Oct. 21, 2008

LUBBOCK, Texas -

Complete Release in PDF Format

The Week Ahead The Texas Tech volleyball squad returns home for matches with the No. 3 Texas Longhorns and Colorado Buffaloes at the United Spirit Arena on Wednesday and Saturday, with both slated to start at 7 p.m. Fans headed to the Texas match can get in for $1 and rally towels will be given out. Saturday's match with Colorado is "Pink Night" and pink t-shirts will be sold with all proceeds benefiting the Susan G. Komen Foundation. The Red Raiders will be wearing pink shoelaces and pink ribbons.

Last Week Tech was on the road twice as it travelled to Ames, Iowa, and Manhattan, Kan., facing the Iowa State Cyclones and Kansas State Wildcats. The Red Raiders lost in straight sets to the Cyclones, who hit a .441 percentage. Tech was led by middle blockers Amanda Dowdy and Brandi Hood who finished with seven kills each. The Red Raiders suffered another loss to the Wildcats last Saturday in three sets. Hayley Ball helped the Red Raiders with seven kills and seven digs.

Scouting Texas The No. 3 Longhorns come into the match with a 14-2 overall and 8-1 in conference play. The only conference loss came at the hands of Nebraska. Destinee Hooker leads the Longhorns with 245 kills, 18 aces and 42 blocks. Texas leads the overall series 9-64-2. Texas leads the conference with a .339 hitting percentage.

Scouting Colorado Colorado brings a 10-8 record and 4-5 conference record into Saturday's match. Colorado won the first match between the two schools in three sets. Tech was plagued by a .061 hitting percentage and Colorado hit .372 as a team. Colorado's Emilee Sisco led the team with 12 kills.

Talented Frosh Middle blocker Amanda Dowdy is in elite company in the big 12 ranks. She is the only freshman ranked in the top 10 in hitting percentage. She currently sits eighth on the list with a .316 percentage.

Starting Four Red Raiders have started every match that Tech has played. Freshman Amanda Dowdy and junior Hayley Ball have started all 21 matches during the season.

Valuable Experience The young class of freshman have received valuable playing time during the 2008 season. Middle blocker Amanda Dowdy has started all 19 of the teams matches and setter Karlyn Meyers has started 14 matches. Brooke Smith and Tyler Elley have both played in all 19 matches during the season.

Match Highs The highest percentage a Tech player has hit in a match is by middle blocker Amanda Dowdy when she hit .571 against Louisiana-Lafayette and has the team high for kills when she finished with 20 against Oklahoma. Setter Caroline Witte recorded 45 assists in a match versus TCU and Jenn Harrell has the match high for digs with 23 against Kansas. Witte also has the match highs in aces with four against Louisiana-Lafayette and total blocks with 10 versus TCU.

Season Highs Middle blocker Amanda Dowdy leads the team with 191 kills and is seventh in the Big 12 with a .328 hitting percentage. Setter Caroline Witte leads the team with 22 aces and is currently eighth in the Big 12 hitting .33 a set. Libero Jenn Harrell is the team leader with 182 digs. Middle Blocker Brandi Hood is 10th in the Big 12 hitting. 097 blocks per set.

Defensive Highlight Libero Jenn Harrell has a season high 23 digs against Kansas. It is her fifth-career match with 20 or more digs. It is Harrell's 13th match that she has had 10 or more digs.

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 900 digs for her three year career so far and is 156 from being 15th on the all-time career list.

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

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 .