Texas Tech Athletics
West Virginia
Red Raiders Complete Season Sweep of West Virginia
November 13, 2015 | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 13, 2015
LUBBOCK, Texas -- Red Raider volleyball (14-13, 3-10) returned to the win column after picking up a 3-0 victory over West Virginia (5-20, 0-12) on Friday night at the United Supermarkets Arena.
Texas Tech won in straight-sets: 31-29, 25-14 and 25-21.
It's the first time since 2013 that the Red Raiders have swept the season series with a conference foe, when they won both contests against TCU.
Senior Jenna Allen and freshman Sarah Redding shared the team-lead in kills with 11. Redding's marks tied a career-high set against Kansas State on Oct. 24.
The Red Raiders totaled 47 kills on Friday night, with junior setter Marguerite Grubb assisting on 40. It's the eighth time this season she's had 40 or more assists in a single match, the last coming in the Big 12 opener against Oklahoma (52). It was also the most blocks by the Red Raiders since the OU contest, tallying 11.5 as a team, with junior Lauren Douglass leading the charge with six, including one solo.
Senior Carlie Foust continued to climb the single-season dig charts after posting 28 against the Mountaineers. Her 2015 total of 444 is tied for sixth-most by a Red Raider.
"Carlie was tremendous again defensively for us tonight," head coach Don Flora said.
The Mountaineers jumped out to an early 5-1 lead in the first set, but the Red Raiders quickly responded to pull within two at 5-3. West Virginia was able to capitalize on a few of Tech's errors to build a 9-4 advantage. Tech battled back to tie the first frame at 13 after a string of kills by Allen and Alyssa Ybanez. From there, the two sides battled back and forth, needing extras to settle.
After 11 points of overtime, the Red Raiders finished off the Mountaineers in set one, 31-29. The lead changed hands six times and the score was tied on 16 different occasions in the first set alone. Redding, Allen and Douglass each put up four kills, with Brianna Grant closely behind with three. Tech rattled off 17 kills in the first frame, with Grubb assisting on 16. Defensively, the Red Raiders totaled 21 digs, with Foust earning 12. Douglass stuffed the Mountaineer attack three times, with Tech combining for 5.0 blocks overall.
The second set stayed even early, but a 5-0 run by the Red Raiders opened the floodgates that wouldn't be closed in the middle frame. Tech built leads of 16-7 and 21-12 behind chunks of scoring, with Allen putting up four kills in the set, to bolster the advantage. Tech would claim four of the next six points to close out a strong set two, 25-14.
"They kept a confident mindset after set one that led to a very clean offense in set two," Flora said.
Tech swung for 14 kills in the second set, committing no errors in the process. Grubb added 10 assists in the second frame, to give her 26 at the half, while Foust reached 20 digs after her eight in set two. Allen and Douglass shared the team-lead in blocks with four each, with Allen earning a solo block.
The Red Raiders and the Mountaineers traded off leads early in the third set, with Tech building a two-point advantage at 8-6 and 10-8. West Virginia took five of the next six points to take a 13-11 lead, before Alyssa Ybanez stopped the run with a kill. The Red Raiders knotted it up at 15 thanks to kills a round of kills by Ybanez and Allen.
Redding and Grubb pushed the Red Raiders ahead, 17-15, with back-to-back kills. The Mountaineers pulled within one, but Tech immediately answered to keep a two-point lead at 21-19. West Virginia would grab two more but it would not be enough to keep the Red Raiders from closing out the final frame, 25-21.
Texas Tech travels to Fort Worth to take on TCU on Wednesday, Nov. 18, at 6:30 p.m. on FOX Sports Southwest Plus.
