The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Colorado
No. 11 Volleyball sweeps past Colorado
10.06.2010 | Volleyball
Oct. 6, 2010
Final Stats | 
| Post-Match Interviews 
AUSTIN, Texas -- The 11th-ranked Texas Volleyball team used a pair of 13-kill performances by juniors Rachael Adams and Amber Roberson to sweep Colorado, Wednesday night at Gregory Gymnasium. The 25-19, 25-15, 25-20 victory improved the Longhorns to 9-5 on the year and 4-2 in Big 12 play, while the Buffaloes fell to 5-8 overall and 2-5 in league action.
Texas registered a .435 team hitting percentage on the night with Adams leading the way with her .800 attack mark. Adams led all players with 14.5 points in the match, adding two blocks to her performance, while Roberson hit .333 in the match and added four digs and a block to her career-high tying 13-kill effort.
In the first set, Texas used an early 4-1 run capped by a service ace from freshman libero Sarah Palmer to take an 11-6 advantage. Colorado battled back to pull within one at the 15-14 mark, but Texas responded late in the set with a 6-2 run headlined by four kills by senior All-America outside hitter Juliann Faucette that gave UT a 24-18 lead. After a Texas service error, Adams closed out the stanza, 25-19 with her fifth kill of the set.
The Longhorns came out hot in the second frame, taking a 5-3 edge and putting together an 11-3 run headlined by a pair of kills from Faucette to move ahead, 16-7. The Buffaloes shrank the margin to 16-10 before two kills by Adams and a kill from sophomore opposite hitter Sha'Dare McNeal keyed a 4-0 run that gave the Horns a 21-11 lead. Texas went on to close out the set, 25-15 on a kill by Faucette.
Colorado kept the tally tight early in the third set until two Roberson kills paced a 6-1 UT run that put the Longhorns in front, 10-4. The Buffaloes rallied quickly to narrow the gap to 11-8, but two more kills by Roberson headlined a 4-0 Texas run that extended the lead to 17-11. Down the stretch, Adams recorded a kill and a solo block to force set point and a Colorado service error concluded the set, 25-20.
Texas returns to action on Saturday, Oct. 9 when it travels to Kansas State. First serve is set for 7 p.m. Central.
POST-MATCH NOTES
- Texas' win over Colorado improved its all-time record against the Buffaloes to 25-8 and 14-4 in Austin. The Horns have now defeated CU in their last 13 meetings.
- Amber Roberson's 13-kill outing tied her career-high and marked the second-straight match she has registered 13 kills.
- Rachael Adams' 14.5 points versus Colorado led all Longhorns and marked the sixth time in the last seven matches she has led UT in points.
- Texas out-hit Colorado .435-to-.133 on the night and out-blocked the Buffaloes 6.0-to-3.0.
POST-MATCH QUOTES
Head coach Jerritt Elliott
General statement: This was a really positive night for us, a night that we get to give back to the community and make Volley for the Cure a known commodity for our community to be a part of and it was nice for our players to experience that. Overall I am really seeing some growth with our team and our ability to be more consistent through an entire match. The players are really buying into developing and becoming a tight-knit group and you can see how much more relaxed we are on the court. Our service-receive is doing a really nice job and we are getting good set distribution from Hannah (Allison) and good balance from our team. Tonight was one of the first nights that we were able to play consistent through an entire match and sustain a great amount of pressure on Colorado. I was very pleased with the performance.
On the upcoming road match: We have to be consistent, each match that we have played we are finding more consistency and when you are on the road you have to be consistent through the whole match and we are going to have to deal with the crowd. We have to continue to work on a competitive mentality in order to be consistent through the entire match and put up the numbers on our side of the net that we are capable of putting up.
On how much consistency hinge on passing: Passing is a key component for us and our side-out numbers go up significantly when you look at a perfect pass. We have been spending a lot of time in our practice gym working on it and because of that our numbers have been really good and we would like to be able to side out at 67-percent in a match. The one area that we need to improve on is our serving. There were still a few too many missed serves and we have to be able to minimize to two missed serves per-game. That is an area that we need to continue to get better at and we have gone through a lot of players to find that serving rotation.
Senior outside hitter Juliann Faucette
On winning in this atmosphere: It was a special night and it was really nice to get that win. It is a feel good match for us. We got our rhythm back and it was nice to get that W under our belt for the Big 12 race.
On a cleaner match: I think it is a focus and a mentality that we talk about before the game. Our practices leading up to this game have been really good and we have been making sure that we are not giving up. We have keep our confidence and focus and know each game we have to go out there and battle.
Junior outside hitter Amber Roberson
On how the balance is helping the team: The balance is helping the team a lot. It is helping our middles and right sides get open and the opponent has no choice but to single block. It allows us to just kind of play with them a little bit.
