Texas Tech Athletics
TCU
Texas Tech Falls to TCU in Season Opener
August 26, 2011 | Women's Volleyball
Aug. 26, 2011
Box Score | Notes | 
Flora Postmatch
FORT WORTH, Texas - Texas Tech opened the Don Flora era with a 3-1 loss to TCU Friday evening as both squads opened the regular season in front of a capacity crowd at University Recreation Center.
The Horned Frogs put the pressure on a young Red Raider squad early, taking the first two sets, 25-22, 25-23. Tech came fighting back in the third, though, to send the match into a fourth set with a 25-18 victory.
Despite leading early in the set, the Red Raiders were unable to hold on to force a fifth and final set as TCU held off a late rally to clinch the match with a 25-22 victory.
"The progress lends itself to where we are headed to be a competitive Big 12 program," Flora said. "The progress and signs are there. This is day one of a journey and we can tell the journey is going in the right direction."
The loss erased a solid offensive performance from Amanda Dowdy, Miara Cave, and the freshman debut of Breeann David. The trio combined to account for 45 of Tech's 57 total kills.
Dowdy led the way with 19 kills, moving to fourth on the school's career chart in the process, while also adding her 14th career double-double with 18 digs.
After a slow offensive start for the entire squad, Cave and David came on in the second set to provide solid options for setter Karlyn Meyers, who added 42 assists and 15 digs in the match.
Cave matched her career high with 15 kills in the match on only 29 attempts, finishing with a .414 hitting percentage. The performance marked her second-highest hitting percentage of her career.
David, meanwhile, came close to joining Dowdy and Meyers with double-doubles as the Denver City, Texas product finished with 11 kills and eight digs in the match.
Serving haunted the Red Raiders throughout the night as Tech began with five service errors in the first set before finishing with 11 in the match. The Horned Frogs added six aces in the match as well while also forcing Tech into six receiving errors.
Stephanie Holland and Kristen Hester led TCU offensively as the duo recorded 14 and 11 kills respectively, while Sarah Joeckel recorded 21 digs on the back row.
Tory Vaughan matched her career high with 13 digs, while Aubree Piper added seven block assists over the final three sets.
The Red Raiders continue the TCU Invitational on Saturday afternoon, facing Connecticut and Grambling State in a doubleheader. Tech and Connecticut are scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. with the second match against Grambling State set for a 4 p.m. start.
