The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
LSU
Volleyball advances to NCAA Gainesville Regional with second-round sweep of LSU
12.01.2007 | Volleyball
AUSTIN, Texas -- The third-ranked and fourth-seeded Texas Volleyball team used four double-digit kill performances to sweep LSU in the NCAA Second Round, Saturday night at Gregory Gymnasium. The Longhorns, 30-21, 30-22, 30-23 victory advances the Longhorns to the NCAA Gainesville Regional where it will take on 13th-seeded Florida.
Texas out-hit LSU .383-to-.163 in the win and out-blocked the Tigers 15.5-to-6.0. Sophomore opposite hitter Ashley Engle paced the Texas attack on the night with 11 kills on .364 hitting, 13 digs and four total blocks. Sophomore outside hitter Destinee Hooker led all Longhorns with a team-high 12 kills on .375 hitting, while senior setter Michelle Moriarty registered a team-best seven total blocks.
In game one, Texas fell behind early, but used a 4-0 run capped by a pair of Hooker kills to claim a 5-4 advantage. The Longhorns widened the lead to five at the 14-9 mark on a kill by Engle and pushed the lead to 23-15 on back-to-back blocks by Moriarty and senior middle blocker Brandy Magee. Texas widened the margin to 10 late in the game and eventually closed out the game, 30-21 on an LSU service error.
Junior middle blocker Lauren Paolini recorded two kills and a block early in the second frame, aiding a 5-0 Texas run that pushed UT's lead to 9-4. The Tigers battled back to narrow the lead to four at the 16-12 mark, but a 3-0 Horns' rally pushed the UT lead back to 19-12. Texas put the game away behind a 7-1 run capped by an Engle/Magee block that moved the Horns' edge to 27-17. Paolini closed out the game, 30-22 with her third kill of the frame and gave UT a 2-0 edge.
In the third stanza, Texas fell behind early, but rallied to reclaim the lead on an Engle/Magee block at the 12-11 mark. The Tigers put together a 4-1 run to even the game at 18, however, the Longhorns responded with a 6-1 run capped by a kill and two blocks by Hooker to take a 24-19 edge. LSU narrowed the UT lead to three at 25-22, but three Hooker kills down the stretch sealed the game, 30-23.
Freshman outside hitter Juliann Faucette tallied 10 kills, a .304 hitting percentage and 16 digs in the win, while Magee hit .692 and posted 10 kills and six block assists. Senior libero Alyson Jennings steadied the Texas defense with 14 digs and Moriarty posted an assist/dig double-double with 44 assists and 10 digs.
Texas returns to action Friday, Dec. 7 when it travels to the NCAA Gainesville Regional and takes on the University of Florida in the Regional semifinals.
POSTGAME NOTES
TEXAS
- Texas moved to 48-22 all time in NCAA Tournament play
- Texas leads the all-time series with LSU 20-4, including a 12-2 mark in Austin.
- Texas extended its season winning streak to 22 matches
- Texas extended its home winning streak to 20 games
- Juliann Faucette notched a new season-high dig total with 16
- Brandy Magee moved into 14th place in career kills among Longhorns with 1,056
LSU
- Elena Martinez moved into 12th place on the NCAA single-season list for digs in the 30-point/unlimited libero substitution era with 740.
POSTGAME QUOTES
TEXAS HEAD COACH Jerritt Elliott
Opening statement: I was very impressed with my team's performance tonight. I really liked the focus, consistency, level of execution and the ability to sustain a lot of pressure on the opposing teams that we played in these first two rounds. Tonight Michelle [Moriarty] did an excellent job distributing the ball around and we had balance from all areas. Looking at the numbers and having everyone hitting over .300, it makes it very difficult for opponents to contain us and to keep a rhythm against us and I felt our passers did an excellent job as well. Overall it was a very good performance against a talented LSU team. They fought really hard and they were extremely well coached by Fran [Flory]. They are a very good team and a quality opponent.
On the defense: It helps when you have a lot of experience returning with players who have been in the system. We've gotten bigger, our players have really developed in every position and our strength in blocking has really helped us out. We've been able to clog the center of the court a lot more and get good quality touches. Tonight was just a completely different rhythm from LSU than we had against Texas State last night. It was a little bit slower and we had to have a little better balance in getting it over the net, but overall our defensive movement and positioning has been getting significantly better. Our commitment to being stopped and balanced and our reading overall has been very good. We've had exceptional transition from our pins, whether it's Ashley, Destinee or Juliann from the back court or our left side is out of system and doing a good job in terms of location, speed or their approaches. They are really taking the block out of it.
On LSU playing the best they could: I go back to what I said last night. There are a lot of benefits from being recognized as a number one seed, but you're going to get everybody's best shot. They are coming in extremely focused and motivated. Everybody works the whole year long to get to this point and play in these kind of matches, so if a team didn't show up, it would be pretty disappointing. I thought they played really well and in the third game they just passed very well. They were able to stay in rhythm and we finally broke them in the serve/receive and really started putting some points together. When we are siding out like we did that means they have to be almost perfect all the way through.
SENIOR MIDDLE BLOCKER Brandy Magee
On the middles' play tonight: As far as blocking goes, I think we were just trying to get our rhythm going. We've been doing a lot better lately in regards to our blocking and our tempo was a major thing for us tonight. We kept doing better throughout the game.
SENIOR SETTER Michelle Moriarty
On setting a season-high in blocks: Awesome. We have been working on blocking a lot in practice and it is a lot about rhythm, reading the other team and getting their timing. I think we go into each match focused on that, but finally I think we understood what we were doing and what the coaches have been telling us.
On how tough road matches during the regular season will help when playing Florida at Florida: I think the way our preseason was set up was really good for us where we went to Penn State. It was a really fun environment, they had tons of fans, it was loud and really exciting. I think it was good for us for this reason exactly. We've been there before, we know what to expect and so we're ready. We have a lot of confidence, we've played well, but we also know that Florida is a very good team.
SOPHOMORE RIGHT SIDE Ashley Engle
On serving troubles: I've had some trouble finding my rhythm with my jump serve, it kind of showed this weekend, so I stuck with the float serve. I think it has been the same with Destinee. We've been working on it in practice, and a jump serve is a rhythm thing. You either have it or you don't and this weekend I didn't have it, but Destinee had it, so it balanced out.
On the extra practice Destinee has put in on her serve: She has been out there before practice working on it. A lot of the girls on our team are really dedicated. We are out there for a long time and then they will come in extra to try to help their own game. She has been one of those people and it is showing.
LSU HEAD COACH FRAN FLORY
Opening statement: This was the kind of match we expected. Texas is such a physical team and they bring so many offensive weapons. We felt like we had to pick and choose what to defend at each rotation. We knew we needed to be very disciplined in our back court defense in order to be able to handle that, and I don't think we did a very good job of that. You have to credit them because they made the right choices, Michelle Moriarty created the right situations for the right hitters at the right time. All of the credit in this match goes to Texas. We played the best that we could play and we didn't give them much of a fight. I thought our offense was much improved from last night. We didn't make that many hitting errors, but they stopped us with their blocks. I thought we made them earn their points and they did an outstanding job of staying the course and remaining very steady. They handled every portion of our game plan, we exploited them quite a few times, but we just couldn't get the ball there all the time when we needed to. I am really proud of our team. I thought they represented what we try to do and it was truly a match of a bunch of seniors on a mission playing a bunch of young kids, trying to jump start our program and get us to the next level. I couldn't be any prouder of our team and their effort this weekend.
On their game plan going into tonight: We knew we were going to take a risk serving. We felt like we had to get them out of their offensive system because we needed to create a better match up for our blockers. We had a serving strategy coupled with a blocking strategy that let us release our middles based on where we were serving. It works sometimes, but tonight it didn't. You have to get Texas out of system because they have too many weapons so we just had to go for it. We had to try to serve as tough and aggressively as we can and hope for the best. Unfortunately the best was 14 errors and you're not going to beat many teams with that.
On the upcoming matchup between Texas and Florida: Texas' pin players are better. If Texas can get their middles in the right situation, they will be successful against Florida. But I will say that playing at Florida is one of the toughest places to play. Florida on their home court has a great deal of confidence and they play with a chip on their shoulder similar to the way Texas plays at home. The Texas team is going to have to be ready for that match with a different mentality on an away court. Florida lost Marcie Hampton earlier this season, and that is a huge loss for them, but they have a bunch of seniors on a mission too. I think it is going to be a tight match, and I think it's going to be a match that is won at and above the net. That is going to be the determining factor in my opinion.
JUNIOR LIBERO ELENA MARTINEZ
On the Texas middle blockers: They are a big physical team and we knew that coming in that they have pretty tall girls. We're not as tall at the net and I thought they did a really good job of cueing on our hitters and closing in on our blocks. Credit them.
