WVU battles in four rounds in the NCAA tournament

MORGANTOWN, W. Va. – The women’s volleyball team at West Virginia University dropped out of the first round of the NCAA tournament in Illinois on Friday night at the Memorial Coliseum in Lexington, Kentucky. The mountaineers were unable to beat Fighting Illini with series results of 23-25, 25-12, 25-22 and 25-20.

The Mountaineers earned their first-ever bid in the 2021 NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championships.

“Congratulations to Illinois on moving forward,” coach Reed Sunahara said. “It’s not the way we wanted to quit, but I’m proud of our players and our program to get into the tournament and so far. They made history, and I’m proud of them for working hard and getting us here.”

West Virginia was led by a fifth-year senior outside striker Adrian Ell, who recorded his 12th double of the season with 19 kills and 12 excavations.

In addition, four mountaineers received double-digit scores, including an older setter Lacey Zerwas, who recorded 45 passes, while a senior outside striker Kristin Lux added 12 kills to the match.

Fifth year senior libero Alexa Hasting a total of 26 digs, and a second-year outside striker Skye Stokes 11 excavations were recorded.

The WVU ended the match by hitting 0.184 with 52 kills and six team blocks.

Mountaineers started the match at the beginning with a 10-3 lead. Illinois used a 3-0 goal set to bring the lot to level 10-6. The teams exchanged points until Fighting Illini led 13-11. The teams changed their lead, but the WVU 4-0 score gave the climbers one set 25-23.

Illinois used a 5-0 score to open round two. They took the lead 11-4 at the start. A few strong goals gave Illinois two innings, 25-12.

The UI opened a set of three, but the WVU responded by killing. Illinois took the 5-3 lead. West Virginia fought back with a 3-0 goal and took the 6-5 lead. Fighting Illini used a 9-1 goal set to take the lead back 15-9. The teams exchanged goal passes, but the UI held the lead 23-16. The mountaineer scoring 5-0 brought the mountaineers two points away, but Illinois won three sets 25-22.

Lux opened four rounds with a pin, and the teams exchanged points. A 3-0 score led the West Virginia lead 7-5, but Illinois followed with its own goal set and regained the lead 8-7. UI’s 8-0 goal set increased their lead. Illinois took the lot to read 24-18, but West Virginia was not ready to surrender. The mountaineers held two more points, but dropped 25-20 in the final set.

The WVU took part in the tournament this fall 19-9, which is a good third place in the Big 12 conference. The team went 8-8 in the Big 12 game.

The hard work of the mountaineer this season paid off. West Virginia opened the season 10-0 for the first time since 2017 and won Michigan’s 23rd place match on Sept. 3. The team won their first win in Iowa State and a season sweep of Oklahoma for the first time in program history. .

For more information about Mountaineers, visit WVUsports.com and follow WVU Volleyball Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.