BYU NIKE INVITATIONAL
Wichita State came into Saturday with a chance to win the tournament, but they had to defeat #1 Stanford and #8 BYU in the span of a few hours. They ended up being swept twice on the day and dropped to 3rd place. Stanford picked up a pair of wins over West Virginia and Wichita State to finish 2nd. West Virginia leaves Utah 0-3 and in 4th. BYU finished the weekend with a 3-0 record and a tournament title.
(1) STANFORD DEF. (RV) WICHITA STATE 3-0
- (1) Stanford defeats (RV) Wichita State 3-0 (25-20, 25-20, 29-27)
- Stanford improves to 3-1; Wichita State falls to 4-1
- Provo, Utah | George Albert Smith Fieldhouse
- Attendance: 97
- Box Score
- Wichita State Release | Stanford Release
Stanford bounced back from being upset the night before to make quick work of Wichita State on Saturday morning. The Cardinal out-hit the Shockers .364 to .250. This included a .478 hitting percentage in the final set for Stanford. The Cardinal held advantages in kills (52-42), aces (3-2), blocks (8-4), assists (49-41), and digs (43-38).
Audriana Fitzmorris led the match with 13 kills and hit an impressive .458. She also added 4 block assists. Kathryn Plummer added 12 kills and a match-high 2 service aces. Jenna Gray had 47 assists while setting Stanford to .364 attack average while putting away 2 kills and a service ace. Meghan McClure contributed 9 kills with a .367 hitting percentage from the outside. Morgan Hentz led the match with 18 digs.
Wichita State was led by Tabitha Brown and her 11 kills on a .135 hitting percentage. She was the only Shocker to produce double-digit kills. Megan Taflinger, Abby Pugh, Grace Burken, and Emma Wright all finished the match with 6 kills. Alex Koon and Tabitha Brown both chipped in a service ace in the loss.
(1) STANFORD DEF. WEST VIRGINIA 3-0
- (1) Stanford defeats West Virginia (25-9, 25-9, 25-12)
- Stanford improves to 4-1; West Virginia drops to 2-4
- Provo, Utah | George Albert Smith Fieldhouse
- Attendance: 143
- Box Score
- Wichita State Release | Stanford Release
Stanford finished the tournament with a commanding sweep over the Mountaineers. The Cardinal out-blocked West Virginia 10-3 and held them to a -.070 hitting percentage for the match. They also held a 4-0 advantage in aces and a 44-17 kill differential.
Megan McClure led the Cardinal with 12 kills and an astounding .524 hitting percentage from the outside. Courtney Bowen hit .545 on her way to earning 6 kills in the middle for Stanford. She also contributed 1 solo block and 5 block assists. Kathryn Plumer hit .556 on the outside and finished with 6 kills. Jenna Gray set Stanford to .432 attack average in the win.
Kristin Lux led West Virginia with 6 of her team’s 17 kills, but hit .000 for the match with 6 attack errors. Kristina Jordan was West Virginia’s most efficient attacker with a .083 hitting percentage and 2 kills. Erin Slinde led the team with 8 digs.
(8) BYU DEF. (RV) WICHITA STATE 3-0
- (8) BYU defeats Wichita State (25-16, 25-12, 25-20)
- BYU jumps to 5-0; West Virginia drops to 4-2
- Provo, Utah | George Albert Smith Fieldhouse
- Attendance: 2.231
- Box Score
- Wichita State Release | BYU Release
Just a night after reaching the 1,000 kill threshold for her career, Roni Jones-Perry was back on the floor at the Smith Fieldhouse putting together an almost unreal stat line. The senior outside hitter led the match with 16 kills at a rate of 5.33 kills per set. On top of that, she only committed 1 attack error and hit .682. That hitting percentage is almost unheard of for an outside hitter. She also contributed a service ace and 2 block assists to lead BYU to the tournament title.
McKenna Miller chipped in 12 kills for BYU and tied a match-high 2 aces. Kennedy Eschenberg led the match with 4 block assists to go with 4 kills in the middle for the Cougars. Lyndie Haddock-Eppich finished with 29 assists, and set BYU to a .398 attack average.
Tabitha Brown led Wichita State with 8 kills and a .130 hitting percentage. Emma Wright led the Shockers with 4 block assists to go with 3 kills. Alex Koon was the second-leading attacker with 4 kills and hit .077.
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