2020 in Review

in 2020, West Virginia earned 10 wins, including a program-best eight conference matches to finish fourth overall in the Big 12, its highest league finish in Reed Sunahara’s six-year tenure. WVU captured a pair of top-10 road wins for the first time in program history, upsetting No. 10 Kansas in five sets on Oct. 9-10, in Lawrence, Kansas. With the wins, the Mountaineers earned a season sweep over the Jayhawks for the first time in program history.

The Mountaineers also earned their first-ever national ranking in 2020-21, checking in to the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Top 15 Poll three times and climbing as high as No. 13, which was also a program best.

Three individuals finished the season in the top 10 of four Big 12 categories. Briana Lynch ranked third with a .363 hitting efficiency and ninth with 1.06 blocks per set, Lacey Zerwas ranked fourth with 9.73 assists per set and Alexa Hasting ranked fifth with 3.81 digs per set. Lynch’s hitting percentage of .363 ranks first in a single season in program history.

Lynch and Zerwas earned a pair of Big 12 postseason awards. Lynch made her first career appearance on the All-Conference First Team after earning second-team recognition a year ago, while Zerwas landed on the second team to collect her first career All-Big 12 honor. Lynch also was awarded a spot on the All-Midwest Region First Team by the AVCA. The honor marked the first of her career, as she became the first Mountaineer since 2016 to collect first-team recognition.

nine Mountaineers earned a spot on the 2020-21 academic all-big 12 Volleyball Teams, including eight first-team members. Lindsay Proctor and Zerwas earned their awards with a 4.0 grade point averages. Zerwas also was a recipient of the Dr. Gerald Lage Academic Achievement Award, the Big 12 Conference’s highest academic honor.