Texas Tech Volleyball Travels North to Kansas State
November 06, 2015 | Women's Volleyball
Freshman setter Morgan Reed has led the team in assists twice in her five matches played this season.
Nov. 6, 2015
LUBBOCK, Texas - Texas Tech volleyball (13-12, 2-9) concludes its season series against Kansas State (14-8, 6-4) in Manhattan on Saturday, Nov. 7, at 7 p.m. at Ahearn Field House.
The match will be streamed live on WatchESPN.com.
This will be the 44th meeting between the Red Raiders and the Wildcats. K-State holds the edge in the all-time series, 33-10. The Red Raiders have split the season matchups with the Wildcats in two of the last three years, picking up 3-1 wins in 2012 and 2013. On Oct. 24, K-State recorded a 3-0 victory in Lubbock.
THE LITTLE APPLE
The Wildcats are 14-8 overall this season, with a 6-4 record in conference play. Since the Red Raiders last faced their conference foe, K-State has won three straight for a three-match winning streak. In their last match, the Wildcats defeated TCU in four sets, with Brooke Sassin leading the team in kills with 15. Sassin is the team leader in kills this season, racking up 288 in 81 sets of play. K-State's setter, Katie Brand is averaging 11.16 assists per set, good for second in the Big 12 and 23rd in the NCAA. Brand is also second on the team in total digs at 250, trailing Kersten Kober with 351.
NEXT ON THE AGENDA
Tech gets a midweek bye before hosting West Virginia on Friday, Nov. 13, at 5 p.m. at the United Supermarkets Arena. On Oct. 14, the Red Raiders swept the Mountaineers in Morgantown, 3-0, behind a career-high performance in kills for Sarah Redding with 11. The win over West Virginia gave Tech a 5-4 lead in the all-time series between the two programs.
CLEAN SWINGS
Junior Lauren Douglass is in the midst of a special season donning the Scarlet and Black, ranked just outside the top 25 in the country in hitting percentage at .395. 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 in the NCAA earlier in the season. 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. Against Baylor on Wednesday, she led the team in kills for the 10th time this season with 10 behind a clip of .400. She has hit .400 or better in 12 matches in 2015. If she stays above .358 over the next five matches, she'll set the Texas Tech hitting percentage single-season record.
KILLS AND HITTING PERCENTAGE AND BLOCKS, OH MY!
In six separate matches this season, including each of the last two contests, Texas Tech's starting middle blockers have posted the team-high in kills, hitting percentage and blocks. Lauren Douglass has accomplished the feat four times this season, doing so in Texas Tech's last match against Baylor on Wednesday behind 10 kills, a .400 clip and three blocks. Freshman Katy Keenan has notched two matches this season leading in the three categories, last doing so against Texas at eight kills, a hitting percentage of .368 and three blocks.
SPREADING THE WEALTH
As the lead 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 10.19 assists per set, totaling 825, which ranks fourth in the conference. She has tallied 40+ assists in seven matches this season. If she averages 35 assists per match during the rest of the season, she will eclipse the 1,000 assist mark. So far this season, she has averaged 33 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. Starting against Baylor, she dished up a team-high 21.
RECORDS WATCH
Three Red Raiders are moving closer to etching their names into the Texas Tech record books. With six matches left, Lauren Douglass has a hitting percentage of .395. If she stays above .358, she will have the school record for best hitting percentage in a single-season. Carlie Foust sits 14 digs away from the 10th-best single-season mark in digs of 409, set by Tory Vaughan in 2011. On the career side of the record book, Marguerite Grubb is 203 assists from the 10th-best assist total, a figure she will almost certainly achieve next season if she doesn't hit it in 2015.
NOT SO FAST MY FRIEND
2015 is the first season the Big 12 utilized the video replay system and coaching challenges. The Big 12 and the Big Ten are the only two conferences in the NCAA that utilize the instant replay and coaching challenges. This season, head coach Don Flora is four-for-14 overall on 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 16 matches, she's notched 119 kills for an attack percentage of .270, 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 131 digs and 13 service aces during her time on the court. Sarah Redding tied a career-high 11 in the last match against K-State. She has recorded 129 kills, 27 digs and 25 blocks, and Katelyn Bryant has racked up 34 digs in their first year donning the Scarlet and Black. Morgan Reed put up a team-high 26 assists, as well as nine digs, against Kansas State, her first full match of the season. She has 63 assists and 24 digs this season. Against Baylor, three freshman were in the starting lineup for the Red Raiders: Keenan, Redding and Reed.