Texas Tech Athletics
Weber State
Tech Volleyball Overcomes 0-2 Deficit To Defeat Weber State
September 19, 2014 | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 19, 2014
LUBBOCK, Texas -- The Texas Tech volleyball team rallied from an 0-2 deficit for the second time in three matches, defeating Weber State, 3-2, on day two of the Lone Star Showdown, in Lubbock, Texas, on Friday.
The Red Raiders (11-0) were on the short end of back-to-back tightly contested sets to start the match, 23-25, and 25-27.
Junior Jenna Allen said even after the second set, the team was focused and positive during intermission and knew exactly what it needed to do.
"It was all about confidence," Allen said. "We had to know we were going to win the match. When we went down 0-2, the mindset was `Well, looks like we're going five sets.'"
Tech fell behind, 19-21, in the third, but struck for a 6-2 run to take the set, 25-23. In the fourth set, the Red Raiders went down 0-3 early, but rallied to take an 8-7 lead, and never looked back, winning the set, 25-20.
In the fifth set, Weber State jumped out to a 5-0 lead, and extended it to 11-5, when senior Rachel Brummitt came up to serve. Brummitt launched one great serve after another, putting Weber State in compromising positions, and Tech capitalized, going on a 7-0 tear to take a 12-11 lead. From there, the Red Raiders closed it out, 15-13.
"It was a good matchup for Rachel," Texas Tech head coach Don Flora said. "Where she likes to serve kind of played into Weber State's rotations. The timing was fantastic. That, coupled with her being one of the best servers in the country, made a great situation for us."
Tonight's match marked the second time in the last week Tech has overcome an 0-2 hole. The Red Raiders dropped the first two sets against Texas State last Friday before winning in five. Texas Tech is 2-0 when facing an 0-2 deficit this season, and is 3-0 in five-set matches.
On offense, the Red Raiders had four players amass double-digit kills. Breeann David and Lauren Douglass led the way with 17 each--Douglass's 17 being a career high. Allen added 16 kills, and Mikia Mills registered 13. As a team, Tech logged 74 kills, hitting for a percentage of .220. Marguerite Grubb entered the game with Tech down 8-5 in the third set, and recorded 32 assists over the remainder of the match.
Through the first two sets, Weber State notched 9.5 total team blocks. In the final three sets, the Wildcats totaled just one.
"That's a big credit to Marguerite Grubb, coming in during the third set at the setter position," Flora said. "They had a big block, but it showed late, so instead of just trying to hit into it, we went off the top and Grubb really spread it around, giving us bigger windows. It was partly what she was doing, but a large portion of it was us talking about what we were doing in transition and making adjustments."
On defense, Texas Tech registered 12 total team blocks. Douglass led the way, totaling one solo block and seven block assists. Tech held Weber State to a hitting percentage of .167--marking the 10th time in the first 11 games of the season that Tech has held its opponent under .200.
The Red Raiders will wrap up competition at the Lone Star Showdown tomorrow, when they take on Air Force, at 1 p.m., in the United Supermarkets Arena.
