We wouldn’t ordinarily be writing about Oklahoma volleyball, only the Sooners match with Kansas on Friday warrants comment.
While the Oklahoma football team has been guilty lately of squandering second-half leads, the Sooner volleyball found themselves the beneficiary of one of those late-game comebacks.
Down two games to none and facing the possibility of a three-game sweep at the hands of the one-win Jayhawks, the Lady Sooners stormed back from near defeat, winning the next three games to capture their first win of the 2020 season.
Oklahoma turned around what appeared to be a conventional three-game sweep by Kansas and instead pulled off a thrilling reverse sweep of its own. After falling 13-25 and 23-25 in the first two sets of the match, the Sooners rolled off consecutive victories by scores of 25-22, 25-16 and 15-13.
The victory, which improved OU’s record to 1-4 was truly a team victory with plenty of impressive stat lines to go around.
Senior Sarah Maras led the Sooners with 15 kills and sophomore Olivia Curtis and senior Keyton Kinley each served up three aces. Sophomore defensive specialist Grace Talpash accounted for 48 of Oklahoma’s 57 total assists in the five-game match.
Sanaa Dotson and Sarah Sanders also got into the act, adding 12 and 12 kills, respectively.
The Sooners outhit Kansas .275 to .240 and led in kills (57-51), digs (68-57) and assists (57-51).
The comeback win on Friday at McCasland Field House carried over to Saturday as the Sooners rolled over the Jayhawks in a three-set sweep and improved to 2-4 on the season.
The two-victory weekend served as a welcome respite for the Sooner volleyball team after beginning the season against the No. 1 and No.2 teams in the country in Texas and Baylor, respectively.
Next up for the Lady Sooners is a road test at 3-3 Kansas State on Oct. 22 and 23.