Kats to head west for matches vs Seattle U, Utah Valley

Match 17 • Seattle, Wash. • Redhawk Center
Thursday, September 29
8:00 PM CT at Seattle U
Watch on ESPN+ • Live Stats • Follow @BearkatsVB on Twitter
Series vs the Redhawks: First Meeting

Match 18 • Orem, Utah • Lockhart Arena
Saturday, October 1
2:00 PM CT at Utah Valley
Watch on ESPN+ • Live Stats • Follow @BearkatsVB on Twitter
Series vs the Wolverines: Sam Houston leads 1-0
Full Series History

HUNTSVILLE – The first road trip of WAC play is up next for the Sam Houston Volleyball team as they will ride a wave of momentum all the way to the west coast for a pair of matches this week at Seattle U and Utah Valley, starting Thursday in the Emerald City.

Each match will be streamed on ESPN+, and fans can also follow each match via live stats and get updates via social media by following @BearkatsVB on Twitter.

Sam Houston emphatically ended a 9-match losing streak on Saturday with a win over Stephen F. Austin and now will get its first-ever look at the Redhawks on Thursday after Seattle U dropped matches to Grand Canyon and UVU last week to open up WAC play.

The Kats will then get a crack at the Wolverines who they swept in Phoenix last season, but then went on to claim the WAC Tournament title and earn a berth in the NCAA Tournament. UVU is one of two teams – along with UTRGV – who went 2-0 in the opening weekend of WAC play.

Kats Snap Streak With Win Over SFA
Sam Houston had struggled to get back into the win column since a win at A&M-Corpus Christi, but did it in loud fashion on Saturday with a 5-set win over Stephen F. Austin. The Ladyjacks entered the match with a 13-1 overall record, but fell to the Bearkats for the third straight time over the past two seasons. It is the first time the Kats have won three straight in the Piney Woods rivalry since picking up wins in the 2008, 2009 and 2010 seasons.

Krieger Has Big Match vs SFA
The Kats needed everything they got form outside hitter Catherine Krieger on Saturday as the junior finished with 20 kills on 48 tries with only one error for a .396 attack percentage. The 20 kills tied a career high for the Richmond native, a mark she initially set as a freshman in 2019 vs Stetson.

Baker Enjoys Record-Setting Weekend In Waco
Libero Hannah Baker entered the weekend of the Baylor Classic on the verge of a career milestone, needing just 20 digs to become the 19^th Bearkat in program history to reach 1,000 for a career. She took care of that quickly with 21 digs in the tournament opener vs McNeese, but then went to another level later in the weekend.

In the tournament finale, a 5-set loss to Tulsa, Baker finished with 50 digs to her credit. That mark is five more in a single match than any other player in the country this year, and makes her the first player in NCAA Division I competition since 2015 to reach 50 digs in a single match.

The 50 digs also set a new single-match school record at Sam Houston that shattered the previous record of 44 that she had tied last year, ironically enough, also in a 5-set match vs Tulsa.

Dyer Goes For 20 Kills vs Tulsa
Freshman Madison Dyer has stood became the first Bearkat freshman to register 20 kills in a match since Taylor Cunningham had 22 at Northwestern State in 2015 when she did so against Tulsa at the Baylor Classic. She enters the week second among the Kats' primary hitters with 2.38 kills per set for the year, but leads the Kats with a .240 attack percentage.

Gray Picks Up 750^th Career Win vs Prairie View
It was another milestone for 39th-year head coach Brenda Gray on last Tuesday as she picked up her 750th career victory when the Kats swept their way past Prairie View in the 2022 home opener at Johnson Coliseum. Gray is the fourth-longest tenured current coach in Division I, and is 10th in the nation among active coaches with her 751 career victories.

Kats to head west for matches vs Seattle U, Utah Valley

Players Mentioned

Hannah Baker

Madison Dyer

Catherine Krieger

Footer