Texas Tech University Athletics
Volleyball Welcomes No. 2 Nebraska
October 18, 2001 | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 18, 2001
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Texas Tech Welcomes No. 2 Nebraska
The Texas Tech volleyball team will welcome the defending national champion and second-ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers to the United Spirit Arena on Saturday night for a 7 p.m. match-up. Texas Tech will be looking for just its second ever win over Nebraska and the first since the 1996 season when Tech stunned the third-ranked Huskers 3-2 on Oct. 26th. `
Texas Tech's match with Nebraska marks the end of a very long stretch for the Red Raiders as the match will be the sixth in 13 days. Tech lost a tough five-game match to Texas on Monday night and defeated Baylor in five games in Waco on Wednesday night.
Texas Tech enters Saturday's match with a 12-6 overall record and a 5-4 mark in Big 12 play. Texas Tech is 5-2 in the month of October and is 8-2 at home having lost two consecutive matches at the United Spirit Arena for the first time (Texas A&M and Texas).
Breaking Down The Huskers
The defending national champion and second-ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers will bring a 16-1 overall record and a perfect 9-0 mark in the Big 12 to Lubbock for a Saturday match with Texas Tech. The Huskers won their 39th consecutive Big 12 match on Wednesday night defeating Texas 3-0 at the NU Coliseum. The Huskers are on a 13-match win streak and have won 39 out of their last 40 games.
Nebraska is led by middle blocker Amber Holmquist who tallies 142 kills and an impressive .422 hitting percentage. Nancy Metcalf leads the team in total kills with 230 while Laura Pilakowski is the defensive leader with 165 digs.
As a team, the Huskers are hitting a Big 12 best .315 overall and .330 in league play. Nebraska averages 4.15 blocks-per-game compared to 1.37 by opponents. The Huskers are on track to become the best blocking team in NCAA history.
The Huskers are coached by John Cook who is 49-1 in his second season at the helm of the Husker program.
Raiders Rank Nationally
Texas Tech features two players ranked in two different categories in the latest NCAA national statistics released on Oct. 7th. As a team, Texas Tech ranks in three categories.
Senior setter Skydra Orzen is the third best setter in the nation as she tallies 858 assists and a 14.54 assist-per-game average. Defensively, junior outside hitter Ann Romjue is ranked 28th nationally in digs with 201 and a 3.72 dig-per-game average.
As a team, Texas Tech ranks 11th in total assists with 935, 18th in digs with 1046 and is tied for 12th in kills with 1022.
Digs, Digs And More Digs
Texas Tech has had two players go over the 1,000 career dig mark this season as both Skydra Orzen and Ann Romjue tally 1,076 and 1,035 digs respectively. Senior Heather-Hughes Justice will become the 14th player at Texas Tech to go over the 1,000 mark as she needs just 2 more digs to accomplish the feat.
Cumbess Leaves Team
Senior middle blocker Yolanda Cumbess has left the Texas Tech volleyball team for personal reasons. The announcement was made last week by Texas Tech head coach Jeff Nelson. Prior to leaving, Cumbess had a team-high 168 kills and a .358 hitting percentage.
Playing Better On The Road?????
Thanks to a 3-2 win over the Baylor Bears on Wednesday night in Waco, Texas Tech now has a three-game road winning streak, however, that three-game winning streak represents all of Tech's road wins this season.
Texas Tech picked up its first road win of the season on Oct. 6 in Lawrence, Kan. against the Kansas Jayhawks and has since won matches at Oklahoma and Baylor. In quite a turn of events, Texas Tech has now lost two consecutive home matches marking the first time Tech has lost back-to-back matches at the United Spirit Arena.
Coming On Strong
Texas Tech's streak of six matches in 13 days hasn't affected senior outside hitter Heather Hughes-Justice in the least. Hughes-Justice has pounded out a team-best 100 kills during this stretch for an average of 20 kills-per-match. She is averaging an impressive 5.00 kills-per-game and 2.35 digs-per-game.
In the 13 matches prior to this stretch, Hughes-Justice had a total of 95 kills.
This And That
- Texas Tech is a 8-2 at home this season and 21-4 all-time at the United Spirit Arena. Texas Tech is currently on a two-match home losing streak.
- Head Coach Jeff Nelson is now four wins away from earning his 150th career win as a head coach.
- Texas Tech has four players who total 150+ kills on the season (Angela Mooney - 167, Kelly Johnson - 193, Melissa McGehee - 226, Heather Hughes-Justice - 195).
- Junior outside hitter Melissa McGehee needs just 18 kills to reach the 800 kills in her career at Texas Tech. She currently ranks 13th on the all-time kill list at Tech and will move into 12th place when she reaches 800.
- Senior setter Skydra Orzen reached the 4,000 kill mark against Texas and now totals 4,130 career assists.
- Melissa McGehee tallied 29 kills in the match against Baylor earning the highest kill total for a Tech player in a match this season.
