Texas Tech Athletics
Kansas State
Tech Volleyball Upsets No. 20 Kansas State
September 20, 2000 | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 20, 2000
LUBBOCK, Texas-- The Texas Tech volleyball team pulled off their biggest win of the season as the Red Raiders defeated No. 20 Kansas State in rally scoring (15-6, 15-17, 15-8, 14-16, 22-20) in front of 659 fans at the United Spirit Arena, Wednesday evening.
With the win, Tech improves to 12-1 on the season and 1-1 in Big 12 conference play and will travel to Austin, Texas on Saturday for a Big 12 showdown with rival Texas. Kansas State dropped their first conference match of the year and fell to 8-3 overall with a 2-1 mark in Big 12 play.
"This was a great win for us tonight," said Tech head coach Jeff Nelson. "I really thought we could have won in three games but we let game-two slip away after we let them back in the game. I felt like the fourth game was the match for us. We were down by 10 points and were able to come back within one and that was definitely a momentum shift. We kept telling the girls in the huddle to go after momentum but we really didn't think they would come back like that. Heather had a great match for us both defensively and serving and was the key to our win. I told the girls that they can celebrate until 2 p.m. tomorrow but then we have to get focused on our next goal which is beating Texas."
It was conference vudu for the Red Raiders as the team dominated Kansas State 15-6 in game-one. Last week at Baylor, Tech jumped out on the Bears early and won the first game by the same score of 15-6 but allowed Baylor to take the next three and win the match. Tech dropped the second game 17-5 but came back after the intermission to win game-three 15-8 and take a 2-1 lead in the match.
In the fourth game, Kansas State appeared to have the game in hand as the Wildcats stormed out to a 13-3 lead. But the Red Raiders answered with nine straight points to put Tech back in the hunt only to fall victim to a late Wildcat charge 16-14.
In rally scoring, both teams refused to lose the game but it was the Red Raiders who got the final break of the night and escaped with a 22-20 win in game-five to win the match. Tech has now defeated Kansas State for the second straight time. The Wildcats came to Lubbock last season ranked No. 15 but Tech took the match 15-12, 6-15, 12-15, 15-11, 15-13.
It was all Heather Hughes-Justice tonight as the junior outside hitter set a Texas Tech school record with eight service aces. The previous record was seven. Hughes-Justice finished the night with 17 digs. Sophomore outside hitter Melissa McGehee led the Red Raider offense with 21 kills along with 21 defensive digs. Senior Colleen Smith tallied 18 kills, eight blocks and 12 digs. On the night, Tech had four players finish in double digits in kills and five in digs.
Kansas State was led by freshman Cari Jensen's 23 kills and 12 digs.
Texas Tech will continue conference play when they travel to Austin on Saturday for a Big 12 match-up with Texas. Game-time has been set for 1 p.m. at Gregory Gymnasium.
