Oct. 7, 2008

Complete Release in PDF Format

LUBBOCK, Texas -

The Week Ahead

The Texas Tech volleyball squad hits the road for a match with Colorado on Wednesday in Boulder, Colo. at 7 p.m. local time, and then finish Saturday evening with a home match against rival Texas A&M. Fans who attend the Nebraska football game get in free to the Texas A&M match by showing their football game stub. Tech fans can follow the match with Colorado by going to www.cubuffs.com.

Last Week

Tech's ended up 0-2 last week as they faced No. 2 Nebraska and Kansas both at the United Spirit Arena. Tech fought hard against Nebraska especially in the second set as it had 11 kills and a .267 hitting percentage but lost 25-23. Nebraska won the match in three sets (25-13, 25-23, 25-13). Kansas came to town on Saturday and brought more frustration to the Red Raiders. Tech tied the match at one after winning the second set 25-17. The Red Raiders were ahead for most of the third set, but untimely mistakes helped the Jayhawks win 25-23. Tech fought hard in the fourth set but was unable to take the match to five sets losing 25-22.

Scouting Colorado

Colorado has an overall record of 8-6 and a 2-3 Big 12 record and are coached by Pi'i Aui. Colorado is led by Alex Buth who has 151 kills, 10 aces, 132 digs and 37 blocks on the season. Tech only has four wins in 24 meetings with Colorado.

Scouting Texas A&M

The Aggies come into the match with a 7-8 overall record and 2-3 in conference play and are coached by Laurie Corbelli. Mary Batis leads the team with 196 kills, 171 digs and 11 aces. Texas A&M has yet to win a match on the road this season. The Aggies lead the overall series 49-26.

Season Highs

Middle blocker Amanda Dowdy leads the team with 177 kills and is seventh in the Big 12 with a .348 hitting percentage. Setter Caroline Witte leads the team with 21 aces and is currently sixth in the Big 12. Libero Jenn Harrell is the team leader with 182 digs.

Defensive Highlight

Libero Jenn Harrell has a season high 23 kills against Kansas. It is her fifth-career match with 20 or more digs. It is Harrell's 10th match that she has had 10 or more digs.

High Percentage Middle Blocker Amanda Dowdy has had over a .300 hitting percentage in four straight matches. She has hit over .300 in 11 matches this season.

Big 12 Rookie of the Week

Freshman Amanda Dowdy earned Big 12 Rookie of the Week honors for the first time in her career for the week of September 15th. She had 51 kills and a .420 attack percentage during the Red Raider Round Up. 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 743 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 is second, Texas is eighth and Texas A&M is 18th. UCLA leads all programs in wins.

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 .