WVU Volleyball Resumes Big 12 Play Saturday

By Abby Norman for WVUsports.com
September 21, 2012 04:15 PM

Jill Kramer

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia volleyball team is set to resume its inaugural Big 12 season by welcoming fellow Big 12 newcomer, TCU, to the WVU Coliseum on Sept. 22, at 5 p.m.

Admission to the match against the Horned Frogs is free courtesy of United Bank.

“We have the two new teams to the Big 12 playing each other, and we are fired up to get to play another Big 12 match at home,” coach Jill Kramer says. “It feels like the opener to me and with it being TCU’s first Big 12 match, I think it is going to be a dog fight.”

The match against TCU will be a familiar experience for Kramer, as TCU is her alma mater. Kramer was a part of the inaugural Horned Frogs volleyball season in 1996. Kramer still holds the school records for career kills (1,595) and kills in a single-season (626).

“It is my alma mater, and I think that it is cool that they are getting to play their first Big 12 match here at West Virginia,” Kramer says. “We are kind of embarking on this new Big 12 adventure at the same time.”

WVU is coming off a first-place finish at the Gold and Blue Classic on Sept. 15-16, where the Mountaineers defeated Cleveland State (3-2) and Murray State (3-2). The two victories marked the first time since 2002 that WVU has won two five-set matches in a row.

Freshman Nikki Attea was named MVP of the Gold and Blue Classic, and led the Mountaineers with 34 kills, 3.40 kills per set, a .304 hitting percentage, 17 digs and eight blocks. The East Amherst, N.Y., native was also honored as Big 12 Rookie of the Week. Attea became the second Mountaineer to receive that honor this season, after freshman outside hitter Hannah Sackett earned the honor on Aug. 27.

“We reevaluated where we were at the end of tournament play and things we wanted to work on for the first half of conference play,” Kramer says. “We have some very specific things that we want each individual to work on that we can get better as a group. We have had a full week of practice, and we feel like we have been getting a lot of good preparation time to be able to simulate what TCU does.”

The Horned Frogs are 11-2 on the year after finishing 2-1 at the TCU Molten Invitational last weekend. TCU defeated Prairie View A&M (3-0) and Lehigh (3-0) and lost to No.3-ranked USC (0-3).

Junior Yvonne Igodan leads the Horned Frog offense with 162 kills, 3.77 kills per set and a .374 hitting percentage. Igodan was named to the Preseason All-Big 12 team and was named Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week on Sept. 4. Senior Megan Munce guides the TCU offense with 369 assists, and is currently ranked No. 1 in the Big 12 and No. 6 in the nation in service aces per set with 0.60.

“They have been building their program for awhile, and they have some mature players on their team,” Kramer says. “Their strength is in the middle and you will see a good match-up there for both teams and both of our groups are pretty strong serving and passing.”

This is only the second meeting between the Mountaineers and Horned Frogs. In the first meeting, TCU came away victorious, as it won 3-0 at the 2009 Akron Invitational.

Fans unable to attend tomorrow’s match can follow the Mountaineers via GameTracker and a free WebStream presented by Kroger at WVUsports.com.

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