No. 21 Volleyball Hosts Texas Foes
Sept. 21, 2004
Lawrence, Kan. –
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Coming off a perfect 9-0 non-conference record, the No. 21 Kansas volleyball team will look for its first Big 12 Conference win of the season Wednesday against Texas Tech. Competition will continue Saturday as KU hosts unbeaten No. 22 Texas after the football game at 7 p.m.
KU lost its first match of the season 3-1 at No. 12 Texas A&M last Friday but rebounded for a sweep of North Dakota State on Sunday. The Jayhawks are 4-0 at home this season.
Match times are set for 7 p.m. Wednesday and Saturday at the Horejsi Family Athletics Center. Gametracker and post-match results will be available on kuathletics.com.
Quick Notes
Kansas Jumps Three Spots in National Rankings
After receiving its first national ranking in school history, the Kansas volleyball team jumped three spots in the Sept. 20 USA TODAY/CSTV Coaches’ Poll. The Jayhawks moved from 24th to 21st with a 2-1 record last week.
Five other teams from the Big 12 Conference are ranked in the Top 25: No. 7 Nebraska, No. 11 Texas A&M, No. 19 Kansas State as well as No. 22 Texas and No. 25 Colorado, who appear in the rankings for the first time this season.
Texas Tech Preview
Texas Tech enters the match at Kansas 5-3 overall and 1-1 in Big 12 play. The Red Raiders (5-3, 1-1 Big 12) defeated Oklahoma 3-1, ending the Sooners’ eight-match win streak, before falling to No. 8 Nebraska 3-0 on Sept. 17.
The Red Raiders rank 11th in the Big 12 with a .144 hitting percentage, 13.96 kills and 12.79 assists per game. However, Tech is fourth in the league with 1.86 aces per game and averages a seventh-best 14.50 digs — right around the Jayhawks’ 14.53 average.
Tech leads the all-time series 12-5, but KU has won the last two meetings.
Texas Preview
The Longhorns will begin play this week as Iowa State visits the Gregory Gym Wednesday night. Texas (9-0, 2-0 Big 12) is coming off a 3-2 win over Colorado at home Saturday.
Texas leads the Big 12 with an impressive .338 hitting percentage and 1.97 service aces per game. However, the Longhorns rank 11th in the league in blocking (2.28 per game) and eighth in digs (14.21 per game).
Texas leads the all-time series 15-4, but KU has won the last three meetings.
A Balanced Attack
One look at KU’s season stats gives you an idea of how many offensive weapons the Jayhawks have in their lineup. Five players — Josi Lima, Ashley Michaels, Jana Correa, Emily Brown and Paula Caten –average 2.12 or more kills per game.
On the defensive side, libero Jill Dorsey (4.47 dpg) is backed by Lima and Brown, who add 2.12 and 2.44 digs, respectively, while three other Jayhawks add at least 1.09 per game (Jamie Mathewson, Andi Rozum and Correa).
Dorsey Digs 1,000
Jill Dorsey, a native of Wellsville, Kan., posted 44 kills in 10 games last week to improve her career total to 1,007. With her 13 on Sunday, the senior libero became just the eighth player in school history to record 1,000 digs in a career. On the season, Dorsey leads KU with 4.47 digs and adds 0.32 aces per game.
Link to Gametracker/Schedule page.
