Red Raiders sweep West Virginia at home

LUBBOCK, Texas – Fifth-year senior Karrington Jones collected five blocks on the day to reach 336 career blocks to now sit at eighth all-time in program history as the Red Raiders swept the West Virginia Mountaineers, 25-16, 25-18, 25-17, on Saturday afternoon at the United Supermarkets Arena.

In addition, Jones tallied five more kills for a .333 hitting clip for the Red Raiders (15-12, 4-10 (Big 12). Kenna Sauer posted her team-leading 25th double-digit kill match after totaling 10, while recording six digs and two blocks.

Senior Reagan Cooper hit for an impressive .700 after picking up seven slams on 10 attacks and also totaled two blocks. Brooke Kanas added six kills on 11 attacks for a .364 hitting clip while posting four more blocks.

Freshman Brynn Williams had herself a day as she tallied five kills, two blocks and four digs, all career-highs. Defensively, Maddie Correa and Reese Rhodes posted a team-high seven digs in the match. Rhodes also added 30 assists and two blocks.

Texas Tech also had three players collect two aces in the match – Paige Mooney, Sauer and Correa. As a team, the Red Raiders hit .211 with 36 kills, 35 assists, eight aces, 34 digs and nine blocks.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Set One

Both teams went back-and-forth to begin the first set at they tied at 6-6 on a kill from Kanas, which sparked a 3-0 run. Even at 9-9, Tech would go on another 3-0 run when WVU had a service error, then Cooper and Jones posted back-to-back slams to give the Red Raiders a 12-9 advantage. Tech would pull away after taking a 19-14 lead on a block from Williams and Jones. Then, Tech ended the set on a big slam from Cooper to win by a score of 25-16.

Set Two

It was all Red Raiders to start the second set after going on a 7-2 run at the beginning, highlighted by kills from Jones and Kanas, aces by Correa and Sauer, and blocks from Cooper and Kanas. The Red Raiders took a 15-10 lead heading into the media timeout, before going on a 3-1 run for an 18-11 advantage when Kanas dropped in another Tech ace. WVU tried to come back, winning three-consecutive points at 21-16, but the Red Raiders only allowed them two more points as they sealed the set with another Cooper kill, 25-18.

Set Three

It was yet again a hot start from Texas Tech after taking an early 6-2 lead in set three on kills by Sauer and Jones. The Red Raiders forced a West Virginia timeout after winning five-straight points to take an 18-8 lead as Sauer and Cooper added kills and the team recorded back-to-back blocks. The Mountaineers closed the gap a little, cutting into the Tech lead at 22-15. But, the Red Raiders completed the sweep when Caitlin Dugan slammed down a kill for a 25-17 score.

NOTABLES

· Karrington Jones now ranks eighth in program history with 336 blocks after collecting five against West Virginia.

· The Red Raiders snap an eight-game losing streak against the Mountaineer’s headed into the Thanksgiving holiday.

· Kenna Sauer ended the game against the Mountaineer’s with her team-leading 25th double-digit kill performance with 10, pushing her season total to 399 kills.

· The Raiders got their second Big 12 win in three sets and eighth sweep of the year.

QUOTEABLES

Head Coach Tony Graystone

Opening Statement…

“Good win. Happy with the whole thing. Strong serve and pass today. We’ve worked hard this past week on cleaner touches after the ball comes off the block and ugly transitions. We want to clean things up and get organized as fast as possible, but we did an excellent job with that. Reese [Rhodes] was balanced with how she ran the offense and got everybody involved. Brynn Williams started today, and I thought she did a nice job. All-in-all, it was a great win and we needed that.”

On going into the next game…

“Yeah, it is exactly what you would think. We are working hard. We just are not getting the results. We have had many things in front of us that we were not expecting. We started to look like ourselves again last week and played well on the road. We came up a little short, but we felt good. All this week, we did a nice job of implementing what we were trying to get across with the coaching points and preparing like we were going to execute a game plan.”

On five players having five or more kills…

“That is a reflection of the first touch. Our pass was really good today, and our block markups were good. Even when we did not finish a plan and terminated with our block, we slowed the ball down, and we could get a more effortless touch and transition. The big key we were able to do was get the ball, and everybody, moving around.”

#17 Outside Hitter Reagan Cooper

On Brynn Williams…

“She did amazing. I’m so proud of her. She did a good job at implementing the game plan as well in terms of block setup. She maintained a really calm, composed vibe the whole time. She’s always a really composed person, but I was really proud of her for just taking it one point at a time and taking feedback. She was very responsive whenever we’d give her extra feedback and she really just went out there and acted like she had been playing in the starting lineup the whole year. So, I’m really proud of her. She’s one of my good friends on the team and so I’m glad she got to have a good night tonight.”

On hitting .700…

“It feels good. This was my first time starting as a right side, so I’ve been working all week on my range and my shots because it’s really different switching from the outside to the right side regarding range. I was working with the setters this week a lot on just being able to find shots and work around the block on the right side. So, I’m happy that it paid off.”

Up Next

The Red Raiders close out the regular season with two matches next week against both Kansas State in Manhattan, Kan. on Wednesday and their Senior Day match against Kansas on Friday.

–TECH–

Release provided by Casey Montalvo Texas Tech Athletics