Sooners Head to West Virginia for Conference Clash

NORMAN – Oklahoma volleyball travels to The Mountain State to face West Virginia at noon CT Saturday in Morgantown. The match will be viewed on Big 12 Now on ESPN+ with live stats available through West Virginia StatBroadcast page.

"West Virginia is a hungry team that is on the brink of breaking through," head coach Lindsey Gray-Walton said. "We have a chance to build momentum off of a gritty showing at Kansas and we've had a good week of practice leading up to this second road test."

OU is 4-4 on the road and look to earn back-to-back conference wins for the first time this season.

The Sooners lead the overall series with West Virginia 18-4, including 7-3 on the road. OU is looking for its first win in Morgantown since Sept. 28, 2019, after a 3-1 victory and first road sweep against the Mountaineers in the WVU Coliseum since Nov. 17, 2018.

"We are starting to hit a stride as a team in the finish of conference play," Gray-Walton noted. "The focus continues to be what we can control, compete with a high intensity and have a passion for what we're doing together."

BIG 12 STORYLINES

ROCKIN' BIG 12 VICTORY

A back-and-forth battle went the way of the Sooners as they defeated the Jayhawks, 3-2, in their first five-set victory on the season last Sunday.
OU extended its lead in the overall series with the Jayhawks, 55-42, including a 19-24 road record. Under head coach Lindsey Gray-Walton, OU has a 7-3 record against Kansas, including 4-1 in Lawrence.
Preston led the offense with a career-high 22 kills, while sophomore Megan Wilson added a career first double-double with 16 kills and a career-high 14 digs. Freshman Alexis Shelton picked up 15 kills with her 11th match on the season with double-digit kills and matched a career-high four blocks.
Despite being under the weather, sophomore Payton Chamberlain added a career-high 56 assists, while pacing the defense with four blocks (leading the Sooners with Shelton) and nine digs.

IMPREST-IVE CONFERENCE HONOR

For the first time in her career, Preston was named the Big 12 Rookie of the Week last Tuesday.
Preston is the fourth Sooner in 2022 to earn a weekly accolade and second Rookie of the Week, joining Morgan Perkins as the only two Sooner freshman to earn conference weekly honors.
The Kentucky native led the offense with a career-high 22 kills against OU's 3-2 upset win at Kansas last Sunday. Preston's kills at Kansas marked the ninth time this season Preston had kills in the double-digits.
Preston led the conference last week with 37 kills and was the best freshman in kills per set (4.11), 39.5 total points and points per set (4.39). She's second overall in kills per set and total points, while third in points per set.

BATTLING IN THE BIG 12

As a team, OU is third in service aces per set (1.46) and fourth with a .252 hitting percentage.
Multiple Sooners hold top-10 rankings in the current conference standings for all of the major statistical categories. Wilson leads the Big 12 in service aces per set (0.56) and total service aces (44). She also ranks second in the league with 4.58 points per set and 362 points, while fifth in the league with 3.61 kills per set.
Sophomore libero Callie Kemohah tops the conference in digs per set (4.55) and is third with 373 total digs. Perkins is the top freshman in blocks per set (1.25), hitting percentage (.418) and total blocks (96). Perkins is third in both blocks per set and hitting percentage. Chamberlain ranks fourth with 9.61 assists per set.
In conference matches only, Wilson leads the Big 12 with 0.42 service aces per set, second in total service aces (16), and fourth in points per set sixth with 3.32 kills per set, Perkins moves to second with a .434 hitting percentage, while sitting in ninth with 1.03 blocks per set.
Chamberlain's 9.20 assists per set ranks sixth in conference play, while Kemohah is fifth in digs per set (3.83).

SETTING THE RECORD BOOK STRAIGHT

The 2022 team has already etched their name nine times in the record books.
As a team, the Sooners set program records for aces (11) and block assists (30) in a four-set match, along with 28 block assists in a three-set match.
Wilson's five aces in a three-set match is tied for the most in program history, while moving to second for aces in a single season with 44. This is Wilson's fourth mark in the record book after posting 392 kills and 20 solo blocks during the 2021 season, putting her seventh and tied for fifth, respectively.
Perkins has already made her mark in the record book after setting a program record for 11 block assists in a three-set match against Texas Southern (Sept. 16). Currently, she is also second in hitting percentage for a single season with .418 and seventh in blocks per set with 1.25.
Kemohah has entered the chat, matching a career-best 23 aces per season. This is Kemohah's third mark in the record book after posting 436 digs and 23 aces during the 2021 season, sitting in ninth for both categories.

SEEING DOUBLE

Five Sooners have notched double-doubles for the 2022 season with two doing it twice this season.
Preston posted the first career double-double for the Sooners this season after 11 kills and 10 digs against Ball State at the LUV Invitational in Nashville, Tennessee on Sept. 2. The following weekend, she notched her second double-double of the season with 19 kills and 11 digs at the Santa Clara Invitational against Fresno State in California on Sept. 11.
Perkins posted her first career double-double with 11 blocks and 10 kills against Texas Southern on Sept. 16 to close out the non-conference slate.
Graduate student Savannah Davison and Chamberlain both recorded double-doubles the fifth and sixth Sooner double-doubles on the season against Kansas State last Wednesday. Davison posted her first of the year with season-highs in both kills (17) and digs (10), while Chamberlain earned her fifth career double-double with season-highs in assists (44) and digs (19).
Wilson earned her first career double-double this season at Kansas with 16 kills and a career-high 16 digs last Sunday.

WONDERFUL WILSON

Wilson has come out swinging in her sophomore campaign and ranks 11th in aces per set (0.56) and 14th with 44 total service aces nationally. She is the only Big 12 player in the top 25 in both categories.
Wilson leads the team with 285 kills (3.61 per set) and 44 service aces (0.56 per set) in 2022. The sophomore has notched double-digit kills in all but three matches this year with a season-high of 19 against Iowa (Aug. 27).
The Texas native has tallied at least 15 kills in nine matches, while also hitting five career-highs this season - service aces (five, three times), digs (12), blocks (seven), block assists (seven) and hitting percentage (.500).
Wilson shares the top spot in the league in points in a three-set match with 22.5 vs. Iowa on Aug. 27.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENT: WEST VIRGINIA

West Virginia is 7-16 overall and looking for its first conference win this season on Saturday.
On Sept. 27, junior libero Skye Stokes earned Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week after setting a season-high 31 digs at the time in a five-set match against Texas Tech on Sept. 24. Currently, Stokes leads the conference in digs in a single match after posting 36 digs at Iowa State on Oct. 12. The award marked Stokes' first Conference honor and is the only Mountaineer to capture a weekly accolade this season.
A trio of Mountaineers sit in the top 10 of four major statistical categories in the conference. Stokes is fourth in total digs (306), fifth with 3.97 digs per set and seventh in service aces per set (0.31). Redshirt freshman seter Kamiah Gibson is eighth with 6.64 assists per set, while fifth-year senior Adrian Ell is 10th in kills per set (2.95).

QUICK HITTERS

OU's 10-2 non-conference record marks their best non-conference start since 2013, along with the Gray-Walton era.
The Sooners are 190-294 all-time in Big 12 play and 11-16 all-time in conference openers. Under Gray-Walton, OU is 29-36 in Big 12 play and 2-3 in league openers.
Eight of OU's regular season opponents earned berths in the 2021 NCAA Tournament, including seven conference foes - No. 1 Texas, No. 11 Baylor, No. 25 Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Texas Tech and West Virginia. The Longhorns reached the Elite Eight while the Jayhawks and Bears each advanced to the Sweet Sixteen.
OU will host every Big 12 team (eight) at home in 2022, including its regular season and Senior Night against TCU on Nov. 26.

NEXT SERVE

The Sooners return home next week to host a pair of teams from the Lonestar State. Inside McCasland Field House, OU will face Texas Tech next Wednesday and host No. 1 Texas for round two of the Red River Rivalry next Saturday, Nov. 12.

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Sooners Head to West Virginia for Conference Clash