SPORTS
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KANSAN.COM/SPORTS | MONDAY, OCT. 5, 2015
Junior libero Cassie Wait passes the ball on Sept. 23.
MISSY MINEAR/KANSAN
AMIE JUST
@Amie_Just
Another day, another win. It's been as simple as that for the Kansas volleyball team this year. The Jayhawks defeated the West Virginia Mountaineers 3-0 (25-14, 25-18, 25-12), moving to 15-0 on the season.
No. 12 Kansas (15-0) dominated offensively, posting a program record of 597 in attack percentage.
Major factors in the high attack percentage were sophomore outside hitter Madison Ridgon, sophomore right side hitter Kelsie Payne and junior middle blocker Janae Hall. The tri came through on all of their attacks without an error. Ridgon led Kansas with 11 kills. Payne recorded nine kills; Hall added six. Senior outside hitter Tiana Dockery also posted a double-digit kill
"The first number that pops out is that .597 hitting percentage," coach Ray Bechard said. "That's a pretty ridiculous number. [There were] only four hitting errors in three sets, which is another great number."
total (10).
afternoon bumped her above Katie Martincich (2006-09). She has three more digs to go to move to No. 9 all-time to tie Emily Brown (2004-07). The Kansas digs leader is Brianne Riley (2010-13); she amassed 2,053 digs over her career.
Junior libero Cassie Wait has moved to No. 10 all-time in program history in digs. Wait has 1,034 digs over her career thus far. Wait's nine on the
["Wait']s in her third year and in that first year she was playing behind Bri Riley, so she didn't get to play as much. So that number would be a lot higher," Bechard said. "She's as
good as they get when it comes to being a coachable kid and being a kid that is pretty ferocious in her attitude about how hard she plays. I think she's, for me, the ultimate in what you want to see in a competitor in that position."
Both Ridgon and sophomore setter Ainise Havilli sung Wait's praises after the match.
"I definitely take [Wait] for granted at times, [for] how much she really does," Havili
said. "I cheat, so much, and she covers more than her share of everything. It really shows out there."
Next up for the Jayhawks is a road match in Lubbock, Texas where Kansas takes on Texas Tech. First serve is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Oct.7.
- Edited by Scott Chasen
Beaty adamant about fixes for a mistake-prone team
EVAN RIGGS
@EvanRiggsUDK
In his first season as head football coach, David Beaty has put a big emphasis on winning the special teams battle each week. A lot of that responsibility falls under special teams coach Gary Hyman, who started at the University in January 2015. Until Saturday, the Jayhawks had been pretty successful in that regard
"Special teams has been a strength of ours, in my mind," Beaty said.
On Saturday, the Jayhawks came up short at Iowa State, 38-13, and special teams were a big reason why. They missed their first field goal and first extra point of the season in addition to committing their first turnover on special teams.
"We've talked a lot about [special teams] having to be the hidden third that we have to win to put us in position to win games," Beaty said. "We didn't do that today. The turnover and missed extra point was uncharacteristic for us. Those things come back to haunt you."
In the first quarter, after a false start penalty that set the team back five yards, junior kicker Nick Bartolotta missed a 44-yard field goal that could have given the Jayhawks a 3-0 lead after their first drive of the game. It was the first missed field goal for the Jayhawks all season.
"When you block a field goal or miss a field goal, it always gives the other team momentum back," senior defensive end Ben Goodman said. "It didn't affect us on defense, but it got the crowd back in the game, so that's where it hurt us."
In the second quarter, the Jayhawks were faced with a fourth-and-three on the Cyclones' 35, still down 3-0. Junior kicker Matthew Wyman lined up to attempt the kick, but Beaty called a timeout and puned the ball. Unfortunately for the Jayhawks, the punt sailed into the end zone and netted just 15 yards.
"I felt like the best thing to do was give our defense good field position," Beaty said. "I felt like we needed to change the field; the defense was playing pretty good [and] I didn't want to put them in bad field position.
"There was a little bit of wind coming to [Wyman's] face; that was the only thing keeping me from trying [the field goal]. It was a little too long to go for it."
The Jayhawks finally got on the board in the third quarter with a 47-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Montell Cozart to senior receiver Tre' Parmalee to cut the deficit to 24-6. However, a lot of that momentum was lost
In that situation, the numbers show that Beaty's decision not to take a risk by kicking the field goal or even going for it was not a good one.
The Jayhawks, now 0-4,
struggle in every facet of the
game, but the special teams
struggles are something Beaty
is adamant on correcting to
give his team a chance to win.
{"[The missed extra point] is difficult to deal with, no doubt," Beaty said. "That was tough to see. [Bartolotta] has kicked the ball well for us all year; we'll get him right."
when Bartolotta missed the extra point, and the rest of it was lost when Wyman's kickoff sailed out of bounds, giving Iowa State the ball on the 35.
On the ensuing kickoff, Wyman proceeded to drill a kick out of bounds, which started the Cyclones' drive on the 35 and helped propel them to a seven-play, 65-yard touchdown drive.
But it wasn't just kicking that gave the Jayhawks trouble. Parmalee fumbled their lone punt return, and their seven kick returns only amounted to 97 vards.
"We have to look ourselves in the eye tomorrow and figure out exactly what went wrong and how we're going to fix it." Beaty said.
"We didn't return it well to set us up in good field position, which is uncharacteristic for us," Beaty said.
- Edited by Dani Malakoff
Explosive offense nets 4 goals against Iowa State
Ashley Pankey dribbles toward the goal on Sept. 25.
ZOE LARSON/KANSAN
Kansas soccer rebounded from a Big 12 opener loss with an emphatic 4-0 win over Iowa State on Sunday afternoon. Freshman midfielder Grace Hagan scored for the second week in a row, while senior midfielder Liana Salazar added her fourth goal of the season. Salazar also registered two assists.
SKYLAR ROLSTAD
@SkyRolSports
Salazar's first assist opened scoring. She found freshman midfielder Parker Roberts making a run into the box in the 28th minute. Roberts finished into the right side of the goal for her second on the
season.
"I thought we played really well today," coach Mark Francis said in the team's news release. "The thing I was more pleased about though was that, we not only played well, but we converted our chances, which we haven't necessarily been doing recently."
Salazar then assisted the first goal of junior midfielder Jackie Georgoulis's career from a corner kick in the 30th minute. Hagan scored at the back post from a pass from senior forward Ashley Williams in the 56th minute before Salazar capped off the afternoon with a goal of her own from a free kick from 20 yards away.
The scoring output from the Jayhawks is the highest in a regular season game since a 4-0 win over St. Mary's in September 2014. On Sunday the Jayhawks overpowered the Cyclones with 22 shots, which Iowa State goalkeeper Lindsey Hendon responded to with 10 saves. Kansas sophomore goalkeeper Maddie Dobyns made four saves.
Francis said the team's attacking chemistry is also building as a result of positional changes for Hagan and Roberts. Starting last Friday, in a 2-1 loss to Texas, Hagan was moved from forward to right wing and Roberts was moved into the central midfield. Those changes have both seemed to pay off in the short-term.
After defeating the Cyclones, the Jayhawks have now won four of their last five games, with the lone loss coming to the Longhorns in the Jayhawks' conference opener. Kansas returns to Rock Chalk Park on Friday night against Baylor. Kansas will be seeking it's second conference win and looking to win its third match in a row against Baylor.
"We had a lot of people score today which is something that is really encouraging," he added. "Today was a good result for us. We really needed it."
— Edited by Abby Stuke
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