TCU Volleyball kept its winning streak alive, defeating Texas Tech in both matches last week and advancing to 3-1 in Big 12 play and a 5-0 record at home.
On Thursday, the Frogs came ready to play after a loss against Kansas State the previous week.
Outside hitter Melanie Parra led TCU offensively, tallying 17 kills across the match and hitting her career-best .500. Defensively, middle blocker Sarah Sylvester led the team with eight blocks.
The Frogs led the first and second sets from the beginning and only allowed the Red Raiders to score 16 and 12 points, respectively.
Parra’s deadly offense gave TCU an early lead in the first set by having the first kill of the match and tallied her third kill to put TCU up 5-2. Supporting this offensive power from Parra, Sylvester recorded three blocks in the first set, the last being the set-winning block with outside hitter Audrey Nalls.
Service aces gave the Frogs an early lead in the second set, as well. Nalls had back-to-back-to-back aces to put TCU up 3-0. Later in the set, Parra added three more consecutive aces to extend their lead to 10-4. Outsider hitter Jalyn Gibson had five kills in the set, one of which gave the Frogs a 12-point lead of 20-8. The set went to the Frogs as middle blocker Lydia Seymour got the final kill.
The Red Raiders were able to compete with the Frogs in the third set as TCU was behind for most of it. After starting down 6-3, TCU had score three unanswered points at the end with a final kill from Parra. It secured the set and match victory.
Being up 1-0 on the Red Raiders, TCU moved into Friday’s match with the drive to keep the winning streak at home alive.
Setting the tone for offensive play in set one, Gibson had the first two kills of the set and match, giving the Frogs an early lead of 2-0. The Frogs held Texas Tech to 14 points and took the first set after a scoring streak of eight unanswered points.
The Frogs and the Red Raiders went back and forth in the second set as TCU had the lead at 12-10 until Texas Tech went on a 6-0 run to take the lead. Texas Tech’s lead was soon overcome as TCU went on a 4-0 run to close out the second set.
TCU, up 2-0, was looking for another sweep, but the Frogs gave up the next two sets to the Red Raiders, forcing a fifth set.
In the fifth set, the Frogs got their offensive chemistry back and secured the set and match victory, 15-9. Parra recorded eight of her 34 total kills in this set alone.
Parra tallied 34 kills in the match, which which she has hit twice through only 15 games as a Horned Frog. She is the only player in program history to have 34 kills in a single match twice.
Nalls also became the 13th player in TCU Volleyball history to surpass 1000 kills in her career, and is the third Frog to do this in TCU’s Big 12 era.
Up Next
The TCU Volleyball team will continue Big 12 play this Thursday against the Cincinnati Bearcats in the Ed and Rae Schollmaier Arena. The match will be televised on Big 12 Now on ESPN+ at 6 p.m.
