Oklahoma lost in a heart-breaking 5th set on Wednesday to Kansas State in both teams’ Big 12 season opener, but there was a silver lining for the Sooners.
Junior setter Audrey Alford recorded a season-high 50 assists in the loss, which pushed her up to 318 on the season and 2,027 on her career. She becomes just the 9th Sooner to record 2,000 career assists.
After missing 3 games earlier this year, Alford is behind her 2016 pace in assists, but with outputs of 46 and 50 in the team’s last two games against USC and Kansas St., respectively, she’s trending back up in the last week. She’s unlikely to catch Julie Chester for 8th on the all-time list this season (though she has a chance), but has a good chance of making it into the team’s top 5 as a senior (4,111, Julia Doyle, ranks 5th).
Helping her recent output is the fact that the Sooners have shifted from the 6-2 offense they used early in the season to a 5-1: letting Morgan Miller shift fully back to outside hitter and letting Alford run the offense. Since making the move, both players’ numbers have jumped: Miller had 19 kills against Southern Miss in her first game without the pressure of setting, while Miller’s assist numbers have almost doubled.
Oklahoma’s next match is against Iowa State on Saturday in Ames. The Cyclones beat the Sooners in both matchups last season, but Alford played well in both, especially in the 2nd matchup where she had 51 assists, 6 digs, and 5 total blocks (4 assists, 1 solo).
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