Volleyball Suffers 3-0 Setback at No. 7 Texas

Wednesday, November 16

Austin, Texas

7:00 PM

Texas Tech Athletics

10-19, 0-14Big 12

Texas

20-4, 12-2Big 12

Texas Tech

Texas

Volleyball Suffers 3-0 Setback at No. 7 Texas

November 16, 2016 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Longhorns hit .414, highest clip in Big 12 play this season.

AUSTIN, Texas – No. 7 Texas posted the highest team hitting percentage in Big 12 play this season at .414 as the Red Raiders fell to the Longhorns, 0-3, Wednesday at Gregory Gymnasium in Austin.

Texas Tech (10-19, 0-14) put together a strong first set effort and drew even at 22-22 with the Longhorns before Texas (20-4, 12-2) escaped to take a 1-0 lead. The Longhorn attack took over from there en route to the 25-22, 25-14, 25-15 victory.

"We got our offense going early and was able to sideout and keep our rotations moving," head coach Tony Graystone said. "Toward the end of the first set you could see their block get established, and that made it tough going the rest of the way. Overall I was real happy with most of what we saw tonight."

Three Longhorns tallied double-digit kills with junior Ebony Nwanebu's match-high 15 leading the way. Texas connected on 46 kills throughout the match compared to 32 for the Red Raiders, including hitting percentages of .341, .559 and .333 in each stanza. Behind sophomore Morgan Johnson's five blocks, Texas recorded a 9-2 block advantage in the contest.

"In the first set, they were going offspeed a lot and working different shots," Graystone said. "Toward the end of the set they decided to get a lot more physical and swing away. I think they got us loosened up with the offspeed stuff and then went to big swings and that helped their outside hitters get going."

Freshman Toni McDougald and sophomore Katy Keenan led the Red Raider attack with eight kills each. McDougald was especially hot early with seven kills in the first set. Keenan's eight kills came on just 16 attacks with only two errors for best clip since Sept. 24 against West Virginia at .375.

"This was about the third or fourth match in a row where she has really played well," Graystone said. "This is very encouraging for us as we wrap up this season. The same thing for Toni. The last couple of matches we have seen her find her swing. If you can score that many points against Texas's block, that's saying something."

The Red Raiders went toe to toe with the Longhorns in the opening frame, and sophomore Katy Keenan would cap off a 5-1 Tech run that gave the scarlet and black a 17-14 lead. The Texas block, however, tilted the set back to the Longhorns, who closed on a 4-1 run to take the set 25-22.

The Longhorns hit .559 in the second frame, establishing an early lead and holding off the Red Raiders with a 25-14 set win. They carried that over into the third frame, gaining a 10-3 advantage and closing the match with a 25-15 third set win.

Sophomore libero Tita Akiu notched 15 digs and is now just three digs away from moving into second place on the school's single season digs list. Senior Marguerite Grubb narrowly missed her eighth double-double of the season going for 29 assists and nine digs.

UP NEXT
The Red Raiders return home for Senior Night Saturday, Nov. 19, against TCU at 6 p.m. at United Supermarkets Arena. A ceremony will take place before the match recognizing five members of the program who are in their final year.