NCAA volleyball: K-State, Texas get Big 12 wins, relatively busy Friday ahead

Freshman outside Jayden Nembhard had 24 kills, hit .389, and had four digs and five blocks Thursday as Kansas State rallied for a five-set Big 12 victory at West Virginia.

Also in the Big 12, Texas blanked Kansas. There were three others winners Thursday as Georgia State swept Georgia Southern, The Citadel beat Mercer in four, and Troy got past South Alabama in five.

It sets up a relatively busy NCAA Division I volleyball Friday in this fall season including four more Big 12 matches on tap, four in the ACC, and four in the Sun Belt.

A few matches were postponed because of positive coronavirus tests. Read about that and more in our Thursday NCAA roundup.

Friday’s schedule — Just two teams in the nine-team Big 12 are unbeaten. Texas tries to go 4-0 when it plays host to Kansas again, while TCU opens its season at Baylor. 

Kansas State is back at West Virginia and Texas Tech goes to Iowa State. 

In the ACC, Miami is at Wake Forest, Duke goes to Virginia, Syracuse is at Notre Dame, and Louisville plays at Boston College. Clemson at Florida State and Virginia Tech at NC State were both postponed.

In the Sun Belt, Georgia Southern is back to Georgia State, Louisiana-Lafayette is 9-0 and tries to stay unbeaten when it goes to Louisiana-Monroe, Troy plays at South Alabama, and Little Rock goes to Arkansas State. UTA at Texas State and App State at Coastal Carolina were postponed.

Also, Mercer of the Southern Conference plays at Western Kentucky of Conference USA.

Click here for easy links to TV, streaming, or live stats for almost every match that is played.

K-State wins — The Wildcats improved to 2-1 with their 25-21, 17-25, 25-27, 26-24, 15-13 victory at West Virginia (1-2). While Nembhard was racking up her stat line, two other freshmen made big impacts. Middle Kadye Fernholz had six kills, an assist, three of team’s six aces, three digs and five blocks, one solo. And outside Aliyah Carter had 16 kills, three blocks and two digs. Sophomore middle Abigail Archibong had seven kills and 10 blocks, one solo as K-State held a 15-9 blocking advantage. 

“I think the biggest bright spot coming out of tonight was definitely Nembhard and being able to put two freshmen on the left side,” K-State coach Susie Fritz said. “There’s just nothing that can prepare a young player for competition except for competition. I thought her, in her first match, really stepped up for us.”

Natali Petrova and Emmy Ogogor had 17 kills apiece for West Virginia (1-2) and Briana Lynch 16. Lynch hit .438 and had four blocks. Emmy Ogogor had 10 kills and two blocks. Petrova had three blocks and 13 digs.

“It’s disappointing to lose, and Kansas State played well,” WVU coach Reed Sunahara said. “One of their big hitters isn’t here this weekend (junior outside Brynn Carlson), but No. 10 came in and did a hell of a job. We couldn’t stop her. We also had 32 hitting errors. It’s tough. It’s tough to win when you have 32 hitting errors and you only hit .215.”

Texas sweeps — Logan Eggleston had 16 kills and Skylar Fields 11 in the Longhorns’ 25-22, 25-19, 25-22 win over Kansas (1-2). Eggleston hit .342, had an ace, seven digs and two blocks, one solo. Fields had a block and a dig. Asjia O’Neal had eight kills, hit .313, and had three blocks and a dig. Brionne Butler had six kills and five blocks, one solo, and Molly Phillips had six kills and four blocks. 

Kansas, which hit .160, was led again by UCLA transfer Jenny Mosser, who had 15 kills, an ace, six digs and two blocks, one solo. Seven of her teammates combined for 19 kills.

GSU, Citadel, USA win — Georgia State improved to 2-4 with its 25-22, 25-21, 25-11 win over visiting Georgia Southern, which opened its season. Meisha Griffin, who had no errors in 14 swings to hit .643, and Leah Wilcox, who had no errors in 18 attacks to hit .500, led with nine kills each. Griffin had an assist, an ace, three digs and three blocks, one solo. Mya Wilson had 13 kills and hit .333 for Georgia Southern … 

The Citadel (1-3) wrapped up its fall season with a 22-25, 25-22, 25-21, 25-21 victory over Southern Conference rival Mercer (1-2). Sharlissa de Jesus led The Citadel with 19 kils, hit .341, and had an assist, both of her team’s two aces, eight digs and two blocks, one solo. Mellanie King had 12 kills, three blocks, and 17 digs, and Makaya Middleton had 11 kills, hit .333, and had a block and two digs. Maddy Cardenas had nine kills with no errors in 12 attacks.

Mercer’s Malia Randolph had 13 kills, hit .478, and had a block and a dig. Annie Karle had 11 kills and Rayanne de Oliveira had 10 kills, hit .333, and had three aces, two blocks, and dig …

Troy (4-0) stayed unbeaten in the Sun Belt and kept South Alabama (0-5) winless with a 20-25, 25-15, 24-26, 25-16, 16-14 road victory. 

Cheyenne Hayes led Troy with 14 kills, two assists, two blocks and six digs. Julia Brooks had 13 kills, hit .435, and had five blocks and two digs. Caitlin Cooper had 10 kills, hit .533, and had two digs and seven blocks, one solo.

Hannah Harris led USA with 13 kills, three aces, four digs and three blocks, one solo. Another Hannah, Hannah Maddux, had 11 kills, and yet another Hannah, Hannah Johnson, had eight kills and six blocks, one solo. 

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