The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Baylor
Acevedo powers Volleyball past Baylor
11.05.2005 | Volleyball
AUSTIN, Texas -- Dariam Acevedo swung for career-highs with 27 kills and an .632 attack percentage as the 14th-ranked Texas volleyball defeated Baylor in four games, 30-23, 30-26, 20-30, 30-26, on Saturday night at Gregory Gym to push its winning streak to six matches.
A total of three Texas (18-3, 12-2 Big 12) players reached double-figures in kills as Leticia Armstrong and Lauren Paolini each added 12 kills apiece in the Horns' victory. UT pushed its home court winning streak to 14 matches and also moved its winning streak against Baylor (14-12, 5-9 Big 12) to eight.
Kelly Spriggs had a team-high 16 kills for Baylor, while Stella Odion and Nicole LeBlanc each had 12 in the loss. BU setter Emily Huston added six kills with no errors while adding five aces and 48 assists.
Texas' Alyson Jennings and Baylor's Deja Sweeney each had match-highs with 10 digs each, while UT setter Michelle Moriarty had 50 assists and three blocks on the night.
The Longhorns narrowly out-blocked the Bears, 10 to 9.5, as Paolini had a match-high five (one solo, four block assists) to her credit.
As a team, Texas hit .298 including a .344 mark in the final game. Baylor hit .250 - including a .533 mark in the third game - and became just the fifth team to hit above .200 against the Horns.
Texas pulled out to a 5-1 lead in the first game, but Baylor came back and trailed by one point at 9-8. UT ran off a 4-0 spurt to regain the lead for good. The Horns maintained at least a six point lead for the rest of the game to go up 1-0. Acevedo had nine kills and hit .727 in the stanza.
After a tied score at 9-9 in the second game, Baylor went up by three points behind back-to-back aces by Huston. Texas came back to knot the score at 13-13 and the teams played through three more ties before back-to-back Bear attack errors put UT up by two points at 18-16, giving the Horns the advantage for the rest of the game. From that point, Texas rallied with a 9-2 run to pull away and take a 2-0 lead into the intermission.
Baylor came out strong in the third game, steadily building its lead out of the gate to as many as 10 points at 17-7. Baylor continued to plow ahead, going ahead by 13 before UT pulled back within 10 points, forcing a BU timeout. Coming out of the break, the Longhorns got within eight points - and in the process, subbing out almost the entire team - before the Bears pushed the lead back up to 10 to close out the game.
Game four was tightly contested and after nine ties - the last one at 16-16 - Acevedo recorded two straight kills to put the Horns up for good. An Odion kill cut the lead to one point, but Texas pushed its advantage to six points at 25-19. Baylor climbed back, pulling within two points at 28-26 as Huston had two kills and an ace, before Acevedo came back with her final two kills to end the match.
"We just did not pass well tonight," Texas head coach Jerritt Elliott said. "We did not have a very good flow tonight and it was not a good rhythm for us. But, the positive part is that we were able to fight through it and that's always a sign out a strong team."
Acevedo's previous career best hitting performance was 25 kills, set on Oct. 22 against No. 23 Kansas State in the Horns' 3-1 victory at Gregory Gym.
On the week, Acevedo averaged 5.43 kills per game (16.3 per three-game match), hit .525 and had two aces and was perfect on the serve receive. At Texas State on Tuesday, she recorded her fourth double-double of the year with 11 kills and 13 digs.
The Longhorns return to action on Wednesday, Nov. 9, when they travel to Boulder to face Colorado, winners of its last six matches, for a 8 p.m. match that will be aired live on Fox Sports Rocky Mountain.
