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TCU Sets Program Record for Big 12 Wins, Celebrates Senior Day with Victory over K-State - TCU Athletics
FORT WORTH – TCU spun a spectacular Senior Day story on Saturday inside Schollmaier Arena.
GoFrogs: TCU Sets Program Record for Big 12 Wins, Celebrates Senior Day with Victory over K-State
FORT WORTH – TCU spun a spectacular Senior Day story on Saturday inside Schollmaier Arena.
Prior to honoring five graduating players, the Horned Frogs vanquished Big 12 foe Kansas State in four sets, 25-20, 14-25, 25-23, 25-21, to solidify their legacy among the best teams to ever represent TCU volleyball.
With the victory, the Horned Frogs (15-10, 10-5 Big 12) set a program record for most conference wins in TCU's 11-year Big 12 era.
TCU guaranteed itself no worse than a share of third place in the Big 12 standings for the first time ever. The Horned Frogs can finish third outright with a win at Oklahoma in their regular season finale on Nov. 26.
The win likely took TCU off the NCAA Tournament bubble and into the Big Dance for the first time in six years. TCU has now notched victories in eight of its last 10 matches – six of which have come at the expense of teams ranked in the top-70 of the NCAA RPI – and four straight overall.
The Horned Frogs also punctuated their first-ever undefeated Big 12 home record, joining No. 1 Texas as one of only two programs to survive their conference home slate unblemished.
Following match point, TCU recognized five players who donned purple and white for the final time in Fort Worth: Afedo Manyang, Mykayla Myers, McKenzie Nichols, Sabrina Sustala and Callie Williams.
Williams set the table one last time for TCU in Funky Town. She notched her 10th consecutive double-double behind 37 assists and 14 digs.
Audrey Nalls, Jalyn Gibson and Mykayla Myers accounted for 34 of TCU's 49 kills.
Nalls led the way with 14 to pair with a team-leading 17 digs for her fifth double-double of the fall.
Gibson racked up 11 kills – eight of which came in sets three and four – while Myers pitched in nine. Both Gibson and Myers hit over .300.
Defensively, Gibson tallied a career-high seven blocks. Myers stuffed six blocks of her own. Nichols joined Nalls and Williams in double figures in digs with 11.
Before cruising to a 1-0 match lead, head coach Jason Williams initiated a touching senior day tribute. Manyang was lost for the season in October following knee surgery. Williams penciled in Manyang for a final starting lineup introduction - the 43rd of her career - and appearance on Walsh Family Court.
Manyang did the honors of delivering the match's first serve.
From there, it was all TCU.
K-State briefly led 3-1 but the two-point advantaged proved to be their last in the set. TCU used a 5-0 run on the strength of two blocks from Myers to take the lead for good. The Horned Frogs amassed four blocks in the frame. Williams joined the block party with TCU's third to stretch the lead to 16-10. Myers' third block of the set soon gave TCU its largest lead of the set and match at 18-11. The Wildcats trimmed the deficit to 20-16, only for Nalls to return fire with consecutive kills. Williams and Myers locked up the lead with kills on TCU's final pair of scoring plays.
TCU finished with 12 kills in set one and was the beneficiary of an equal number of K-State errors.
Yet as dominant as TCU appeared in the opening frame, the senior day soiree nearly unraveled.
K-State landed 19 kills on .471 hitting and five blocks in set two to even the match.
The Wildcats' control of the net continued in set three. TCU struggled to string kills together with consistency as K-State worked its way to a 22-19 lead.
But Gibson, who has helped TCU to a 7-1 record since joining the Horned Frogs starting rotation against K-State in the teams' first meeting on Oct. 15, turned the match on its ear.
TCU stunned Kansas state with a 6-2 run to command a 2-1 match lead. Gibson, a freshman from San Antonio, accounted for four of the Horned Frogs' six points.
She sandwiched three consecutive kills between a kill by Nalls and a K-State block by Zoe Hall to fuel a 5-0 spurt and help TCU regain the lead at 24-22. Gibson then lasered in match point with another kill two plays later.
The set three rally proved to be a backbreaker for K-State. The Horned Frogs never again trailed.
Two more kills from Gibson ran her match tally to 10 and staked TCU to a 5-2 start in set four. TCU widened the gap to 12-7 via three straight scoring plays: kills by Julia Adams and Myers and a service ace by Riley Weigelt.
Consecutive kills by Taylor Raiola, who chipped in three kills and digs apiece off the bench, and Hall forced K-State to burn its final timeout of the set with TCU maintaining a 17-13 lead. TCU soon stretched its edge to 20-15 off Gibson's 11th-and-final kill along with a dump kill from Williams and another Wildcat attack error.
The Wildcats proved to have some fight left in the tank. K-State punched back with a 5-0 run to force a tie.
Adams, though, stemmed the bleeding, finessing home a touch kill from the left pin on the following play. TCU then scored four of the contest's final five points. Nalls' last kill of the afternoon pushed the Horned Frogs closer to match point at 22-20. A ball-handling error by K-State preceded a kill by Myers that set Williams up to serve for the match. In a fitting conclusion, Williams' final play in Fort Worth was a service ace to commence the celebration.
The Horned Frogs claimed their first season sweep of K- State (14-13, 5-9 Big 12), since 2017.
TCU will now break for Thanksgiving before convening 180 miles north in Norman. First serve for the Horned Frogs' regular season finale is set for 6 p.m. inside McCassland Field House. TCU defeated the Sooners in four sets on Oct. 21 in the teams' first meeting this fall.
