The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
27-3
Wisconsin
28-9
No. 12-seed Wisconsin tops No. 1 Texas in NCAA Volleyball semifinal
12.19.2013 | Volleyball
The Longhorns' bid for a consecutive NCAA Championship ended against the Badgers.
The top-seeded and defending national champion Texas (27-3) saw its 10-match postseason winning streak snapped Thursday night at KeyArena with a 3-1 (19-25, 18-25, 28-26, 23-25) loss to 12th-seeded Wisconsin (28-9) in the national semifinals.
Texas totaled a season-high 19 blocks, but couldn't overcome a 2-0 deficit as the Badgers advanced to their first national championship in program history.
The Badgers led by as much as seven points in the first set. Texas came within one, trimming the Wisconsin lead to 20-19 at one point, but surrendered five consecutive points to close out the set 25-19. In set two, Wisconsin started with a 3-0 lead and eventually jumped ahead 13-5. The Longhorns pulled within six, but dropped the game 25-18.
Texas took an early lead in the third set, its first since the opening moments of the match. Wisconsin had five hitting errors in the early stages, but still rallied to take a 9-8 lead. Texas came back with seven of the next 10 points to go ahead 15-12 and pushed ahead 23-22 on a Bailey Webster kill. The set eventually ended up tied at 24. After a Haley Eckerman hitting error, the Badgers had match point, but Webster came through with another crucial kill. Texas went ahead 27-26 on an Eckerman kill and on its third set point got a hitting error from Wisconsin to force a fourth game with a 28-26 set win.
The two teams played evenly in the fourth set with a 14-14 tie before Texas pushed ahead 18-16 following a kill by Chiaka Ogbogu and block by Khat Bell. An Eckerman kill pushed the Longhorns lead to three, but the Badgers came back to tie the score at 21. After two more ties (22-22 and 23-23), Wisconsin used back-to-back kills to close out the final set and the match.
Texas was trying to become the sixth school to win consecutive national titles and had won 23 consecutive matches since losing to Arizona State in early September. The 23 consecutive wins was the second longest streak in program history.
The Badgers are the lowest seeded team to reach the championship.
Post-match Notes
Texas
-Texas finishes the season with a 27-3 record … the loss ends a 23-match win streak, tied for the second-longest in program history (Sept. 15, 2007-Dec. 7, 2007 and Oct. 1, 1981-Oct. 20, 1981).
-With 10 consecutive NCAA Tournament wins, the Horns' hold a school record for postseason wins.
-Texas outblocked Wisconsin, 19-10.
-Haley Eckerman registered her 11th double-double (18th career, fourth in five NCAA Tournament matches) with 17 kills and 14 digs.
-Hannah Allison registered her fifth double-double (19th career) with 33 assists and 11 digs.
-With 33 assists on the night, Allison moves to third-place on the Texas all-time list (3,633).
Post-match Press Conference
Texas
COACH ELLIOTT: Tough way to end the season. We put a lot into the season. We had some great leadership in what the senior class has done for our program. And our university is, it's amazing, with the national championship, three out of four Final Fours.
And tonight felt like it was the first match of the season. We just never got comfortable. When you make 43 hitting errors and have 46 kills, it's tough to win any match.
And we just didn't do the things necessary. For whatever reason, we got on our heels right off the bat and really couldn't find a groove the entire night. And tonight I'm proud, though, we came out of the locker room trying to figure it out and trying to fight.
But Wisconsin did a nice job defensively against us. But it just wasn't probably one of our poorest performances in terms of kill percentage and error percentage, serve/receive and serving. And when that happens, this game is tough to win. And that was my concern going in. I felt like we could win the match if we just contained and managed our game well. Overall we did not do that.
Q. They seemed really off balance with their serving. Were they doing something you all didn't expect tonight?
HALEY ECKERMAN: I think the biggest thing is we weren't used to this arena. So that started right away with the serving.
And so we just tried to balance as the game went through and just try get it high enough that we could run an out of system ball and manage our game better. That was something as passers we were trying to talk through and try to fight it off.
HANNAH ALLISON: I'm not a passer, so I wasn't receiving the serves directly. But we're used to teams trying to serve extremely tough against us because we're a very strong offensive team and that's one of the only ways that you can get us out of system, throw our offense off a little bit.
So I give credit to Wisconsin. They served very tough. And they did mix it up. And I'm sure that was part of their game plan but they did execute that well.
Q. Hannah, you were subbed out there in the second game. Just seemed like you were a little out of sync. Did it feel, as Coach said, you guys started this match out of sync and were never able to get it back?
HANNAH ALLISON: I think so, especially with a game like volleyball, rhythm has a lot to do with it. As a setter, the offense has a rhythm to it. And when the team serves tough, sometimes you have to weather that storm. It's just not going to be in rhythm to start all the way through the match.
So just weathering the storm. And having Chloe as another setter, another strong setter. We have confidence in her. We always have.
Sometimes it just gives a different look, changes it up, just anything to get that ball rolling as far as the rhythm. And she did a good job tonight.
Q. Haley, I know you guys go against a lot of great defensive teams, but really seemed like (indiscernible), but it really seemed like they dug the ball well. They just kept the points going. Was that maybe a big factor, that they kept points going, that against a lot of teams maybe you would have been finished with a point?
HALEY ECKERMAN: I think they did a good job at that, challenging us to hit other spots and move the ball around. And even when we did make a change they were making that change, too, and that's what great teams do. And they did a great job adjusting right away to Bailey and I and all the other middles. And Chia also. And so I think that flustered us a little bit because the balls that are normally getting scores weren't. And so I think that kind of threw us off a little bit also.
Q. Haley, from a defensive end, it's got to be so much different to play against two such short hitters who are so powerful and effective, but it can't be like anything else you've seen or practiced against very much?
HALEY ECKERMAN: Yes and no. We have people who hit like Bailey. And we're so used to trying to block someone so much taller. We're used to reaching and things like that. That kind of was a challenge for us. So a lot of practice the last couple of days we've been working on trying to stay low and over and being ready for those smaller hitters that were going to try to tool us.
Q. It seemed after a while there was a lot of tipping. Did you want to do that? Did you feel like you do that that was a mistake now in retrospect?
HALEY ECKERMAN: I don't think it was a mistake, I think we were just trying to be smart with the ball and not make any more errors than we had already made.
Q. Do you agree with her answer there, that there was not too much tipping? It felt like there was a tremendous amount of tipping in the second and the fourth set.
COACH ELLIOTT: Yeah, some of that had to do with just location. Some of it had to do just with us being so out of sorts. We were talking on the bench not to tip short. And it was confusing.
But if you look at these box scores, if you would have told me Wisconsin hits .131 and we have 19 stuff blocks, I'm saying we're winning that 99 percent of the time. Just because we didn't manage our game.
When you have 43 errors or 11 errors, you're doing almost 50 percent of the work for that team. And they caused some of the problems with the way they played defense, but we weren't passing the ball well enough. When they're so strong in the back court, we had a hard time returning with our left sides. It was a serve and pass game.
If we're good serve and pass, we can do a lot of things. This is one of our poorest performances on the year. Wisconsin served extremely tough and got us out of system. And we haven't had set and receiving errors in those numbers at all.
Q. You guys aren't known as a great passing team. Lately do you feel like usually you get through that because you have such big hammers, and was that too much of a breakdown tonight?
COACH ELLIOTT: It just started with the serve and pass game. I think we had five service errors in Game 1 and four reception errors. That's not enough points in a game to 25. And we've been a pretty solid service team. We're not great serving, but we've been good out of system. And our lefts struggled tonight with that.
But we just never got comfortable out there. And to me it looked like it was the first match of the season for both sides. I mean, in Game 3, we won, they had 16 hitting errors. It's pretty sloppy on both sides. And the only skill that I thought we performed well was blocking.
Q. With such an experienced team and having won the championship, why do you think that's what happened, that you would look this way in this type of match?
COACH ELLIOTT: I think that's the best question tonight. That's what I'm wracking my brain about it. What didn't we do? We prepared the same way we did for Wisconsin.
I think we got them motivated earlier today. We haven't done well all season long when we were expected to win.
At one point during that match in Game 4, I was thinking if we can get through this match I know we're going to be great the next night. But we didn't find a way. Wisconsin did. And they played great.
Q. Did you feel like you never hit that fifth gear? Seemed like in the fourth game there were people watching, were looking at it thinking they're probably going to take this to 5 and Texas is going to pull it out here. Sort of felt like that, but you just never quite got that string of points to put it away.
COACH ELLIOTT: I don't think we got to second gear. Yeah, I mean, it was one of those matches we just had to keep extending the match and hoping that we can get there and put some more pressure on Wisconsin. Because obviously we have a little more experience. And the tighter the game gets, hopefully we're going to give ourselves some opportunities, especially if we could have come back to Game 5.
We were cheerleading more than we've ever cheerleaded from the bench all season long. Just trying to get them going. Thought we got them back in the right frame of mind in the locker room in terms of letting them just go the last two games. And sometimes it's tough. Sometimes it's tough on the bench. You just don't have a lot of answers and don't have a lot of things you can do.
We tried some different things. We made some adjustments; but, again, they hit .131. So it had to do with all production on our side and we didn't feel good about that because they frustrated us a little bit with our defense.
Q. The line hit early was working against you guys. Seemed like you guys adjusted fairly well to that. Maybe midway through the second game and then they came back to it a little at the end and had more success. Did it surprise you a little bit going to the line quite a bit?
COACH ELLIOTT: The blocking scheme our scouting report was a block line team and to take that away. Morales did a nice job hitting high hands on us.
It's a challenge she's a very talented lady. She struggles putting the ball to the floor. She's good because she knows how to hit high hands, used to the block, blocks well and does that. And we got tooled a bunch.
She was coming back to the line. And our blocking was really good tonight. We almost had five stuff blocks per game. If you're blocking three, you're probably leading the country, 3.1, leading the country. So our blocking has been really good.
But just dig to transition, and our first ball contact, and we got the rhythm with our hitters wasn't great all night.
WISCONSIN
COACH SHEFFIELD: Piece of cake. No. (Chuckling). You know, we believed that we could win this match. And I think that's a big part of anytime you go into anything. This has been a team that no matter who we played we believed, the players have believed that there's a way to win.
And this is a really good serving team. We are who we are. That's one of the things there's no way we can play their game. Their game, it's just a totally different game than us.
We had to serve with confidence. We had to execute, fearlessness behind the serving line. We believed if we did that, they were going to get we'd have them out of system a lot. If they're out of system, I knew we've got the best back court in the country and we'd be able to dig some balls.
Now, that's just part of the issue. Once we're digging balls, we have to put them away and convert. And we were doing that. I mean, we really, really converted well when we were digging.
And that's a massive block, and these guys are really, really physical, but we felt like, you know, also when we're digging, we felt like we've got a setter that can get the ball to where they need to go.
And so that was kind of the game plan going in. Game 3 we had an opportunity to win that game, and they squeaked that out. We had 16 hitting errors in game 3. That's an awful lot. And they jump out on Game 4, nice relief, and we just kept chopping and chopping away and kind of found a way to win.
And that's what we've seen from this team all year is mental toughness accumulated as we go through. Man, if there's not anything you gotta be more mentally tough, you're about ready to sweep the defending champs, they squeak out Game 3. They jump on us on Game 4 and you come back and find a way.
Man, couldn't be more proud of these guys. Mentally we were rock solid tonight.
Q. Lauren, can you talk about, Coach talked about how important it was for you guys to play your game. It seemed like from the very beginning you guys did that. Can you talk about what went into being able to do that against a team that is as powerful as Texas?
LAUREN CARLINI: We knew they would have big saves and big hitters and they were going to go up and pound the ball. We just knew we had to be in the right position and we had to be able to dig and convert, like Kelly said.
And I think we did a great job of being in a good place and just kind of keeping the ball up off the floor. That was the main key in this game, and just being scrappy.
And our hitters did a great job today of tooling the block. And if they got blocked they came back, bounced back quickly.
So this is a complete group effort, and I couldn't be more proud of my team.
Q. Ball control versus brute strength; what does this match tell you about that?
ELLEN CHAPMAN: Kind of what we talked about yesterday during interviews, we knew that our team, their team have completely different ways of going about winning. And our back court is the best back court in the country, and I never doubted them. I don't think anyone doubted them for a second.
And I think they did a great job reading and reading around the block and just getting the balls up. And all the hitters did a good job converting. And when we got blocked, we bounced right back, which is something that's very hard for all our hitters to do, and I think we did a great job of that tonight.
Q. It's 21 all, Deme, and you have a beautiful serve. (Indiscernible) it's a long route and you get set and you get the ball into the net, but Lauren keeps setting from then on. What happened in that play and why were you still getting sets from Lauren?
DEME MORALES: I think I don't know. I mean, the ball it's not like hitting in the net is anything new. I do it every so often. So it's like if I just want to come back myself so I'm not stuck in a rut.
COACH SHEFFIELD: I thought it was a great read let me add on this. It's a great read by Ellen. They were doing a lot of blocks, and what you saw there was right after she had an error, they went and trapped the other hitter. You saw Ellen reading that, which is part one. And, part two, her having confidence of going back to her to know that she's going to be able to bury a one on one opportunity, which she did, and her getting her head back into that match or right back into that, that's something that's been built up over time, is you've got to move on to the next play quickly.
So, yeah, that was kind of a boneheaded attack by her. Like she said, she's been known to do that. But the other things she's been known to do is really, really have tremendous bounceback ability and be right on task for the next play.
But the read is why she got that next ball. Did I say Ellen? I don't know what I don't even know who my players are. (Laughter).
Q. (Off microphone)?
DEME MORALES: I know she's a talented person. When she gets blocked, it doesn't faze her. Everyone in the huddle, it's like: Keep swinging. We've got you covered. Things like that.
Just going back I knew that block was going to go the other way and they were going to trap the slide hitter.
So just having knowledge of the game and just being smart about it, and I knew we were going to have a one on one and pound it.
Q. Can you talk a little bit about what Coach talked about when they win that third set, the momentum could have shifted back, and obviously they had a good start. Talk about the detail and not getting that fourth set and not letting the momentum switch back.
ELLEN CHAPMAN: After the third set, I mean, I hit it out of bounds and I was by myself, and I remember Brittany came up to me, our assistant coach, and was like: That was the perfect hit, it was just a little long, keep going at it.
In general, I think in that Kelly was saying we're the toughest team out there. We're just a bunch of ballers out there, and our back court is going to keep hitting those hard hits that they keep putting at us. And just never giving up on those balls is what set us apart from them, I think.
Q. Deme, you are used to getting blocked, so it doesn't bother you, probably, because of your height situation?
DEME MORALES: Yeah, I think before it used to really like bother me when I was younger. But going through all this and going up against huge blockers, I just it fires me up.
It's like, okay, I just have to keep going at them. It just fires me up. It's more like a motivator.
Q. They're terrific blockers. You just look up and
DEME MORALES: Yeah, they're right on top of me. They're a really good blocking team.
Q. You know your players. Can you talk about the emotions (indiscernible)?
DEME MORALES: There's just no words right now. Obviously we're all like "uhhhh..." We don't know what to say right now.
But we never expected that we were going to get this far. And the fact that we all just gathered together and we made a goal and we just fought back and I don't know. Everyone is just so proud of each other and we know we're one of the tightest teams out there. And we're just ballers. We go out and we play. Let the cards fall where they may.
I don't think anyone is happier than us right now.
Q. Texas started tipping like crazy. Why did that happen and why were you (indiscernible)? Did you see that tipping?
ELLEN CHAPMAN: Yeah. Their hitters, whenever they're running the slides, they were a lot of the time they were tipping over the block. I think they were getting frustrated because they kept getting dig after dig after dig, and they just wanted to switch it up.
And I think our defenders picked up on that really quickly and they did a great job just making it an easy free ball for us. And converting that quickly (indiscernible) was one of our biggest strengths tonight, and I think just their frustration forced them into tipping and trying to mix things up.
Q. Obviously the last set there was a rally and you guys had a pancake on that. Can you talk a little bit about that controversial moment where Texas thought basically they had that point and you guys were able to close it out?
COACH SHEFFIELD: I don't know if it was controversial. It was a pancake. And every opposing team, when one team has a pancake, every opposing team is going to take the ball on the ground. They're barking because they're trying to get that call.
And we would have done the exact same thing. So you're just you're never giving up on the ball. And that ball's on its way to the floor, and whoever it was that got their hand underneath it, we're still up and going.
Q. (Question about Coach Elliott)?
COACH SHEFFIELD: Jerritt is first class all the way. He runs a first class program. I've got a lot of admiration for how he runs his program and the class act that him and his staff are. He's absolutely cordial.
Q. The first set, seems like a long time ago, but you were in control throughout, and they made a run and got (indiscernible) and called a timeout, you came back out and finished it off, five straight points. Was there something you saw that you had to tell them at that point, and how significant was finishing it off like that?
COACH SHEFFIELD: Yeah, you're right, it does seem like a long time ago. I think at some point in that first game you want to let people know what you saw on video, what are they doing that is what we saw that's the same and what it is that is different.
And so toward the end of Game 1, Game 2, that's where you're at, all right, how we play going into this match. This is what we thought was happening and these are some things defensively or what they're doing, this is what is a little bit different just a little bit of a breath.
I think at one point in that match, probably in the middle of Game 4 I thought we were getting a little bit anxious, and that was the only time all match long. And we reminded them that we wanted to enjoy every moment of this. Not enjoy, we didn't talk about that. About living in the moment, being the team that lives in the moment the best.
That was the talk later on. Early on, you know, it was, all right it was mostly information. I mean, there wasn't a lot of pump up or bounceback or anything else. You were giving them information. That's what this team was wanting.
Q. Can you talk about Lauren, the setting? She's obviously locating balls and making incredible decisions with people. She's a premier setter, seems to be a huge part of what your team is about. Can you give us a little bit of insight from your perspective on that?
COACH SHEFFIELD: She's out there setting in warm ups an hour before the match, and walked out there, just wanted to usually I'm not out there. Sometimes I am. But wanted to check in, see how things were going.
I'm walking over there and I said, How are you doing? And she says, I love this. This is why I play. The bigger the lights, the better. That's her mentality.
Kid's whatever she is, 18 years old, and she's in her she was born for this and the bigger the crowd, the more moxie that comes out of her, the more confidence.
She doesn't lean on me. I mean, there was none of that. It was she's a giant. And she's really well skilled.
And when you've got confidence in big moments and you're skilled, you're going to do some special things. And, you're right, tonight she did some special things.
Q. I missed your opening comment. Maybe you addressed this, but it seemed to be serving, you guys simply kept them out of system. Do you agree with that? What were you seeing in your serving that disturbed them so much?
COACH SHEFFIELD: We feel like we're a really good serving team. We felt like that wasn't one of their strengths, is passing, but it really hasn't had to be one of their strengths. When you got Eckerman outside, you don't have to be an elite passing team.
Those guys are just so good. We're a really good defensive team in the back court. So, yeah, we had to get them out of system. Our servers really executed with a lot of toughness behind the serving line. We did a great job of keeping them off balance early on. I thought we got very predictable with our serving probably around the middle of the match and started to do more things to keep them off balance.
So we went later on, and I thought that was obviously a big key point for us.
Q. (Indiscernible) a lot of success. Was that part of the game plan, or did they see what you were giving them and taking it that way?
COACH SHEFFIELD: It was part of the game plan. And when we got blocked quite a bit, we went right back that middle part, we were going back at their middle. That's where we're really getting blocked quite a bit, when we were going with that. Part of it was L.C. Lauren's location a little bit as she's making tough sets. A little bit of these made it tough to get a line.
But we talked to Deme about midway through Game 4. The only time she should be going and burying the ball is when it's one on one. Right now let's work the tool shot. And she came back out the very next ball, she gets set and hits it into the tool shot into the antenna. You could tell that that was that was a big play right there, where a lot of energy was.
And I think she came back and had two more kills right there after that. And we were trying to hit the line. We were trying to. But, man, that block's big. It's sometimes what you're trying to do.
Now, I don't know how many times we got blocked. We might have set a world record tonight on the number of times we got blocked. So our hitting percentage doesn't look great, which probably makes it even more impressive that we're able to win.
The hitting percentage doesn't look great, but when we dug the ball and got the ball past their block, we were able to win those rallies.
And we felt that was the key, find a way to get the ball past the block, and we'll win this match.
