Red Raider Volleyball Heads To NCAA Tournament
November 27, 2001 | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 27, 2001
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Red Raiders Get A "New Life", Head To NCAA'S
After suffering a 3-0 sweep at the hands of rival Texas A&M on Saturday night, the Texas Tech Red Raiders had pretty much given up hope on an at-large bid into this year's NCAA Tournament. The NCAA committee, however, had a different agenda for Texas Tech as they handed the Red Raiders an at-large berth into the tournament field giving Texas Tech is second consecutive NCAA bid. The Red Raiders were one of eight Big 12 schools to get bids into the tournament which ties the Big 12 with the Big 10 for the most number of bids to the tournament in a single season. The Big 10 sent eight teams to the tournament back in 1999.
Texas Tech not only makes its second consecutive appearance in the tournament but will also play Utah in the first-round for the second consecutive year. Utah defeated the Red Raiders in five games last season in the first-round in Hawai'i. Texas Tech and Utah have already played once this season as the two teams tangled in the Utah Classic in Salt Lake City. Utah defeated Tech 3-1 in that match which gave the Utes the Utah Classic championship. Utah owns a 5-2 overall record against Texas Tech and has also won the last three meetings (1999, 2000 and 2001).
Texas Tech is one of just a very few teams who will be actually taking a plane to the NCAA tournament this season, as the NCAA decided to produce regional match-ups in order to reduce air travel. The four-team tournament field in Salt Lake City is made up of Texas Tech and three other teams from the State of Utah including Utah State, BYU and Utah. For the first time in a very long time, top seeded teams were not automatically given rights to host the first and second rounds. Big 12 conference champion and second-ranked Nebraska found themselves traveling to Manhattan for the first and second rounds and is one of just several examples of this new NCAA policy affecting Fall NCAA championships. The tragedies of Sept. 11 influenced the decision by the NCAA to move towards regional match-ups.
Johnson Named Newcomer Of The Year
Texas Tech redshirt freshman outside hitter Kelly Johnson was named the Big 12 Newcomer of the Year on Monday afternoon for her stellar performance this season for the Red Raiders. Johnson set a Texas Tech freshman kill record with 379 kills which surpassed the record of 347 set by current teammate Ann Romjue back in 1999. Johnson was also stellar on the defensive side of the ball as she tallied 222 digs.
Big 12 Gets Eight Bids To The Dance
The Big 12 Conference sent a record tying eight league teams to this year's Big Dance in Texas Tech, Texas, Baylor, Nebraska, Kansas State, Texas A&M, Colorado and Missouri. The eight teams ties a record set by the Big 10 in 1999.
McGehee Is A Threat
Junior outside hitter Melissa McGehee was rewarded this past weekend by the league coaches as an honorable mention All-Big 12 selection (Note: The Big 12 only publishes a first-team and a honorable mention team). McGehee finished the 2001 regular season with 382 kills and 382 digs averaging 3.35 per-game in both categories.
Over the last six matches, she has been one of Tech's hottest hitters with 70 kills on 177 attempts for a hitting percentage of .232. In her career at Texas Tech, she has 938 kills and 981 digs and needs just 19 more digs to reach the 1000 mark, making her the third player this season to reach the 1000 career dig mark. Skydra Orzen and Heather Hughes-Justice both reached the 1000 mark earlier this season.
Raiders Rank Nationally
Texas Tech features one player ranked in the latest NCAA national statistics released on Nov. 18th As a team, Texas Tech ranks in two categories.
Senior setter Skydra Orzen is the leading setter in the nation as she tallies 1,629 assists and a 14.04 assist-per-game average.
As a team, Texas Tech is in ninth place in assists with 1,775, and is 12th in total kills with 1,944.
This And That
- Texas Tech is 18-13 overall this season and finished in a tie for sixth place with Texas and Baylor in the Big 12 with an overall league mark of 9-11.
- Texas Tech needs just 56 kills to get to the 2000 mark for the season. Texas Tech is 12th in the nation in total team kills.
- Texas Tech has four players who total 250+ kills on the season (Angela Mooney - 267, Kelly Johnson - 379, Melissa McGehee - 382, Heather Hughes-Justice - 319).
- Texas Tech placed five players on the 2001 Academic All-Big 12 teams. Making the first-team was Melissa McGehee, Stacey Poole and Kelly Johnson. Kate Jury-Shannon and Heather Hughes-Justice were named to the second-team.
- Texas Tech is making its second-consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament and eighth overall.
- The Red Raiders have an overall record of 3-7 in the NCAA Tournament. The last win in the NCAA's for Texas Tech came back in 1995 when the Red Raiders defeated Arkansas State 3-2 on 11/29 in Gainesville, Florida.
- Note: Senior middle blocker Yolanda Cumbess, who was named to the all-tournament team at the Utah Classic earlier this season, has left the team. Cumbess left the team due to personal reasons after the Oct. 6 game at Kansas.