Tech Volleyball Hits The Road Against The Tigers
October 20, 2004 | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 20, 2004
LUBBOCK, Texas - The Texas Tech volleyball team will hit the road against the Missouri Tigers this Wed., Oct.20, for a 7 p.m. match up at the Hearnes Center in Columbia, Mo. The Tigers (11-5, 6-3 Big 12) are coming off a close victory on the road, and will give the Red Raiders (7-8, 3-6 Big 12) a run for their money on their home court.
Tech, coming off a tough loss at the hands of the Kansas State Wildcats 3-0, will look to regain their winning stature on the road against the Tigers. While Missouri is currently not ranked in the top 25, it is receiving votes and ranks unofficially 28th with 33 votes. In the loss, senior Kelly Johnson led the Red Raiders with 14 kills and eight digs on the night. Laura Grote, senior, dished out 25 assists and seven digs to round out the last of the Red Raider double-digit performances.
On the season Johnson leads the team with team with 3.93 kills per-game, followed by sophomore Kiley Lyons with 2.63. Johnson ranks seventh in the Big 12 in kills with a conference play average of 4.15 kills per-game and 137 total kills.
Tech leads the series against the Tigers 11-6 since beginning the feud in 1995. The series between the two teams was dominated by the Red Raiders for most of the first half of its existence. Tech won the first 10 match ups before Missouri came back to win six of the last seven.
Missouri is coming off a close match on the road against the Kansas Jayhawks, winning 3-2 off a 15-7 game-five victory. Missouri had an impressive .328 hitting efficiency, combined with the team's 71 total digs on the match. MU also out-blocked the Jayhawks 15-2 in total team blocks. The Tigers are led by Shen Danru and Jessica Vander Kooi with 4.07 and 3.93 kills per-game, respectively. Missouri currently ranks third nationally in assists per-game with 16.48, while holding the second-place spot in the nation in kills per-game with 18.14.
Tech's match up against the Tigers will be covered live on gametracker, a free service to all fans that shows up-to-date stats and scores as the game progresses, and can be accessed through the Texas Tech website at www.texastech.com. First serve is set for 7 p.m.
