Texas Tech University Athletics
Texas Tech Volleyball Hosts No. 2 Texas on Friday Night
October 29, 2015 | Women's Volleyball
Lauren Douglass has led the team in kills 10 times this season.
Oct. 29, 2015
LUBBOCK, Texas - Texas Tech volleyball (13-10, 2-7) faces a quick turnaround from their match on Wednesday night, hosting No. 2 Texas (18-2, 8-1) on Friday, Oct. 30, at 6 p.m. at the United Supermarkets Arena.
The team will hold an autograph session after the match on the north concourse of the arena.
This will be the 91st meeting between the Red Raiders and the Longhorns. Tech will be looking to stage the upset and pick up their first win over the Longhorns since 2000, when the Red Raiders swept their in-state foe. Earlier this season, the Red Raiders held a late second set lead on Texas, but would fall, 3-0, in Austin.
AUSTIN CITY LIMITS
The Longhorns are 18-2 overall this season, going 8-1 in Big 12 play, suffering their first conference loss of the year on Wednesday at TCU, 3-0. Texas is ranked second in the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) and is third in the NCAA RPI rankings. Outside Hitter Amy Neal's name can be found all over the conference ranks, leading the league in: aces per set (0.42), attacks per set (10.56), kills per set (4.24), points (321.0), points per set (4.86) and service aces (28). The last time the Red Raiders picked up a set from the Longhorns was in 2010.
NEXT ON THE AGENDA
The Red Raiders remain at home for their next contest, taking on Baylor on Wednesday, Nov. 4, at 6 p.m. at the United Supermarkets Arena. The match will be the final home televised match for Tech, broadcast on Fox Sports Southwest. On Sept. 30, the Red Raiders fell to the Bears, 3-0, in Waco. Tech split the season matchups last season and leads the all-time series, 50-28.
SETTING THE TONE
The Red Raiders are 10-0 this season when winning the first set of a match. In those sets, Texas Tech has averaged an attack percentage of .336, with a season-high of .800 against Northeastern. The Red Raiders put up 13 kills on 15 attacks and only one error in that set on Sept. 5. Tech is 50-13 under head coach Don Flora when claiming the first frame.
CLEAN SWINGS
Junior Lauren Douglass is in the midst of a special season donning the Scarlet and Black, ranked inside the top 20 in the country in hitting percentage at .404. For five-straight weeks, she led the Big 12 and was ranked in the top 15 in the country in the category, climbing all the way to No. 2 earlier in the season. In eight matches this year, Douglass has posted at least 11 kills, including 17 (Oklahoma) and 11 (Iowa State) in the first two conference contests. She also set a career-high with 20 kills against Portland State on Sept. 18. Douglass owns the top three single-match hitting percentages in the conference this season, her top is a .688 clip against Columbia on Sept. 4. At Oklahoma on Wednesday, she led the team in kills with 10, marking the 10th time she's had the team-high in the category this season.
SPREADING THE WEALTH
As the main distributor of the Red Raider offense, junior Marguerite Grubb didn't waste any time picking up where she left off last season. Grubb has put together an average of 10.52 assists per set, as she matched a season-high 52 against Oklahoma on Sept. 23. Her marks place her third in the conference with a total of 789 assists. She has tallied 40+ assists in seven matches this season. If she averages 30.1 assists per match during the rest of the season, she will eclipse the 1,000 assist mark. So far this season, she has averaged 34.3 per match.
After playing for a few plays at Texas, freshman Morgan Reed checked in at setter for the Red Raiders against Kansas State after an injury held her out of action. She racked up a team-high 26 assists and also came one dig away from notching a double-double in that contest. She recorded 12 assists at Oklahoma on Wednesday.
NOT SO FAST MY FRIEND
2015 is the first season the Big 12 utilized the video replay system and coaching challenges. Against OU at home, head coach Don Flora went two-for-three in challenges, including a pivotal overturned call in the fifth set, which gave Tech a 9-5 lead late in the match. At Iowa State, Flora was one-for-two, overturning the original call of a no-touch by a Cyclone defender. This season, Flora is four-for-11 overall on challenges this season.
The Big 12 and the Big Ten are the only two conferences in the NCAA that utilize the instant replay and coaching challenges. Coaches will be permitted three challenges per match, and those challenges will have no effect on the number of allowed timeouts a team has remaining. The challenge must be lodged immediately following the rally and before the first referee's arm is extended to start the service for the next point. Only one challenge per rally will be allowed. Coaches will be allowed to request instant replay challenges only to review these instances:
-If the ball landed in or out
-If the ball made contact with a player
-If a net violation occurred
-Foot faults on a serve
THE WONDER YEARS
The freshman have played a significant role in this year's club. Katy Keenan led the team in kills with nine in the victory over Navy at the Kristen Dickmann Invitational. Starting in 15 matches, she's notched 107 kills for an attack percentage of .286, which ranks second on the team. Reyn Akiu put together a season-high 15 dig performance against Oklahoma in the Big 12 opener. She has tallied 122 digs and 11 service aces during her time on the court. Sarah Redding has led the team in kills in three of the last four matches, tying a career-high 11 against K-State. She has recorded 114 kills, 25 digs and 23 blocks, and Katelyn Bryant has racked up 34 digs in their first year donning the Scarlet and Black. Morgan Reed racked up a team-high 26 assists, as well as nine digs, against Kansas State, her first full match of the season. She has 38 assists and 12 digs this season. At Oklahoma, three freshman were in the starting lineup for the Red Raiders: Keenan, Redding and Reed.
HEATIN' UP
Freshman Sarah Redding has led the Red Raiders in kills in three of the last four matches, achieving double-digit figures in each of those three. At West Virginia, she notched a career-high 11, which she equaled against Kansas State on Oct. 24. In the match against the Wildcats, she only committed one error behind a hitting clip of .625. On Wednesday at Oklahoma, she rattled off seven kills.
Blackout match tomorrow night at 6 against Texas at the U.S.A. Preview: https://t.co/GhkIBRmHek #GunsUp pic.twitter.com/EcXmV4SQM7
-- TexasTech Volleyball (@TTUVball) October 29, 2015
