K-State volleyball had to fight for its fifth-set finish after watching Cincinnati erase an early two-set deficit Friday night. 

After Cincinnati evened the match with consecutive 25-17 set victories, K-State regained control in the deciding frame, using a pair of service aces from Emerson Van Lannen to create separation and finish off a 3-2 victory (25-19, 25-22, 17-25, 17-25, 15-10) at Morgan Family Arena.

The win moved the Wildcats to 11-9 overall and 3-9 in Big 12 play.

K-State and Cincinnati traded points early in the opening set before the Wildcats went on a 5-1 scoring run to take a 19-15 lead. Libero Fuka Sekita highlighted the stretch with her 12th service ace of the season.

Leading 21-17, the Wildcats scored 4 of the final 6 points to close out the set, 25-19. K-State hit .250 in the frame, with Addison Massey leading with five kills while the team held Cincinnati to nine kills.

K-State took the first set 25-19, but the Bearcats made them work for the second. 

Cincinnati jumped out to a 13-7 lead and later extended their advantage to 18-12. The Wildcats struggled to find consistency early in the set but gradually worked their way back behind Skylar Brady and Sydney Maue. 

With the score tied at 22, Sekita stepped to the service line. A Bearcat attack error gave K-State the lead before Maue delivered another kill to push the advantage to 24-22. A final Cincinnati attack error sealed the 25-22 victory and put the Wildcats up 2-0. 

“I love the way we started the match,” head coach Jason Mansfield said. “I think that we played really gritty volleyball in the second set to kind of come back and be up 2-0.”

The Bearcats opened the third set with a 6-0 run and found an offensive rhythm K-State struggled to disrupt — Cincinnati hit .353 in the set, compared to K-State’s .216. Nina Scrucca led the Bearcats with back-to-back service aces as the team went on a 4-0 run to close out a 25-17 third-set victory.

“We tried a bunch of different serve-receive patterns to try to get them out of it … they’re a really good serving team,” Mansfield said. “But besides that 6-0 run, we kind of hung with them the rest of the set. We just couldn’t go on our run ourselves.”

The fourth set brought more of the same. Cincinnati continued to attack efficiently behind the leadership of Sydney Nolan, hitting .344 while limiting the Wildcats to a .030 hitting percentage. K-State struggled with miscommunication and offensive consistency as the Bearcats won another 25-17 set to force a deciding frame.  

The fifth set started with another back-and-forth battle. Neither team managed to create much separation before Van Lannen delivered consecutive service aces to give K-State a 10-7 lead and force a Cincinnati timeout.

A kill from Cadence Lundgren and a Bearcats attack error extended the Wildcats’ advantage to 12-7. Cincinnati attempted to rally, but Massey helped bring K-State to match point before a Bearcats service error ended the match 15-10. 

“I just love our bounce back in the fifth, and I thought we showed a lot of heart,” Mansfield said. “Obviously, we needed to make plays, and we needed them to give us some plays. … I think everything kind of lined up in the fifth. But again, it is really difficult to win in this conference as we know, but I’m really proud of our effort.”

Massey led K-State with 21 kills on 57 attempts, marking her sixth match this season with at least 20 kills. Brady added 13 kills, while Maue and Ellah Derrer each finished with five.

Sekita and Van Lannen both recorded double-doubles. Sekita finished with 23 digs and 12 assists, while Van Lannen contributed 18 assists and 15 digs. 

Defensively, K-State recorded a season-high 70 digs, surpassing its previous high of 66 set against Creighton on Sept. 18. Cincinnati finished with 73 digs, and both teams combined for 143.

“I just like how we’re getting better defensively, starting with our serve and getting good touches of the net,” Mansfield said. “There was a lot of long rallies today, and I felt like we won a bunch of them.”

The Wildcats continue their three-match homestand at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 8, against No. 24 Baylor (13-8, 5-6 Big 12) at Morgan Family Arena, with the match airing on ESPN+.