Wildcats Welcome Red Raiders
Oct 17, 2008 | Volleyball
Mathewson as she tallied a career-high 30 digs.
The match with Texas Tech will pit the Wildcats against a struggling Red Raider team that is winless in conference play and ranked 10th in the Big 12 in hitting percentage and opponent hitting percentage. Texas Tech has been swept in five conference matches this season, including the last three.
The Series
The Wildcats are 18-6 in the series since the inception of the Big 12 Conference and have put together two winning streaks of six matches against the Red Raiders. Texas Tech has won consecutive matches against the Wildcats just twice and swept the Wildcats only once. Texas Tech’s lone sweep came 2-0 in 1983 by the score of 17-15, 15-6.
The longer the match against Texas Tech, the more often they end up the victor. Half of Texas Tech’s wins against
The Coaches
Texas
On the Airwaves
Saturday’s match will be broadcast on 1350 KMAN with Brian Smoller calling the action and KMAN’s Rob Voelker on color commentary. Fans can also hear the match on the station’s Web site www.1350kman.com.
On the Web
Live stats for Saturday’s match will be available through www.k-statesports.com as well as live video. Fans can watch the match via Powercat Passport. To sign up for the service visit the athletic department’s Web site.
Scouting the Red Raiders
Texas Tech comes to
Texas Tech has a number of freshmen contributing in 2008 and gaining valuable experience in the mean time. Middle blocker Amanda Dowdy leads the team in kills and hitting percentage as a true freshman and has started every match. Freshman setter Karlyn Meyers has started 14 matches for the Red Raiders and is averaging 2.00 assists per set. Two more freshmen -- Brooke Smith and Tyler Elley -- have seen a lot of action. Smith has played in every match, and Elley has played in all but one not taking the court at
Dowdy is killing at an efficiency of .324 and averaging 2.75 kps. She earned Big 12 Rookie of the Week for her performance during the Red Raider Round Up earlier in the year. Dowdy tallied 51 kills over three matches and hit at a .420 clip. She posted 20 kills against
Brandi Hood is second in the team in kills at 2.46 kps. Hood also leads the Red Raiders in blocks. Caroline Witte is Tech’s other setter seeing much of the action and is averaging 7.63 assists per set. Libero Jenn Harrell is averaging 2.95 digs per set.
The Red Raiders have struggled to out-hit their opponents this year swinging at a higher percentage just seven times. Tech is 5-2 in those matches and has not won a match they have been out-hit. Tech’s opponents have hit .300 or higher eight times this season while the Raiders have reached the plateau just once. Midweek games have not treated the Raiders kindly either as Tech is 0-5 on Wednesdays this season.
In recent action, Texas Tech has been swept by Texas A&M and
Catching Up with the Cats
The Wildcats snapped a two-year losing streak against the Oklahoma Sooners last week with a come-from-behind win on the road. K-State had lost four straight matches to the Sooners and fell behind early in the match and even faced a match point for the Sooners before rallying for the win.
K-State won three straight points in the third set to extend the match and trailed by no more than three points in the fourth and never surrendered the lead after tying the set 12-12. From that point the match was all Wildcats as K-State went on runs of four and five points to put the fourth set out of reach and had a seven-point run the fifth set to deflate the Sooners’ hopes of an upset.
Sophomore libero Lauren Mathewson had the most productive match of her young career with 30 digs. It was her first 30-dig match and fourth this season with at least 20. She has reached the 20-dig mark in two consecutive matches now as she totaled 50 for the week.
Rita Liliom and Nataly Korobkova teamed up to get 16 kills apiece in the win over
Senior middle blocker Megan Farr returned to form at the net tallying seven total blocks, including a solo stop. After registering just six blocks combined over the last three matches -- including none against
The Wildcats held off the Missouri Tigers last Wednesday after seeing all four sets decided by two or three points. K-State held large leads in the final two sets of the match before
Senior Rita Liliom again reached double digits in kills to tally at least 10 in every match this season. She also marked her sixth double-double on the year with 15 kills and 13 digs. Two other teammates joined her with double-doubles. Jenny Jantsch had 10 kills and a season-high 15 digs while Soriana Pacheco had 38 assists and also a season-high 10 digs. Every time Jantsch has reached double digits in kills she has marked a double-double and K-State has won.
Against
Libero Lauren Mathewson had one of her best matches of the season against
The Wildcats responded from having one of their worst defensive performances of the season against
Mathewson earns Big 12 Award
Libero Lauren Mathewson received her first career Big 12 Player of the Week award after tallying 50 digs over two matches against
Mathewson posted 20 digs in the 3-1 win over
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