Hokies set to face strong competition at the Puerto Rico Clasico

August 31, 2016

Tech comes off a sweep in its first weekend of action

BLACKSBURG -- After sweeping action at the Virginia Tech/Radford Invitational last weekend, the Virginia Tech volleyball team travels to Bayamon, Puerto Rico for the Puerto Rico Clásico from Sept. 1-3.

The tough field features two SEC opponents as the Hokies will face Alabama at 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 1, Temple at 3 p.m. on Sept. 2 and No. 14 Texas A&M on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. All matches will be streamed live on FloVolleyball.TV.

The Hokies are now riding a seven-match win streak dating back to last season when they won their last four matches of 2015. Tech also improved to 10-1 in home openers under head coach Chris Riley after the Hokies’ thrilling 3-2 victory over Appalachian State on August 26.

Senior Lindsey Owens picked up where she left off last season after hitting at a .376 clip with 4.82 kills and 3.45 digs per set over the weekend. Sophomore Jaila Tolbert, a 2015 ACC All-Freshman Team selection, also turned an outstanding weekend where she helped lift Tech in the five-set win over the Mountaineers with 20 kills and a .529 hitting percentage, both career-highs.

Finding spots in the rotations during the first weekend were two freshmen; Carol Raffety and Abby McKinzie. Raffety started all three matches at libero last weekend where she averaged 5.09 digs per set while McKinzie, the younger sister of senior Amanda McKinzie, appeared in 10 of 11 sets.

Scouting the Field

• Alabama returns eight letterwinners from last season including five starters. The Crimson Tide’s returners include AVCA All-Region picks Krsytal Rivers and Kat Hudson. There has only been one meeting in the regular season series between the two programs, a 2-0 Alabama win on Oct. 21, 1977.

• Temple returns five starters from a squad that went 24-8 and finished second in the AAC last season. Izzy Rapacz leads the team with 4.57 kills per set and nine total blocks.

• The Aggies are one of four opponents ranked in the top 25 that the Hokies will play this season.

• Kaitlyn Blake is hitting .491 with 2.00 blocks per set in the middle.

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