three matches, including a career-high 19 in the final two matches of the weekend. She also tallied four service aces and five blocks. Dunn recorded 128 assists over the weekend to go with 29 digs, nine kills and six blocks. Kemohah notched 58 digs and 13 assists as the starting libero. The Lucas, Texas, native tallied two performances of 20-plus digs. Birmingham chipped in 19 kills with eight blocks on the weekend while also tallying five digs. Callie Cogdill made her collegiate debut against Lipscomb where she recorded one dig.

GUESS WHO'S BACK
The Sooners return 10 student-athletes from the 2020 roster, including Paige Anderson and Sarah Sanders who opted to take their COVID fifth year. Anderson returns after being sidelined in 2020 with injury.

Also returning are seniors Sabrina Simms and Aysia Harty; juniors Olivia LittleJim (nee Curtis), Abby Butler and Grace Talpash; and sophomore Kelsey Carrington, Sam Anthony and Tyler Alcorn.

Anderson and Sanders have both earned All-Big 12 honors with Sanders earning first-team honors in 2019 and Anderson being named to the second team. Sanders was also an All-Southwest Honorable Mention selection in 2019.

LEAD THE WAY
The Sooners have added two new assistant coaches in Ciara Jones and Travis Magorien. Jones joined the Sooners in August after spending four seasons at Howad University as an assistant coach.

Jones played for Marquette from 2008-12 under the leadership of Head Coach Bond Shymansky (Iowa) and Clemson's head coach Michaela Franklin's time as an assistant coach with the Golden Eagles. She was a four-year letterwinner where she led the Golden Eagles to the program's first NCAA Tournament appearance in 2011, a season in which she was named a Big East First Team All-American. Jones earned Marquette Athletics' Outstanding Female Leadership & Service Award in 2012 and served on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee in 2011-12.

Magorien comes to Oklahoma after a three-year stint as an assistant coach at James Madison. Magorien was a four-year team captain and letterwinner as a setter for Cal State Northridge, where he led the team in sets for three consecutive years. He ranks seventh all-time in assists with 2,911 over 345 sets at CSUN.

SCOUTING AIR FORCE
Air Force enters the weekend after an 0-3 start to the season. The Falcons took their opener against CSU Bakersfield to five sets, falling 3-2. They closed out the weekend at the Huskie Invitational with a pair of three-set losses to William & Mary and Northern Illinois. Joi Harvey led the Falcon offense with 26 kills on .315 clips. Caroline Reinkensmeyer notched 55 assists with Abigail Collins added 30. On defense, Allie Griffith recorded 33 digs, followed by 21 from Bailey Keith.

SCOUTING SEATTLE
Seattle went 0-3 on opening weekend at the Bengal Invitational in Pocatello, Idaho. The Redhawks fell 3-2 to host Idaho State before being swept in a pair of matches by UC Irvine and UTEP. Eve Kerschenbaum led the way with 28 kills, followed by 18 each from Sierra Bartley and Julia Queiroz. Darian Goins added 43 assists along with Ezgi Ozkan who notched 30. Katlyn Sipes led the Redhawks with 32 digs and Sophia Bertotti Metoyer added seven blocks.

SCOUTING GONZAGA
Gonzaga is 1-2 on the year after opening the season at the Starkvegas Classic in Starkville, Miss. The Bulldogs took down Southeastern Louisiana, 3-2, beforebeing swept by Mississippi State in a pair of matches. McKenna Marshall led the attack with 34 kills across 11 sets. Brynn Chandler added 98 assists for an 8.91 assists/per set mark. Viktoriya Ivananova led the Bulldogs in digs with 35 across 10 sets.

QUICK HITTERS

The Sooners will be playing Gonzaga and Seattle for the first time in program history. OU and Air Force have met once with the Sooners earning a 3-0 victory in 2012.
Four of OU's regular season opponents earned berths in the 2020 NCAA Tournament, including Georgia Tech, Lipscomb and conference foes Baylor and Texas. Texas claimed a runner-up finish in the national title match in 2020.
The Sooners will be on the road for nine of their next 10 matches. OU will face nine opponents on the road in the month of September, hosting only Abilene Christian on Tuesday, Aug. 14.

UP NEXT

The Sooners will travel to head coach Lindsey Gray-Walton's alma mater for the Georgia Tech Classic. OU will face Indiana, Mississippi State and Georgia Tech, Sept. 10-12 in Atlanta, Ga.

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