The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
0-1
Hawaii
1-0
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 19 | 25 | 25 | 16 | 1 |
| Hawai'i | 25 | 19 | 27 | 25 | 3 |
No. 1 Volleyball falls to No. 11 Hawaii in season opener, 3-1
08.31.2013 | Volleyball
Senior outside hitter Bailey Webster led the Longhorns with 19 kills, while junior Haley Eckerman added 13.
HONOLULU -- Despite a terrific game-two, top-ranked Texas Volleyball dropped its season opener at No. 11 Hawai'i, 3-1 (19-25, 25-19, 25-27, 16-25) Friday night in front of an announced crowd of 9,806 at the Stan Sheriff Center. Senior Bailey Webster picked up where she left off in the 2012 NCAA Championship and led the Longhorns with a match-high 19 kills, while junior Haley Eckerman added 13 and freshman Pilar Victoria added 10 more in her collegiate debut.
In the first set, the Longhorns (0-1) failed to overcome an early six-point run by their opponent as the Rainbow Wahine (1-0) built a 10-4 lead. Texas closed the gap to three points twice but couldn't come any closer.
A 6-1 run increased Texas' lead to 12-7 in the second game before Hawai'i fought back with three unanswered points to trail by two, 13-11. Texas displayed its offensive prowess with a 5-1 run for a 17-12 lead before the two teams began to trade points en route to 25-19 Texas win to tie the match. After being outhit .212 (13-6-33) - .344 (15-4-32) in the first set, the Longhorns came back with a match-high .625 (16-1-24) performance in the second to the Rainbow Wahine's .391 (11-2-23).
A Webster kill put Texas in front for the first time in the third set, 10-9. Following a Hawai'i timeout, the Rainbow Wahine built a five-point lead with a 7-1 run to put the Longhorns down, 11-16. Texas put together its own 7-2 run that included two kills by sophomore middle blocker Molly McCage to tie the set at 18, and an Eckerman kill gave Texas its second lead of the game, 20-19. Hawai'i fought off three UT chances to close out the match and forced the set to extra points for a 27-25 win.
Hawai'i broke away midway in the fourth set and put away Texas 25-16 while holding the Longhorns to only 10 kills.
The Rainbow Wahine also had three players with double-digit kills. Emily Hartong notched a team-high 18, and Kalei Adolpho and Nikki Taylor added 11 and 10, respectively.
Texas continues action at the Chevron Rainbow Wahine Invitational Saturday with a pair of matches against UTEP and San Diego. The Longhorns and Miners are scheduled to meet at 4 p.m. Central (11 a.m. local) followed by a showdown with the Toreros at 11 p.m. (6 p.m. local). Live stats for both matches will be available at hawaiiathletics.com and a video stream of the Texas and San Diego contest can also be viewed online at https://secure.oceanic.com/Streaming/.
Post-match Comments
Texas Head Coach Jerritt Elliott
On tonight's performance: We expected it to be a tough battle, and Hawai'i is so good at home. We needed to put our team in some stressful environments, and playing in front of nearly 9,000 people is a stressful environment. We also needed to be able to learn about our team. A lot of our team is back, but there are different pieces and teams are better. There are a lot of things I can take away from this match to become a better defensive team. We weren't able to sustain any kind of defensive pressure. We'll get better.
