The end result — a five game victory for the Sooners (16-30, 30-28, 30-26, 16-30, 15-13).
Oklahoma snapped K-State's five-match winning streak and won its third straight match over the Wildcats.
The current streak comes after the Wildcats beat the Sooners 14 straight times until last season.
"They're (Oklahoma) better than they used to be," Kansas State coach Suzie Fritz said. "They're well coached. They fight for points. They work hard. They play hard — we could learn something from them."
K-State (10-3, 2-1 Big 12) tied the fifth game 13-13 when Rita Liliom delivered a kill that went off an OU blocker and out of bounds.
But Oklahoma (10-2, 3-0 Big 12) responded after a timeout.
Anna Stadel, an Osage City native, knocked in a point to take a 14-13 lead. After another Oklahoma timeout, Lacy Barnes served for the Sooners and her serve bounced off Lauren Matthewson and Megan Farr of K-State to end the game and the match with an ace.
"We had a game plan and we didn't execute it well late in game five," a frustrated Fritz said. "Every team has a tendency. In the end, when they're trying to win matches, those tendencies will show through, which they did. We knew exactly what we were going to get in game five and we just didn't execute it very well."
K-State began the match with a 30-16 victory in game one. The Wildcats controlled the tempo of the game leading by as many as 14 points.
The second game proved to be a little closer, swaying back-and-forth.
The Wildcats led late in the game and appeared to be poised to win the game as they led 27-24. But a couple KSU errors, mixed in with some big blocks from Oklahoma, allowed the Sooners to score six of the last seven points and win the game.
"Anytime you go on the road in the Big 12 you try to add as much pressure as you can," OU coach Santiago Restrepo said. "Even though their applying pressure on you, you're hoping that you can compete in a couple of games and have a battle in the fifth game. That's what we did."
The momentum carried over for the Sooners as they jumped out to an early lead and took a 28-20 advantage before holding off a late Wildcat surge to win 30-26 in the third game.
But K-State didn't quit, dominating the fourth game to force a fifth game. It was the Wildcats' first five-game match since beating Cal Poly in the season opener and K-State's first five-game match at home since falling to Oklahoma last Oct. 14.
However, much to Fritz and the rest of the Wildcats' dismay, KSU couldn't stay on that high. The game went back and forth but Oklahoma scored five of the last six points to pull out the win.
"I think games one and four were exceptional," Fritz said. "The problem is games two and three were not so exceptional. We've got to find a way to just try to level out. We don't have to be as great as we were in games one and four but we can't be as bad as we were in two and three."
Rita Liliom led KSU with a match-high 23 kills, while Nataly Korobkova added 18 and Jenny Jatsch had 11. Angie Lastra recorded 13 digs and Korobkova had eight. Stacey Spiegelberg led the team with 59 assists.
Stadel led OU with 15 kills, while Bridget Laplante and Mariana Blum each had a double-double. Laplante had 12 kills and 11 digs and Blum had 11 kills and 11 digs. Hannah Sharp finished with a match-high 14 digs.
On paper, K-State led most offensive categories.
"We had every opportunity to win that one," Fritz said. "We out hit them, out blocked them, out dug them, outplayed them in every statistical category. I think were we lost the match is our passing broke down."
Up next for the Wildcats is a match against Colorado at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Boulder, Co.
K-State hopes to regroup and learn from the mistakes they made against OU before making the trek West.
"I guess we just kind of learn from it," Spiegelberg said. "They outworked us. So we're just trying to take that and not let it happen again. We hate losing."
