Three Highly Rated Volleyball Players Commit to Tech
November 19, 2009 | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 19, 2009
LUBBOCK, Texas - Tech first-year volleyball coach Trish Knight has announced her first signing class and by all available measures, it's a good one. Brandy Huskey, Aubree Piper and Justine Young have all signed letters of intent to play volleyball at Texas Tech in 2010.
"We got exactly the players we wanted. They, along with other players who will walk on, and our returning core of players give us the exciting style of volleyball player we are looking for," Knight said. "We want bigger, athletic, versatile players and with this group we certainly get that."
Huskey, a 5' 11" setter from Columbus High School in the Houston area, recently completed her 38-3 senior season with a run to the 3A championships as she led her Lady Cardinals squad to the regional semi-finals event before succumbing to Fredricksburg in four sets last week. In the semi-final match Huskey tallied 12 kills, 19 assists, nine digs and three blocks which highlights her versatility.
The Lady Cards advanced to the regional tournament for four consecutive years and Huskey, who earned honorable mention Texas Sports Writers Association All-State status as a sophomore during her 2007 year and shared the honor with Tech's current setter, Karlyn Meyers, earned offensive player of the year honors for District 25-3A in 2008 and will likely pick up additional honors this year.
"Brandy gives us another incredibly strong and tall setter which is key to our blocking game. She is already a terrific offensive threat, too. She has experienced play at a very high level, both as a prep and on the club circuit, and is looking forward to making the transition to Big 12 volleyball in the fall.
Piper is a 6' 2" outside/middle hitter from Randall High School in Amarillo, which recently advanced to its second UIL state championship in three years, and who was recently named "Athlete of the Week" by several Amarillo area publications by leading her team with 15 kills and had six blocks in their regional championship win over Hereford.
Randall HS is currently ranked as the 13th prep volleyball team in the nation according to MaxPreps Xcellent-25 volleyball program rankings. Her current Lady Raiders team is on a 39 match win streak as of press time. (Her new Red Raiders' team will be rooting her on!)
"Aubree is an outstanding player and sign for us. She's tall, has a ton of great experience and hits the ball hard -- really hard," Coach Knight said. "I like players who can swing it from the middle or move to the outside and with Aubree's athleticism, she can be very successful in the Big 12 because of those skills."
Young is a 6' 1" middle hitter originally from Sacramento, Calif., who is currently finishing her second season at Des Moines Area Community College. She currently has 401 kills and is hitting a remarkable .420 on the 2009 season. Additionally, she averages 2.18 blocks per set for her team which is currently ranked ninth in the NJCAA. While a prep at Applington/Parkersburg in the "Golden State's" capital city she earned all-conference honors for two years and she was a member of the Iowa Elite Volleyball Club which won the National Volleyball qualifier in Indianapolis, Ind., in 2008.
"Justine blends a terrific mix of athleticism with volleyball smarts and adds attitude which may be one area we really lean on her for in 2010," Coach Knight said. "I like a team that can bring confidence and an appropriate swagger to the court and I think Justine will help us understand that. Like Aubree and Brandy, she is also versatile, athletic and quick and should be able to transition very well and make an impact for us right away," Knight continued.
"Overall, I'm so excited about this group. We have some other players who will walk on to our program who are exciting as well and I'm very happy about the strides our current team has made over the past several weeks, especially the underclassmen," Knight said. "With this group of signees we get three players who have experience winning--both in their school programs and on high level club teams--and who hunger to bring Tech's tradition of volleyball success back to Lubbock as much as we do."
