The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Texas Tech
No. 2 Volleyball knocks off Texas Tech, 3-0
10.17.2009 | Volleyball
Oct. 17, 2009
LUBBOCK, Texas -- Junior All-America outside hitter Juliann Faucette hammered out a season-high 22 kills at a career-high .778 clip to pace the No. 2 Texas Volleyball team to a 3-0 victory over Texas Tech, Saturday night at United Spirit Arena. The 25-21, 25-16, 25-17 win improved the Longhorns to 14-0 on the season and 9-0 in Big 12 play, while the Red Raiders dropped to 2-15 and 0-8 in conference action.
In the first set there were 14 ties and eight lead changes, with Texas not taking control of the match until late in the frame. With the score tied at 21, Faucette connected for one her nine first-set kills to spark a UT rally. Tech followed with an attack error and kills from sophomore middle blocker Rachael Adams and senior All-America outside hitter Destinee Hooker closed out the set 25-21.
Texas jumped out to a 14-10 edge in the second set on Faucette's sixth kill of the stanza and stretched the margin to 20-13 on a pair of kills by Hooker. Two Tech miscues, a service ace by senior libero Heather Kisner and a block and a kill by Adams closed out the frame for the Horns, 25-16.
The Longhorns came out swinging in the third frame, using two kills and a block by Faucette to take a quick 5-1 advantage. A 5-0 UT run fueled by four Red Raider errors allowed the Horns to push the lead to 12-5. Tech shrank the lead to five at the 18-13 mark, but Faucette registered three kills down the stretch to lift Texas to a 25-17 victory.
Faucette headlined the Horns' attack on the night as, UT's opposite hitter, making her lone attack error at the 20-16 mark in the third set. She added three digs, two blocks and a service ace to her 22-kill effort. Hooker totaled 14 kills on .345 hitting, while junior middle blocker Jennifer Doris recorded six kills on 12 error-free swings.
Texas returns to action on Wednesday, Oct. 21 when it hosts Missouri in its Volley for the Cure event. First serve is set for 6:30 p.m.
POST-MATCH NOTES
- Texas' win improved its all-time record against Texas Tech to 67-9-2, including a 17-0 mark under head coach Jerritt Elliott.
- The Horns have now won their last 39 matches against in-state opponents.
- Texas improves to 14-0 on the season and 10-0 on the road.
- UT has now won 23 consecutive regular season matches dating back to Nov. 1, 2008.
- Sophomore Amber Roberson recorded a career-high nine digs in the win and posted her first career service ace.
POST-MATCH QUOTES
Head coach Jerritt Elliott
General statement: It was a good win. We are getting a lot of teams that are playing really well against us because of our ranking and our record. I'm proud of our team to be able to make adjustments when necessary and to play well. Tonight we tried a different lineup and we are still working with it. There are people performing everyday in our practice gym and that allows us to look at different things. That says a lot about our players and our team chemistry and the things that we are trying to do in order to win a Big 12 Championship.
On the team's sluggish start: We made a few too many errors with the new lineup in the first set. We were trying to get some of the kinks out and as we went through the set we continued to improve.
On Juliann Faucette's performance at opposite hitter: She was great. We have been trying to find her some good rhythm as the season has gone on. We tried early on in Hawaii, but we never started that lineup. We can attribute the change to Amber (Roberson) playing well in practice and Juliann playing really well on the right side at practice. It is something we are looking at and it gives us opportunities to do different things as a team.
