PREVIEW: Volleyball at Tennessee Classic

LUBBOCK, Texas – The Red Raiders open the 2021 volleyball season on the road Friday, Aug. 27 at the Tennessee Classic in Knoxville. Tech will face East Tennessee State, Tennessee and NC State in the tournament.

Tech opens the tournament at 10 a.m. CST on Friday against East Tennessee State before facing hosts Tennessee at 6 p.m. CST that evening. The game against the Volunteers will be broadcast on SEC Network + with Michael Wottreng and Heather Harrington on the call. The Red Raiders will close out the tournament on Saturday morning at 9 a.m. CST against NC State.

RED RAIDER QUICK HITS

Senior setter Alex Kirby makes her return home to Knoxville to play in front of her friends and family for the first time since high school where she played at Hardin Valley Academy. The Knoxville native isn't the only Red Raider with ties to Tennessee, assistant coach Jon Wong previously served as the director of volleyball operations and video coordinator for the Vols.
Fifth year senior Samantha Sanders was the lone Red Raider to earn preseason All-Big 12 honors. Sanders was named All-Big 12 Second Team last season after finishing fifth in the conference in kills (305) and third in total attacks (937). Sanders tallied double-digit kills in 17-of-22 matches including a career-high of 28 against SMU.
The Red Raiders return all of their top scorers for the 2021 season. Sanders led the team with 333.0 points followed by All-Big 12 Second Team selection Caitlin Dugan with 229.5. Brooke Kanas and Reagan Cooper also return for Tech, accounting for over 24 percent of the Red Raiders scoring.
The season opener against East Tennessee State will mark the first meeting between the two teams in program history.
Tech will face Tennessee for the first time in 30 years, last playing in October of 1991 in Jonesboro, Arkansas where the Red Raiders defeated the Volunteers 3-1. Tech holds a slight advantage in the series winning three of the five total matchups against Tennessee.
NC State and Texas Tech have met just one time, a neutral site match in 1999 that Tech won in three sets.
The Red Raiders were picked to finish seventh in the Big 12 preseason poll. Tech finished in the seventh spot a season ago, ahead of Oklahoma and TCU in the standings.

For the latest information on the Texas Tech volleyball team, visit TexasTech.com or follow @TexasTechVB on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

PREVIEW: Volleyball at Tennessee Classic

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Players Mentioned

Reagan Cooper

Caitlin Dugan

Brooke Kanas

Alex Kirby

Samantha Sanders

Texas Tech University Athletics