The No. 18 Wildcats came at the Tigers from all over the court — hitting .371 as a team and serving up 10 aces. Rita Liliom struck from the outside for a game-high 15 kills while Natalya Korobkova struck from everywhere — including the back row — for 13 kills. Kelsey Chipman and Megan Farr combined for 19 kills up front, and Liliom also led all servers with four aces.
"I'm very pleased with how this team is progressing," Wildcat head coach Suzie Fritz said. "We're better now than we were two weeks ago, or a month ago, and we're playing with more urgency at the start of our matches and better consistency throughout."
The two teams rotated serve for the first six points of the match before Chipman scored three of the next five KSU points, provoking a Tiger timeout and an 11-5 Wildcats lead. Missouri closed within 13-10 before KSU hit the gas, and the Cats built their lead to as many as 11 at one point before Korobkova closed the first game with an ace and a 10-point margin.
K-State (12-3, 4-1) jumped out to a 5-1 lead in Game 2, and after Mizzou cut it to 12-9 midway through, back-to-back blocks by Korobkova and Farr put the Wildcats back in control. A Liliom ace put KSU up 16-9 and forced a Missouri timeout, and the Tigers made seven unforced errors down the stretch as Kansas State's lead peaked at 28-16.
Mizzou trailed just 3-2 early in Game 3 before K-State stretched the lead to five with an Angie Lastra ace and a pair of Tigers errors. From there, Missouri never came within four and KSU never led by more than eight — until the Wildcats scored the final four points for another 10-point win and the match.
"I felt like Oklahoma and Colorado made a greater effort on defense against us (last week), but tonight we played with a lot more intensity on offense and defense from start to finish," Fritz said. "We have to be aggressive as a team, from our serving to our hitting to our defense, that's the only way to be successful over time. If we're going to make errors, we're going to make errors going for it, and we'll take the good with the bad."
The Wildcats travel to College Station, Texas to meet the A&M Aggies Friday. K-State's next home action is Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. against Texas.
