Big 12 Play Starts Friday in Morgantown

Oklahoma

West Virginia

Friday, Sept. 24 / 5 p.m. CT / Saturday, Sept. 25 / 4 p.m. CT / WVU Coliseum / Morgantown, W.Va.

NORMAN — After wrapping up non-conference play last week, the Oklahoma volleyball team is set to open Big 12 play on Friday with a pair of matches at West Virginia.

The Sooners and Mountaineers will play on Friday and Saturday in Morgantown. Both matches will air on ESPN+.

WEEKEND STORYLINES

IT'S A BRAND NEW SEASON
This weekend's matches kick off a brand new season as Big 12 play begins. The Big 12 schedule once again has a different look than normal for the 2021 season. Programs will play a double round-robin format of 16 matches scheduled in eight double-headers with competition against the same opponent in consecutive days at the same site. The team(s) that finishes with the highest winning percentage will be crowned the Big 12 champion.

Previously, teams played a double round-robin format that featured eight home matches and eight road matches against all conference opponents. This is the second season the teams will play the new format after adopting it in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

ROAD WARRIORS
The Sooners are closing out a tough month of September having played nine of 10 matches on the road. In that stretch, the Sooners went 5-2 while sweeping the Gonzaga Invitational and defeating Indiana and SMU. OU will play on the road eight more times during the season with conference clashes at West Virginia, TCU (Oct. 9-10), Kansas (Oct. 29-30) and Texas (Nov. 11-12).

LAST TIME OUT
The Sooners rebounded from a pair of losses at the Georgia Tech Classic to go 2-0 in a pair of midweek battles with Abilene Christian and SMU. OU defeated ACU, 3-0, inside McCasland Field House and SMU, 3-1, in Dallas.

Freshman middle blocker Megan Wilson registered 20 kills and hit .425 in the match while senior outside hitter Savannah Davison tallied 14 kills to lead the Oklahoma volleyball team to a 3-0 sweep (25-19, 33-31, 25-15) of Abilene Christian. OU recorded eight team blocks and held the Wildcats to a .186 attack percentage for the match.

A trio of Sooners finished with double-digit kills in Oklahoma volleyball's four-set victory (20-25, 25-16, 25-20, 25-23) over SMU. Davison led the OU (6-5) attack, registering 19 kills on 44 attempts with only two errors to finish with a .386 clip. Davison also tallied eight digs with two blocks to finish with a match-high 20 points. Peyton Dunn paced the Oklahoma offense with 41 assists and recorded a double-double with 11 digs, while adding six blocks.

SETTING THE TONE
Freshman setter Peyton Dunn has made an immediate impact to the OU offense in her first season with the Sooners. The Parker, Colo., native has notched at least 35 assists in every match this season and has tallied 40-plus in five matches with a career-best of 50 against Houston (Aug. 28). The freshman has also recorded a double-double on three occasions. Dunn has done it all this season tallying 434 assists (9.86/set), 37 kills, 83 digs and 31.0 blocks.

WONDERFUL WILSON
Megan Wilson has come out swinging in her freshman campaign and leads the team with 186 kills (4.23/set) in 2021. Wilson has notched double-digit kills in every match this year with a career-high of 22 against Indiana (Sept. 10). The Texas native has tallied at least 15 kills in all but two matches and posted marks of 20-plus on two occasions. She has added 13 service aces and 20.0 blocks this season.

BATTLING IN THE BIG 12
Multiple Sooners hold top-10 rankings in the current conference standings. Megan Wilson ranks second in the league with 4.23/kills per set and first with 186 total kills. Savannah Davison ranks eighth with 3.47 kills/set. Davison's 25 kills against Houston are the third most by a Big 12 athlete in a match this season. Peyton Dunn ranks fourth in assists/set at 9.86 and second with 434 total assists. Dunn is one of just three Big 12 players with over 400 assists this season. Callie Kemohah sits in fourth with 4.05 digs per set, but second in total digs at 178. Kemohah's 29 digs against Mississippi State are the most by any Big 12 player in a match. Paige Anderson is ninth in blocks/set at 1.26 and leads the league with 54 total.

NATION'S BEST
Two Sooners rank in the top 30 among Division I volleyball players in two different statistical categories. Paige Anderson ranks 26th in total blocks with 54 and is the only Big 12 player in the top 30. Peyton Dunn is 30^th in the nation in total assists with 434 and one of only two Big 12 players in the top 30.

SCOUTING WEST VIRGINIA
West Virginia enters conference play with a 10-1 mark and the lone loss coming to then-No. 20 Penn State. Before the loss, WVU had won 10-straight matches. The Mountaineers have played just three matches in which they have needed more than four sets to determine a winner and none of their matches have gone to five sets.

The Mountaineers have held their opponents to a league-best .116 hitting percentage, while ranking third with a team hitting percentage of .257. West Virginia also ranks first in kills/set with 13.81 and second in digs with 14.89 per set.

Briana Lynch leads the offensive attack for the Mountaineers with 127 kills. Her .450 hitting percentage leads the league and her 3.53 kills per set rank sixth. Lacey Zerwas has notched 377 assists in 36 sets played to average 10.47 assists per set and rank second in the league. On defense, Alexa Hasting has notched 153 digs and ranks third in the league, while Lynch's 50 total blocks ranks fourth.

QUICK HITTERS

The Sooners are 184-274 all-time in Big 12 play and 11-14 all-time in conference openers. Under Lindsey Gray-Walton, the Sooners are 23-23 in Big 12 play and 1-2 in league openers.
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 face four Big 12 opponents at home in 2021. OU will host Kansas State (Oct. 1-2), Texas Tech (Oct. 15-16), Iowa State (Nov. 5-6) and Baylor (Nov. 23-24).

UP NEXT

The Sooners will return to the friendly confines of McCasland Field House for their Big 12 home opener. OU will face Kansas State on Friday, Oct. 1 at 5 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 2 at 4 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at SoonerSports.com or by calling the ticket office at (405) 325-2424.

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