11/22/02

Longhorns Preview: No. 19 Kansas State

When: 7 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 23
Where: Gregory Gym (Austin, Texas)
Records: Texas 21-7, 12-6 Big 12 / No. 19 Kansas State 19-6, 15-2 Big 12
Series: Texas Leads 9-6
Last Meeting: Texas 3-0 (9/28/02 in Manhattan, Kan.)

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	Mira Topic

Notes: The Longhorns will play their final regular season home contest on Saturday as they host the Kansas State Wildcats for a 7 p.m. match at Gregory Gym. Texas is 12-4 overall at home and 6-3 in Big 12 play. This season makes the first 20-win season for Jerritt Elliott as head coach of the Longhorns while marking the 27th in which UT has reached the 20-win plateau. It is Elliott's second year at the UT helm. Texas snapped its six-match losing streak to the Wildcats in the first meeting of the year, leaving Manhattan with a 3-0 (30-27, 30-26, 30-16) victory.

No. 19 Kansas State: No. 19 Kansas State tied its 1977 squad for the longest winning streak with their 13th straight win on Wednesday evening, as the Wildcats posted their school-record tying 16th sweep of the season in a 30-20, 30-25, 30-23 win over Oklahoma. The streak began after losing to Texas on Sept. 28th in Manhattan. Junior middle blocker Lauren Goehring leads the Wildcats in hitting percentage at a .362 clip and blocks with 1.11 per game. Junior outside hitter Cari Jensen has the best kills per game average at 3.71 per game. Sophomore Gabby Guerre handles the setting duties for K-State and has an 11.74 assists per game average while junior Laura Downey-Wallace paces the team with her 5.48 digs per game average.

Texas: Sophomore outside hitter Mira Topic enters the match with 969 career kills, just 31 kills shy of 1,000 ? She leads the Longhorns in kills per game (4.68) and points per game (5.43) while comes in second for aces (0.40 per game) and digs (2.60 per game). Topic also leads UT in double-doubles, finishing 10 matches with 10+ kills and digs, totaling 28 in her career? Topic also has notched double-digit kills in 23 of 27 matches, falling a kill short (9) in victories over Baylor (10/30), Texas Tech (10/12), Kansas (10/5) and Texas-Pan American (8/30) ? She has seven matches with 20+ kills, the last match was against Texas Tech on Nov. 16 (23 kills on 57 attempts), and one 30+ kills match (31 vs. Colorado 11/6) this season ? Topic's 31 kills ties her with UT legend Dee Sance for second place in kills in a four game match ? middle blocker Kathy Hahn has hit for 10+ kills in 22 of 28 matches this season for a 3.41 kills per game average while hitting .334 in 93 games ? She also is averaging 1.12 blocks per game ? Setter Abbie Schindler has totaled 1,587 career assists to rank her ninth on the career assist list, 586 assists shy of Lisa Denker, who is eighth all-time at 2,173? Right behind Schindler is freshman setter Caron Blotch, who is 10th on the career assist list with 1,086 assists and replaces Dagmara Szyszczak (1987-90), who had 686 career assists ?Blotch broke the 1,000 assist mark against Texas Tech on Nov. 16;she has tallied 20+ assists in every match she has played in this season except against Texas-San Antonio when she left the match early with 12 assists and against Iowa State, leaving due to an injury with 13 assists ? Blotch set a career-high against Baylor (10/2) in the digs category, coming up with 12 digs, a number she tied against Colorado (11/6) ? Blotch had 60 assists and eight kills against Missouri (10/26) for a career-high in those categories ? Libero Stacy Millichap has come up with 10+ digs in 18 matches this year, including three matches of a career-high 20 against Kansas (10/5), Nebraska (11/9) and Texas Tech (11/16) ? Millichap ended a seven-match streak of 10 or more digs which began against Kansas and ended against Baylor (10/30) when she tallied five digs; Millichap currently is on a five-match double-figure digs streak ? Outside hitter Bethany Howden slammed a season-high 22 kills in the second match against Missouri this season at Columbia while putting down 20 kills in the Big 12 opener against Missouri (9/18) ? Howden tied her season-high of 22 kills in the four-game match against Texas Tech on Nov. 16 and has hit for double-digit kills in 19 of 28 matches ?Howden followed the 22 kills in a five-game match at Missouri (10/26) with a 21 kills in a three-game match against Baylor (10/30) ? Howden set a career-high against Missouri when she served five aces (four of those aces were in a row) ? Outside hitter LaTonya Coates has set new career-highs in every category this season except for hitting percentage (1.000 at Texas A&M on 12/01/01)? Coates also has recorded three double-doubles this year; the last against Missouri (10/26) and has had nine matches with 10+ kills and 11 matches with 10 or more digs.