Volleyball opens season with a pair of scrimmages

Friday, August 22

Lubbock, Texas

6:00 p.m.

Texas Tech Athletics

Red & Black Scrimmage

Volleyball opens season with a pair of scrimmages

August 22, 2025 | Women's Volleyball

2025 Roster Page 2025 Schedule

The Red Raiders will play their annual Red & Black match tonight at 6 p.m.

By: Jay Strader

LUBBOCK, Texas – Texas Tech volleyball is back in action beginning this weekend with a pair of scrimmages including the annual Red & Black game that will take place tonight at 6 p.m. in the United Supermarkets Arena practice gym. The Red Raiders will follow that up with a 2 p.m. scrimmage against Tarleton State on Saturday in the same location. Admission is free for all and fans can pick up their free volleyball season poster upon entry.

Tech comes into the season with one of the most unique roster makeups in the country. The Red Raiders are the only team in the country to have at least nine freshmen while also having zero true seniors. Tech has three graduate seniors and are one of just four teams in the country that has zero true seniors joining Princeton, Villanova and Memphis in this unique feat. Tech's nine freshmen are also the second most in the country behind St. Mary's, Pacific, Holy Cross and Wichita St. who all have 10.

The Red Raiders welcome back six returners from last year's team, five of which played - Jasmine Martin returns from injury. Aliyah McDonald, Katelyn Cochran, Reagan Engler and Emily Contreras all served as starters at one point or another last season as Addie Kanouff returns for her sophomore season. McDonald highlights the returners, entering her fifth season of collegiate, as she is the team's leading returner in kills (121), blocks (96), points (179.0) and hitting percentage (.241) from a season ago.
Head coach Tony Graystone enters his 10th season with Texas Tech volleyball. He has the third-most wins in program history (130) and led Tech to an appearance in the 2021 NCAA Tournament. He did that because of the recruiting class he got in 2018 that he was able to develop and build around and after a few seasons of using the portal to fill holes in the roster, Graystone went back to what he does best this season - developing talent. The Red Raiders will have nine freshmen on their roster - the most in Graystone's tenure - who he expects to be the core of the team for years to come to get them back to the postseason.

Tech also welcomed in five transfers – two of them apart of the nine freshmen – including Taylor Bahnub (Clemson), Peyton Dunn (Auburn), Sierra Grizzle (Wyoming), Tatum Johnson (Colorado) and Ashlyn Bellamy (Houston). Bahnub and Johnson enter as redshirt freshmen with Grizzle and Bellamy coming in as juniors and Dunn entering her graduate season.

The Red Raiders also welcomed two new coaches this season in Mikayla Ell and Drew Piloto. Ell spent the last two seasons serving as the Director of Operations which is now held by Kameron Kelley who was a graduate assistant last season. Ell served as the head coach of Stephens College in 2022 and has eight years of coaching at the high school and club level. Piloto has playing and coaching experience from his time as an NAIA National Champion at Vanguard University in 2023. to his first coaching job as an assistant at UC-San Diego last year.