November 2, 1998

LUBBOCK, Texas - The Texas Tech volleyball team returns home to play Oklahoma on Friday (7 p.m.) and Kansas on Saturday (7 p.m.), both in the Lubbock Municipal Coliseum. The Red Raiders enter the weekend schedule with a 17-8 overall record and 6-6 Big 12 Conference record. Texas Tech defeated Texas A&M (3-1) on Sunday before a nationally televised Fox Sports Net audience and lost to Texas (3-1) on Friday evening.

RED RAIDERS EARN FIRST TOP-25 WIN With the 3-1 victory at No. 19 Texas A&M on Sunday, Texas Tech earned its first victory over a nationally ranked opponent on the season. Prior to Sunday's contest, the Red Raiders were 0-8 vs. ranked teams. The positive side of that is that the Red Raiders have no "bad" losses.

TECH DEFEATS TEXAS A&M 3-1 Courtney Putnam explodes for 26 kills and Sonia Moric hits career-highs of 18 kills and 11 blocks as Raiders win before a nationally televised audience

COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- Texas Tech jumped out to two first game wins and used remarkable performances from two players- Courtney Putnam and Sonia Moric in registering a 15-4, 15-12, 10-15, 15-7 victory Sunday against No. 19 Texas A&M. The victory signalled Texas Tech's first victory against a ranked team on the season. Prior to Sunday's match, Tech was 0-8 vs. ranked teams. Outside hitter Courtney Putnam exploded for a season-high 26 kills, .362 hitting percentage (26-5-58), nine digs and four blocks. Middle blocker Sonia Moric finished the match with career highs of 18 kills and 11 total blocks and hit .333 (18-5-39). Lisa Hilgers finished the match with 65 assists and a match-high 22 digs, Kristen Holmes chipped in 12 kills and 17 digs, Lori Garber added 12 kills and five blocks and Heather Hughes had 17 digs. The Red Raiders, who outhit Texas A&M .264-.155, won game one 15-4 and game two 15-12 before losing game three. Tech put the match away with a 15-7 win in game three.

NO. 12 TEXAS DOWNS TEXAS TECH 3-1 Red Raiders come back to take game three

AUSTIN, Texas - No. 12 Texas used .383 hitting and 18 blocks to defeat visiting Texas Tech 15-2, 15-6, 11-15, 15-1 Friday evening at the University of Texas Gregory Gymnasium. The win improves Texas to 16-3 overall and 10-1 in the Big 12 while Texas Tech fell to 16-8 overall and 5-6 in the Big 12. Erin Aldrich paced Texas with 19 kills and a .586 hitting percentage and Demetria Sance finished with 17 kills and a .324 percentage. Lakisha Bledsoe hit .563 (10 kills) and Katie Austin had 13 kills to help the Longhorns finish with a .383match hitting percentage. Kristen Holmes led Texas Tech with 12 kills. Lori Garber finished with nine kills, Courtney Putnam added six kills and 11 digs and Sonia Moric ended the match with eight kills. The 15-1 defeat in game four was Texas Techs worst game defeat of the season. Texas Tech is 0-2 against Texas this season.ig 12 while Texas Tech fell to 16-8 overall and 5-6 in the Big 12.

PLAYERS AMONG SCHOOL LEADERS

Several Texas Tech Red Raiders are approaching rankings among school leaders in several categories. As of the Kansas State match, Courtney Putnam (600 kills) and Kristen Holmes (553 kills) are close to making the career kill list. Both Putnam (1649 attacks) and Holmes (1679) are approaching the career attacks list, Holmes (748 digs) needs a few more digs to place among career dig leaders, Lisa Hilgers (975 assists) has already passed Mary Loescher's 545 on the season assists list and Sonia Moric (173 block assists) is close to being ranked among career block assist leaders. Moric (207 blocks) is also close to being ranked in total blocks and Heather Hughes (66 career/33 season service aces) will surely place among lists for both categories before the season ends. Lisa Hilgers, who is the career leaderin assists (5395) and career digs (1478), has improved in career service aces. She now has 101 and is in eighth place on the list. Hilgers now has 434 career games played which is good for fourth on the all-time list.

HILGERS SURPASSES 5,000-CAREER ASSIST MILESTONE Senior setter Lisa Hilgers surpassed the 5,000-career assist milestone Friday evening against Missouri. She needed 68 assists to tie the milestone and finished the evening incredibly with 68 assists, giving her 5,000-career assists. She surpassed that total for good in the match against Iowa State.

RED RAIDER STARTING LINEUPS The following are Texas Techs totals for most starts: Lisa Hilgers-25; Heather Hughes-25; Kristen Holmes-25; Courtney Putnam 24; Lori Garber-18; Natalie Rives-11; Sonia Moric-9; Skydra Orzen-7; Emily Brengman-3; ; Pam Osterfeld-1; Kim Breitbach-1.

HILGERS BREAKS TEXAS TECHS CAREER DIGS RECORD This weekend, Lisa Hilgers broke the Texas Tech career digs record. Entering the Texas A&M-Texas weekend, Hilgers needed just six digs to break Cristine Martins record of 1,323 career digs. She finished the match with 10 digs and broke the record midway through game two. Hilgers began the season in second place with 1,206 digs. She currently leads the team in digs per game. Martin played five years from 1993-97, which makes Hilgers accomplishment even more remarkable.

WHERE TEXAS TECH STANDS IN THE AVCA/USA TODAY COACHES POLL No. Date Points Place 1 Sept. 8 31 30th 2 Sept. 15 47 29th 3 Sept. 21 58 25th 4 Sept. 29 57 26th 5 Oct. 6 68 26th 6 Oct. 13 36 26th 7 Oct. 19 10 28th 8 Oct. 27 21 28th

TTU IN THE DISTRICT 5 RANKINGS No. Date Place 1 Sept. 22 6th 2 Oct. 6 6th 3 Oct. 20 6th

TEXAS TECH VOLLEYBALL RANKED 25TH IN NATION FOR FIRST TIME IN 1 1/2 YEARS Ranking marks first time Red Raiders have been ranked since 1996

The Texas Tech volleyball team was ranked 25th in the nation according to the USA Today/AVCA Volleyball coaches poll, released September 22, 1998 by USA Today and the AVCA. The last time Texas Tech had been ranked nationally was upon entering the 1996 NCAA Tournament, while the last time the Red Raiders earned as many votes was in the final poll after the 1996 season (26th overall- 81 votes). Texas Tech earned 58 total votes (the most since 1996) from coaches around the nation to be ranked 25th. "Its always nice to be recognized," Texas Tech head coach Jeff Nelson said. "But the simple fact is, you still have to win matches. We won two matches and lost to BYU this past weekend, but a bunch of other teams who were ahead of us lost and that helped us out."

TEXAS TECH'S 1998 HONORS

Lori Garber All-Tournament, Four Points-Sheraton/Red Raider Classic All-Tournament, BYU Mizuno Classic

Lisa Hilgers MVP, Brions Grill Invitational All-Tournament, Four Points-Sheraton/Red Raider Classic Al-Tournament, BYU Mizuno Classic

Kristen Holmes All-Tournament, Brions Grill Invitational

Courtney Putnam All-Tournament, Brions Grill Invitational

Natalie Rives All-Tournament, Four Points-Sheraton/Red Raider Classic