Kansas City Comeback Effort Falls Just Short Against Omaha

Tuesday, October 22

Omaha, NE

7:00 PM

Kansas City

3-16,1-7Summit League

Omaha

9-10,7-1Summit League

Kansas City

Omaha

In honor of brining awareness to Breast Cancer Awareness month, the KC Roos took on the Denver Pioneers in an intense match. Unfortunately, KC would fall to the Pioneers in a final score of 3-1.

Photo by: Anna Simms

Kansas City Comeback Effort Falls Just Short Against Omaha

10/22/2024 10:41:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score Highlights

After falling behind in the first two sets, the Roos surged back to force the match into four sets

Kansas City Volleyball (3-16, 1-7) couldn't complete the comeback against Omaha (9-10, 7-1), losing in four sets (13-25, 7-25, 25-23, 22-25) in Baxter Arena on Tuesday night. The Roos were outmatched by the Mavericks in the opening two sets but found a way to scrape back into the match, delivering some of their best play as a team yet in sets three and four.

The Roos finished with 67 points, 38 kills, 36 assists, six service aces and eight total blocks. Leading the way for Kansas City was Kaia Dunford with a team high 14 kills. Sydney Henry who totaled nine kills, 17 assists and 14 digs, nearly finishing with her second triple double of the season.

SET-BY-SET VS Omaha

Set One / 13-25: Kansas City came slow out of the gate, surrendering six early points to the Mavericks to put themselves at a sizable disadvantage in set one. From then on, the Roos went nearly even with Omaha up to the 18-11 Omaha mark of the first set. The Roos were unable to dig themselves out of the deficit and dropped the opening set after committing seven combined attack and service errors in the set.
Set Two / 7-25: The second set didn't fare too much better for the Roos, as following an opening set point for KC, Omaha launched a major offensive that resulted in a 16-3 Mavericks run and control of set two. The Roos were plagued by attack errors in set two, committing eight of them in the set alone.
Set Three / 25-23: Kansas City cleaned up many of their previous mistakes to put together one of their finest sets of the season in set three against Omaha. The Roos started the set down three to four points, but when the score shifted to 17-10 favoring Omaha, the momentum started to change. Kansas City went on an offensive assault, going on a 12-5 run to tie the set three score at 22-22. From there on, Dunford dominated notching all four of the Roos final set-clinching points off brilliant kills. Seven of Dunford's total kills came in set three alone.
Set Four / 22-25: Despite a furious set three response from the Roos, Omaha kept their foot on the gas to start set four, going up 5-0 to open the set. Kansas City answered with a 6-4 run of their own which included Sila Ozyurek and Kimora Whetstone notching three kills combined in that span. However, the tides turned back and forth for the remainder of the set and ultimately laid in the Mavericks favor as Omaha went on a 5-1 run to clinch set four and the match over the Roos.

STATS TO NOTE

Kaia Dunford once again led the Roos in kills with 14 for the match, making her the lone Roo to notch double digit kills against Omaha. This is Dunford's 10th consecutive match with 10 or more kills over the course of a single match.
Sydney Henry delivered a terrific outing for Kansas City, registering nine kills, 17 assists and 14 digs, leading the Roos in digs and assists for the game. Henry came one kill away from her second career triple double, the first coming in Kansas City's earlier season matchup against North Dakota State.
Defensively, Kimora Whetstone led the way for the Roos with three total blocks for the match. Whetstone brings her season total up to 36 in blocks for Kansas City's defense. This is the eighth time this season in which Whetstone has recorded three or more blocks in a single match.

UP NEXT

Kansas City returns home to the Swinney Center to host Oral Roberts for a 7 p.m. first serve on Thursday and South Dakota on Saturday for another 1 p.m. first serve.