The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
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Kansas
No. 3 Volleyball sweeps past Kansas and into record books
11.07.2007 | Volleyball
LAWRENCE, Kan. -- The third-ranked Texas Volleyball team recorded its 15th straight victory and its school-record ninth straight sweep with its 3-0 victory over Kansas, Wednesday night at the Horejsi Family Athletics Center. Sophomore outside hitter Destinee Hooker paced the Longhorns 30-20, 30-19, 30-18 win with a match-high 13 kills on .370 hitting.
Texas' victory moved the Longhorns to 19-3 on the season and 14-1 in Big 12 play, while the Jayhawks fell to 11-15 overall and 4-12 in league play. The Longhorns outblocked the Jayhawks 15-to-3 on the night and out-hit KU .408-to-.091. The Longhorns win marked its ninth straight sweep of the season, setting a Texas school record for most consecutive sweeps.
The Longhorns trailed early in game one, taking their first lead on a solo block by Hooker at the 6-5 mark. Texas used a 7-1 run headlined by two blocks from senior middle blocker Brandy Magee to stretch the lead to six and move the Horns' advantage to 17-11. Kansas rallied to close the margin to 19-15, but Magee came on strong down the stretch for the Longhorns, connecting for three kills in Texas' 5-1 run that closed out the game, 30-20.
In game two Magee connected for a kill and two blocks to give Texas a quick 3-1 lead, but KU battled back to claim a lead of its own a the 9-8 mark. The Horns answered the rally quickly, putting together a 7-1 run fueled by two kills and a pair of blocks from Hooker that gave UT a 17-11 edge. Texas extended its lead to 25-17, taking advantage of three Kansas miscues to extend its lead to 25-17 and used a block and two kills by junior middle blocker Lauren Paolini to close out the frame, 30-
Texas jumped out to an early 10-4 lead in the third stanza, using two KU errors and a two kills by Hooker to take the quick edge. The Longhorns widened the gap to eight at the 17-9 mark, but a Jayhawks' kill and two straight service aces narrowed the lead to 17-12. Texas responded with a 3-0 run of its own and gained command of the game at the 23-17 mark when it went on a 5-0 run. Sophomore opposite hitter Ashley Engle and Hooker headlined the game-changing rally, tallying two kills apiece and helped UT to a 30-18 victory.
Hooker headlined the Texas attack on the night, adding eight total blocks and five digs to her match-high kill total. Magee joined her in double-digits with 10 kills, five blocks and a .643 attack mark. Paolini hit .750 with zero attack errors and nine kills in the win, while Engle notched nine kills, four blocks, two service aces and three digs. Freshman outside hitter Juliann Faucette notched eight kills, six digs and a career-high four service aces and senior libero Alyson Jennings headlined the UT defense with 11 digs.
Texas returns to action at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 9 when it takes on Texas A&M in the State Farm Lone Star Showdown at Gregory Gymnasium.
TEXAS POSTMATCH QUOTES
HEAD COACH Jerritt Elliott
On the victory: I thought we were very smooth offensively. We did some good things from the serve receive line and you are always happy when you hit over .400. We were excellent blocking-wise and we were able to really put some pressure on KU. We were able to sideout at a very high percentage and that paired with our defense we were very successful tonight.
On his team's blocking: Kansas ran a lot of their combinations to the center of the court and we were well prepared for their attack. We did not do anything differently than we have doing, but I felt like we got some good transition off of our strength in the middle.
On his team's offensive effort: Our middles were very efficient tonight and I felt like our pin hitters got really smooth as the match continued. When we get good production from our pins like we have so far this season it allows us to get more quality production from our middles.
