Red Raiders drop gritty match to Utah

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The Texas Tech volleyball team (8-5, 0-1) fell to Utah (11-1, 1-0) by scores of 23-25, 28-30, 34-32 and 23-25 on Thursday night in the Jon M. Huntsman Center. Mia Wesley returned to her home state of Utah where she put up 21 kills and 21 digs while adding two aces.

The Red Raiders and Utes fought hard each set with all four ending with just a two-point victory. Neither team held a big lead for long before it was answered back with a big run. The match saw 41 ties and 20 lead changes throughout.

Brynn Williams finished with 11 kills and big solo block while Reagan Leinen added nine kills and was in on seven blocks to total 15.0 points on the night, good for second best on the team. Emily Merrick and Aliyah McDonald combined for 13 kills as Simone Overbeck tallied five kills of her own to round out the major scorers for Tech.

Overbeck also added 15 digs as back-row players Maddie Correa and Emily Contreras contributed 17 and 14 digs, respectively. Wesley’s 21 kills and digs were both match highs.

Setters Hanna Borer and Katelyn Cochran combined for 51 assists, Cochran leading the team with 28.

HOW IT HAPPENED:

Tech jumped out to an early 18-10 lead in the first set (the largest lead anyone would hold) before the Utes rallied back, going on a 10-4 run to close the gap. With the fans behind them, Utah was able to end the match on a 5-1 run and take an early 1-0 lead.

The second set was more indicative of what was to come as the largest lead either team held was four. The conference foes went toe for toe until Utah scored the final two points of the match to increase its lead.

That back-and-forth play seemed to just carry right into set three as the teams combined to score 66 points in the set with Tech taking the final two points on a kill by Leinen and a solo block by McDonald.

Utah looked like it was going to take the largest victory of the match with a 24-20 lead before Tech rattled off three straight points to keep with the theme of nail-biting sets. Utah quickly ended the match, not wanting to play another grueling set, with a kill to secure its first ever Big 12 win.

UP NEXT: The Red Raiders will head to Provo to take on No. 17 BYU on Saturday at 2 p.m. CT.

–TECH–

Release Provided By Jay Strader Texas Tech Athletics