All good things must come to an end and the 2017 season did that on Friday night as the Radford volleyball team dropped a hard-fought three set match (16-25, 18-25, 15-25) to 16-seeded Wichita State in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament at Koch Arena in Wichita, Kansas.
The Highlanders put up a good fight as they led with five total blocks compared to Wichita State’s two. Amaya Rousseau led all players with four total blocks. Maddie Palmer capped off her highly-touted career with 15 kills – which led all players – and eight digs.
The first set opened up with each team taking early runs. Wichita State scored the first point on an Alex Koon kill, but the Highlanders scored the next four with two kills and two Shocker attack errors. Then it was Wichita State’s turn to go on a run as they scored six in a row taking a 7-4 lead.
Midway through the first set, when it seemed the Shockers would pull away, 18-8, the Highlanders caught fire with Haley Kleespies holding serve and scored five in a row cutting the deficit to five, 18-13. However, Wichita State closed out the set on a 7-3 run and claimed the first set, 25-16. In the set, Radford scored three points off blocks and 11 off kills.
Wichita State was hot right out of the gates in the second set and jumped to a 6-2 lead. The late-night Highlanders showed some grit and went on an 8-2 run with the score 8-3 in favor of Wichita State. The run consisted of six kills – four by Palmer and two by Stephanie Neast – and two Shocker errors. The run cut the deficit to one, 11-10, but the Shockers closed out the set with a 14-8 run and took a two-set lead with a 25-18 victory.
In the set, the Highlanders hit .333 – the best of any set on the night – and tallied 15 kills. Palmer had eight of those 15 kills in the set. Radford also continued the block party with two block assists.
The final set of the night saw the 7,257 fans in attendance loud and on their feet the entire set. The crowd was a factor as WSU went up 11-5 in the third set. That six-point advantage became a 10-point advantage seven total points later with a 16-6 Shocker lead. That’s when the Highlanders made their final push scoring eight of the next 11 points, making it a 19-14 game.
The host team had a home-court advantage and used it wisely closing out the set with a 6-1 run – and all of the final five points – en route to a match-winning, 25-15, third set victory. The win advances the Shockers to Saturday’s second round match against Missouri.
The block party company was in attendance as the Highlanders tallied five total team blocks compared to Wichita State’s two. Amaya Rousseau led the team with four total blocks – one shy of a season-high.
Haley Kleespies added three total blocks, while Valerie Gonzalez, Stephanie Neast and Mallory McKnight each added one apiece. Maddie Palmer closed out her career fittingly, leading all players with 15 kills. She added eight digs to her stat line. Gonzalez and Neast added six kills each on the night. Three of Gonzalez’s kills came in the opening set.
The other senior on the squad, Kaylor Nash, led the team with 13 digs and added two assists. Kleespies led the Highlanders with 25 assists. She also had three of Radford’s four total service aces (another category in which they lead, 4-3). Alyssa Carruth provided the other service ace.
Wichita State recorded 53 kills and hit .440 as a team. The Shockers had a trio of players with double-figure kills, led by Abbie Lehman with 14.
“There were times we thought we were in the match and there were times we felt like we completely weren’t in the match. They are a really good team and when they are in system they are really hard to deal with. I think overall that’s the name of the game with volleyball, you have to win the pass serve game and we weren’t able to do that today,” said Radford coach Marci Jenkins.
–RU Athletics