LUBBOCK, Texas – The Texas Tech volleyball team finished a 20-12 months NCAA Championship drought by earning its very first vacation to the Significant Dance considering that 2001 Sunday night time in the course of the NCAA Choice Display. 

The Red Raiders will confront FGCU in the first round of the tournament at 4:30 p.m. on Friday in Madison, Wisconsin. 

“We are thrilled, this is anything we’ve been thinking about for a lengthy time,” claimed head mentor Tony Graystone. “The final few months we felt like we set a fantastic resume jointly and got on a run to put ourselves back in the combine. I’m very pleased, this team has completed a good deal. We have continued to add talent and construct on the team we introduced in a couple years ago and it all arrived jointly this calendar year.”

Tech (17-12, 7-9) finished the normal year with a top 40 RPI, profitable four of its final six matches, with collection sweeps in excess of TCU and West Virginia right before falling two times to second-ranked Texas. Tech’s 7 wins in league enjoy matched the plan significant under Graystone.

The Crimson Raiders’ most important get of the season arrived on Oct. 1 when Tech reverse swept No. 9 Baylor on the highway, for its initially acquire more than a top 10 workforce considering the fact that 1996. Tech break up Big 12 sequence with the Bears, Iowa Condition and Oklahoma. 

Tech went 10-3 in non-conference participate in, with two of its losses coming in opposition to top 25 RPI groups: Ohio State and Tennessee. The Pink Raiders went 11-11 from AVCA prime 100 teams, gathering four wins from top rated 50 systems. 

Kenna Sauer prospects the Red Raiders’ offensively with 346 kills (3.33 k/s), which ranks ninth in the Significant 12. Karrington Jones’ .356 hitting clip is fourth best in the convention and her 211 kills are third on the squad. Defensively, Brooke Kanas’ 111 blocks (1.1 blk/s) are tops on the crew whilst KJ Adams’ 467 digs are seventh most in a single period by a Crimson Raider and her 4.36 d/s rank 2nd in the conference. 

The Red Raiders are producing their ninth NCAA Event in program historical past and is 3-8 all-time in those matches. Tech beforehand built the event in 1990, 1991, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2000 and 2001. Tech’s previous tournament acquire came in 1995 when the Pink Raiders defeated Arkansas State in the Gainesville Regional…