Kansas City
17-10,12-4WAC
#2 Grand Canyon
24-5,13-3WAC
Volleyball's WAC Tournament Run Comes to a Close in Semis
11/22/2019 8:31:00 PM | Volleyball
OREM, Utah - The Kansas City and Grand Canyon volleyball teams knew each other very well coming into tonight's Western Athletic Conference semifinal match, having already provided to very entertaining matches in the regular season. Friday's match was perhaps the cleanest of the three, showing great passing, hitting and blocking, and in the end the Lopes had just enough to outlast the Roos in four sets, 21-25, 25-22, 25-23, 28-26.
"Our team played with the same fight, grit and resilience they've played with all year," Head Coach Christi Posey said. "It truly was a splendid match of two really good teams battling their tails off to move on in the tournament."
Kansas City jumped out to a blazing start, hitting at a .349 clip and registering four blocks in the first set. Ty Lukes showed why she was named WAC Player of the Year in the preseason, throwing down five kills, including three in the Roos' last five points.Â
In the second set, things evened out. In the first 28 points of the set, the score was tied for 12 of them. Grand Canyon came out of the media timeout and created separation, pushing their lead out to 21-17. The teams traded points from there on, and Grand Canyon evened the set score.
The third and fourth sets were battles until the end, where neither side would go away. Alicia Harrington threw down 13 kills in the last two sets, the Roos backline defense played at its peak and Kansas City responded to every punch by the Lopes with a jab right back, but in the end it was service errors that marred the Roos' chances. They ended the match with 15 total, and despite having more kills, more digs and a higher hitting percentage than the Lopes, Kansas City's season comes to an end.
"We beat them in most every statistical category but we made too many service errors," Posey said. "That was the difference. Playing at this level in tight sets against a low error team requires equally low errors."
The match marks the end of the historic careers of Alicia Harrington, Ty Lukes and Mykal Sadler, each of whom have etched their names in the Kansas City record books. Harrington ends with 1,368 career kills, which is second only to Julie Mohrfeld in program history. Additionally, her final kill count of 404 and her kills per set mark of 3.81 this year are the seventh-best single season numbers of all-time.Â
Lukes finishes her career with a hitting percentage of .387, the best in Kansas City history by a large margin. She earned All-WAC honors both of her seasons in a Kansas City uniform and finishes her career appropriately, hitting with .480 efficiency against the Lopes.
Despite sitting out last season due to injury, Mykal Sadler has also made her way into the record books. Sadler will be remembered as a wall at the net, placing eighth all-time with 241 career block assists.Â
"The seniors all had an important role throughout their careers," Posey said. "We will miss their contributions on and off the court."
Game Notes
Kansas City finished with 10 more kills and three more digs than the Lopes … Alli Schomers capped off her Setter of the Year season with a career-high 58 assists … Alex Ratzlaff dug up 25 Grand Canyon attacks, a team-high mark for the season and a career-high … The Roos finish their tenure in the WAC with seven qualifications for the WAC tournament in as many years and three semifinal appearances
