GoFrogs: Horned Frogs Win Five-Set Thriller

GoFrogs: Horned Frogs Win Five-Set Thriller

Final Stats |  Photo Gallery

FORT WORTH, Texas - Trailing 8-4 in the final set, the TCU volleyball team staged a thrilling comeback led by senior Sarita Mikals to down Arkansas State 3-2 (25-14, 26-24, 22-25, 19-25, 16-14) on Saturday night in the team’s second match in the TCU Invitational held in The Rickel at the University Recreation Center.

The Horned Frogs (2-0) opened the match by winning the first two sets, but the Red Wolves (2-1) would not go away quietly and used strong runs at the start of sets three and four to force a decisive fifth set. TCU was down four after an attack error followed by two Arkansas State kills, but slowly chipped away at the lead until tying up the set at 9-9. The teams continued to trade points with the set tied nine times before a kill from Anna Walshfollowed by a Mikals tool off the block resulted in a 16-14 set win and overall match victory.

Mikals was just shy of a triple-double with a team-best 16 kills on the night to go along with 11 digs and eight total blocks. Jillian Bergeson and Ashleigh Martin also notched double-digit kills on the evening with 10 and 11, respectively. Bergeson had her second straight double-double with 17 digs on the night to go with her double-digit kills, whileLamprini Konstantinidou also had a double-double with 21 assists and 18 digs.

Stat of the Match
31 – The number of times the teams were tied during the five-set match.

Quotes of the Match
TCU Director of Volleyball Jill Kramer
Opening Statement
“I thought our team came out really well and I thought we came out for a battle. We were really sharp on both sides of the ball through the first two sets, but with that being said, this was one of the fastest offenses we have seen maybe ever and they run it well. It was really hard for us to adjust to because one of our strengths is blocking and it was tough to block these guys. It was a little issue that we had to problem solve and our team worked through it.

“I think we really didn’t play like ourselves in the third and fourth sets. I didn’t think we were as clean or sharp, but when we hit adversity in the fifth set, we really came together. We have a couple new pieces of the puzzle on our team that we didn’t have last year but that is the great thing about this time of year. We are getting to do that so quickly and we are getting to battle a great team. I am just glad we get to do that this early in the year and I am really proud of our team for fighting so hard.”

Notes
-TCU improves to 2-0 in the 2016 season and it marks the second straight season and eighth time in program history that the team has started with two straight wins
-The win marks victory No. 87 all-time in Jill Kramer’s head coaching career
-The Frogs remain undefeated against Arkansas State in the series record and improve to 5-0 all-time and 2-0 in matches played in Fort Worth
-Sarita Mikals recorded double-digit kills for the first time this season and 37th time in her career
-With the 11 digs, Mikals completed her 24th double-double of her career and 41st match with double-digit digs
-Lamprini Konstantinidou had her first double-double of her career as a Horned Frog with 21 assists and a career-high 18 digs
-TCU had three players record double-digit kills for the first time this season as Ashleigh Martin connected for 11 and Jillian Bergesonput down 10
-Mikals also led the team defensively in blocking with 8.0 total blocks, while Natalie Gower posted 7.0 and Regan McGuire was good for 6.0
-As a team, TCU recorded 14.0 total blocks marking the second straight match with double-digit blocks
-The Frogs had four double-digit digs performances for the first time this season with new libero Ashley Smith leading the way with 19 digs on the night
-The attendance for the match was 1,379 which is the second straight sell-out for the team.

Up Next
The Frogs will wrap-up their opening weekend at home at the TCU Invitational by hosting Boise State on Sunday at 2 p.m., at The Rickel.


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