2017 NIVC TOURNAMENT – FIRST ROUND
- November 30th
- Strahan Coliseum//San Marcos, Texas
- Bracket
- Championship Central
TEXAS TECH DEF. SMU 3-0 (26-24, 25-23, 25-20)
- Texas Tech improves to 16-14; SMU falls to 21-11
- Attendance: N/A
- Box Score
The Texas Tech Red Raiders pulled off a mild upset over a team with NCAA Tournament experience over the past years in SMU with a three-set sweep. The victory pushes Texas Tech into the second round of the NIVC Tournament as they continue their run tomorrow.
While the sweep doesn’t indicate how close the three sets were, Texas Tech’s offense seemed to constantly get by the SMU block – whether it was too quick, too strategically placed, too strong or the block was just late. That Mustangs block did get there eight times (to four for Texas Tech), but overall it wasn’t there enough as the Red Raiders hit .331 for the match to .274 for SMU.
Leading that offense for Texas Tech was Emily Hill, who logged 20 kills while hitting .348 to give her a double-double (13 digs). She had a robin to her batman as well in Chandler Atwood, who notched 17 kills with a .349 hitting percentage for the night. The common factor between them? Setter Missy Owens who recorded an incredible 48 assists in just three sets.
The SMU offense tried to keep pace with Kelly Brunstein (13 kills, .750) and Brittany Adams (10 kills, .241), but were slowed down just enough by the back-row of Tech (62-49 in digs favoring the Red Raiders) and Kate Klepetka (21 digs). It was still a solid offensive match, but fell short to the opposition.
As SMU’s season comes to a close with a strong 21-11 record, Texas Tech looks to add to its 2017 and build for next year. They too can reach 20 wins, but will need to win the tournament. The opportunity to do so continues tomorrow as they take on
TEXAS STATE DEF. RICE 3-0 (25-21, 25-21, 25-20)
- Texas State improves to 25-9; Rice falls to 21-9
- Attendance: 1,168
- Box Score
Playing in front of a home crowd, Texas State took care of in-state opponent Rice in three-set fashion. The win ends Rice’s season while Texas State advances to the second round of the NIVC Tournament.
The final score doesn’t indicate how close the sets were as each saw plenty of jostling. The first set saw 10 ties and three lead changes while the second had less ties (seven) but even more lead changes (five). Set three had the biggest distance in final score (although by just a point), but also had the least amount of ties (four) to go with four lead changes. Texas State though had enough to get a final push in each.
Both teams had plenty of attack errors in the match (18 for Texas State and 16 for Rice), but only the Bobcats were able to recover with 51 kills compared to the Owls’ 34. That Texas State offense was led by Jaliyah Bolden (19 kills, .548) and Erin Hoppe (46 assists, seven digs).
Defensively, Rice was held to a .127 mark despite the strong efforts from Madison McDaniel (28 assists, 11 digs, three kills). Texas State had 15 more digs (84-69) led by Micah Dinwiddie (30 digs) and more blocks (6-4).
With the victory, Texas State gets to stick around their home court for one more as they take on Texas Tech after the Red Raiders downed SMU. The winner of that will head to the NIVC Quarterfinals to take on UC Irvine out of the Big West.
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