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Today is mostly just cleanup day here at the Slate as everyone resets their off-weekend body clocks; it’s time to get ready for the annual ritual dismembering of the Flaw on the Kaw this coming Saturday.
In this week’s edition of his rundown of Stuff, our pal Bill Connelly only mentions Kansas State once. But that mention is in order to tab Deuce Vaughn as one of his finalists for the Paul Hornung Award, which goes to the year’s most versatile player.
Still poking around over at the Worldwide Leader, we find Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach’s weekly bowl projections. Both men still have K-State headed to Orlando for their first Florida appearance in the Cheez-It Bowl, but they differ on the opponent. Bonagura thinks it’ll be North Carolina State, while Schlabach says Miami.
Three weeks ago, 2020 defensive end signee Ronald Triplette announced his departure from the program by putting his name in the transfer portal. Per Triplette, it was a personal decision on his part, and he had nothing but praise for the program, so we won’t speculate as to why. What we will do is pass along the news from Gabe Brooks that Triplette has chosen to head to the Riverwalk and make Texas-San Antonio his new home.
Volleyball
Ooof. Courtesy of Lee Feinswog at Volleyball Mag’s national rundown: Friday’s epic five-set defeat to #1 Texas must have taken every bit of K-State’s energy, as the Volleycats got swept on Saturday 25-15, 25-16, 25-16. The 13th-ranked Cats only registered a .141 hit percentage in the loss, which drops them to 3-3 and will probably drop them to the depths of the top 25 if not out completely.
Friday’s heroics, however, were not lost on Jim Leitner of the Dubuque Telegraph-Herald. Leitner reports on Dubuque product Aliyah Carter, who set a K-State freshman record Friday with 26 kills and was a huge part of the Wildcats pushing Texas to the brink.
Soccer
Today’s Sports Extra could have been about nothing else: Austin Siegel runs down K-State’s first conference shutout win in literally ever, the 3-0 blanking of Oklahoma on Friday night. With three of K-State’s remaining four games against the bottom half of the conference, their best-ever conference finish is within view.