Sept. 21, 2010
Match Notes
RUSTON, La. - On the heels of a strong performance at the Nicholls Challenge in which saw seniors Kara Jones and Taylor Fritz both earn all-tournament accolades, Louisiana Tech returns home this week to open the WAC portion of their 2010 schedule against New Mexico State.
"One of our strengths is that we do have a number of veteran players," said Sonnichsen. "They understood what they need to be doing, the system that is in play and how they need to be playing. That helped when we were going through early season adjustments."
With six wins in their last seven matches, the Lady Techsters look to continue their winning ways as they play host to conference-foe New Mexico State Thursday night at 7 p.m. inside the Thomas Assembly Center.
Under the direction of 12th-year head coach Mike Jordan, New Mexico State (6-7) was tabbed to finish second in the WAC Preseason Coaches' Poll after boasting a 20-9 record last season.
"New Mexico State has done a great job with their program." said Sonnichsen. "Coach Jordan has consistently built that team up. They do everything right. They play hard and they play with passion. They are one of the better teams in the conference so we have our work cut out for us."
Behind a difficult preseason schedule that featured ranked opponents Florida State and LSU, the Aggies are led by a group of talented upperclassmen and preseason all-conference honorees in Kelsey Brennan, Jennah DeVries, Kayleigh Giddens and Whitney Woods.
Kayleigh Giddens paces the New Mexico State offense with 205 kills on the season while Kelsey Brennan ranks third in the WAC with a .373 hitting efficiency. Defensively, Ellen Miks leads the team with 2.65 digs per set and Brennan leads the team with 31 total blocks.
After knocking off the Aggies in their first ever meeting in straight sets on Sept. 21, 1996, Louisiana Tech has dropped 11-straight matches against New Mexico State. However, with a five match home winning streak, Tech will look to defend their home court and break through against the Aggies as Tech has enjoyed a successful preseason schedule and is currently tops in the league with 16.22 digs per set and an opponent hitting percentage of .119 while ranking second with 1.50 service aces per set.
"Playing multiple matches in a weekend was tough," said Sonnichsen. "We were having our outside hitters take over 100 swings over the course of a weekend. It's not so much that we don't have another outside hitter to shoulder the burden but it's the ones that are taking the swings aren't 100 percent healthy. We're competitive but they are not physically perfect. Being able to have a day of rest and only playing one match a day will really help us."
Following Thursday's conference opener, the Lady Techsters will hit the road and travel to Las Cruces to square off against New Mexico State Saturday night at 8.p.m for the second time in three days.
For complete coverage of Lady Techster volleyball, please visit the official home of Louisiana Tech Athletics at LATechSports.com and follow sports information contact, Austin Staton, twitter for the latest and most current news.
