Texas Connections Throughout NC State Volleyball

Despite being located several hours from the state of North Carolina, there are numerous Texas connections within the NC State Volleyball program. The Wolfpack has been selected to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2012 and will be competing in Austin, Texas, this weekend.

NC State opens play in the NCAA Championships against Oregon State Friday afternoon at 5:30 p.m. (EST) inside Gregory Gym on the Texas campus in the first meeting between the programs.

The Pack was also sent to Texas for its 2012 NCAA appearance, as the squad took on Texas A&M in the same facility as this weekend's matchup.

Additionally, five student-athletes on the NC State roster hail from the state of Texas. Kaylee Frazier, Nailah Gordon, Emily Harris, Kaitlyn Kearney and Kylie Pickrell will all be competing in their home state this weekend.

Frazier's hometown is the closest, as The Woodlands is nearly a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Austin, while Southlake where Gordon and Harris are from is three hours away. Pickrell's hometown of Coppell is also three hours away and Frisco where Kearney calls home is a four-hour drive.

"It's awesome to go home to Texas," said Kearney. "When we made the NCAA Tournament in 2012, my family and I made the trip since I was already committed to NC State and it was awesome to see that environment. Now we're going back there, so I'm really excited."

It will be the Wolfpack's first match in the state of Texas this season, but NCSU opened the 2016 season in Texas at TCU.

Head Coach Linda Hampton-Keith is also familiar with the Lone Star State, as she spent six seasons as an assistant coach in Texas. She was at North Texas in 2005 and TCU from 2006-10.

The Wolfpack's second-year head coach also earned her first head-coaching victory in Texas with a 3-0 sweep against Northwestern State last season. That match was held inside the University Recreation Center where Hampton-Keith coached for five seasons as the assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at TCU.

NC State graduate transfer Bree Bailey is the only player on the Wolfpack's roster that has competed in an NCAA match inside Gregory Gym, the site of this weekend's match. Bailey traveled to the venue in 2014 as a member of the Arizona State volleyball team for the NCAA Tournament.

Bailey tallied nine kills in the Sun Devils' 3-1 first-round victory against Texas A&M and contributed eight kills in a second-round loss to Texas. Hampton-Keith was the associate head coach at Arizona State at the time.

Pickrell and Bailey are the only two players on the NC State roster that have competed in an NCAA Tournament match. The duo played together in 2015 when the Sun Devils took on Florida State in the NCAA Championships.

Texas Connections Throughout NC State Volleyball

Players Mentioned

Bree Bailey

Kaylee Frazier

Nailah Gordon

Emily Harris

Kaitlyn Kearney

Kylie Pickrell

Related Videos