Red Raiders take down Cincinnati in five

CINCINNATI, Ohio – Brynn Williams’ second double-double of the year led the Red Raiders to the five-set win over Cincinnati (11-8, 2-6) on Thursday night in Fifth Third Arena.

Texas Tech (10-10, 2-6) was led by Williams 13 kills, 13 digs and three blocks as Mia Wesley finished with a team-high 16 kills and added nine digs.

Emily Merrick and Aliyah McDonald added seven kills each with Reagan Leinen and Katelyn Cochran combining for the final five kills.

Tech finished with 11 blocks. McDonald led the team with five followed by Leinen and Cochran with four.

Cochran recorded 17 assists as Hanna Borer led the team with 21 assists and tacked on nine digs.

Lola Davila recorded her first career double-digit dig game with 11 and was perfect on 13 serve receive chances.

HOW IT HAPPENED:

Tech came out a little slow in the first set, hitting below .100 as the Bearcats lit it up, hitting .343. Zeta Washington had 12 kills for the Bearcats, most of them coming in the first two sets. The first set had the most lead changes, with five, despite Cincinnati taking the first set 25-17.

The Red Raiders were down 24-20 in set two and were staring down the barrel of 0-2 before Tech rattled off six straight points to win 26-24 behind the serves of Leinen and timely blocks from Cochran and McDonald.

Set three was all Bearcats. They hit .452, sided out 85 percent of the time and took the set 25-13 to go up 2-1.

Tech bounced back in a big way in set four. After a quick 4-0 deficit, Tony Graystone called a timeout that refocused his team. Although they hit a relatively average percentage (.200), they held the Bearcats to a hitting percentage of just .083 to force a fifth set.

Tech jumped out early in the deciding set and had an 8-6 lead before the team’s switched sides. A huge block from Reagan Leinen got Tech to set point and a Bearcats error clinched the match for the Red Raiders as they took the final set 15-12.

UP NEXT: The Red Raiders will have a quick trip to Morgantown to face West Virginia at 11 am CT on Saturday.

–TECH–

 Release Provided By Jay Strader Texas Tech Athletics