Sept. 16, 2008

Complete Release in PDF Format

LUBBOCK, Texas -

The Week Ahead

Tech will face Big 12 foe Baylor on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. It will be the second Big 12 match of the season after suffering a tough five set loss to Oklahoma during the Red Raider Round Up. The Red Raiders will then head to North Texas to play in the Spike Ike tournament against UT-Pan American, Louisiana-Lafayette and Stephen F. Austin. The tournament has the Red Raiders play Louisiana-Lafayette on Friday at 12 p.m. and Stephen F. Austin at 7 p.m. They finish the tournament Saturday at 12:30 p.m. against UT-Pan American.

Last Week

The Red Raiders played its first home match of the season as they hosted the Red Raider Round Up presented by Aim Bank. Tech faced some tough competition including Oklahoma in the Big 12 opener. Amanda Dowdy earned all-tournament honors for her outstanding performance with 51 kills and a .420 attack percentage. Oklahoma won the tournament, TCU was second and UNO placed third.

Scouting Baylor

Baylor has a 8-2 record overall and are coached by Jim Barnes. They return seven letterwinners from a squad that went 14-17 last season. Katie Sanders leads Baylor with 111 kills. Baylor leads the conference in service aces with 63. Tech holds a 42-18 overall record but the last win came back in 2004.

Big 12 Rookie of the Week

Freshman Amanda Dowdy earned Big 12 Rookie of the Week honors for the first time in her career. She had 51 kills and a .420 attack percentage. In Tech's Big 12 opener against Oklahoma she had a team-high 20 kills and a .421 attack percentage.

All-Time Wins

A look at volleyball teams that have the most wins all-time will give Red Raider fans reason to boast. Texas Tech is the 26th winningest program with 741 wins in NCAA history. The most wins in a season was in 1976 when the team won 56 matches. Four other Big 12 schools made the list as Nebraska (1,035) is second, Texas (922) is eighth and Texas A&M (819) is 18th. UCLA leads all programs with 1,065 wins.

Season Highs

Middle Blocker has the highest attack percentage in a match with a .567 percentage during the TCU match. Amanda Dowdy has the most kills in a match with 20 during the Oklahoma match. Caroline Witte still has the match high for assists with 45 against TCU. The match high leader goes to Jenn Harrell who had 19 in the Big 12 opener against Oklahoma. The odd stat of the week could be the leader in blocks in a match. Setter Caroline Witte had ten blocks against TCU and leads the Red Raiders.

Hot Start

The 3-0 start is the first time Tech has started the season 3-0 since the 2003 season when the team started 8-0.

Tourney Win

The Mean Green Classic title is the first tournament title since the 2006 USF Smoothie King Invitational.

Superlatives

Several Red Raiders were able to reach new career numbers during the Mean Green Classic. Michelle Flores reached 400 kills for her career. Jenn Harrell has recorded 729 digs for her three year career so far and is 156 from being 15th on the all-time career list.

Connections

Freshman Amanda Dowdy is a cousin of senior Texas Tech golfer Megan Dowdy.

Seasoned Returners

Three of the returners for this year's squad played in over 100 sets last season. Brandi Hood played in 102, Michelle Flores played in 104 and Jenn Harrell was apart of 101 sets.

Newcomers

Tech has seven new faces for the 2008 season. Two JUCO transfers and four freshmen are looking to contribute. Blinn JC transfers Hayley Ball and Caroline Witte come in with experience playing on two consecutive fifth place NJCAA tournament teams. Amanda Dowdy and Karlyn Meyers were both top 100 recruits coming out of high school. Tyler Elley, Michelle Ogbeide and Brooke Smith will get valuable playing time throughout the season as well.

Rule Changes

A few changes have been made from last season when it comes to the rules of volleyball. On of the biggest changes will be the name. Instead of being called games, they should be referred to as sets. Another rule variation will be the number of points to win a set. In prior seasons a team had to score 30 points to win a set that has now been changed to 25 points.