The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Penn State
Volleyball preview: Nike Volleyball Big Four Classic
09.05.2013 | Volleyball
Texas hosts top-ranked Penn State, No. 2 Stanford and No. 8 Florida in the nation's premier collegiate volleyball tournament.
No. 6/4 Texas at Nike Volleyball Big Four Classic
Gregory Gymnasium (4,000) | Austin, Texas
Sept. 7-8, 2013
Matches 4-5: vs. No. 1/1 Penn State (2-0, 0-0 Big Ten), vs. No. 2/2 Stanford (2-0, 0-0 Pac-12)
When: Saturday, Sept. 7 (1 p.m. Central) and Sunday, Sept. 8 (3 p.m. Central)
Where: Austin, Texas (Gregory Gymnasium)
Live Stats: TexasSports.com
Television: Longhorn Network
Internet Audio: TexasSports.com
All-Time Series: Penn State leads, 11-7 (H: 0-3, A: 0-5, N: 7-3) | Stanford leads, 18-7 (H: 4-2, A: 0-4, N: 3-12)
QUICK HITS
• The Longhorns enter the Nike Volleyball Big Four Classic on the heels of a 2-1 performance at the Chevron Rainbow Wahine Invitational last weekend ... Texas fell in its season opener at Hawai'i, 1-3, before finishing the weekend with a pair of wins over UTEP (3-0) and San Diego (3-2) ... junior Khat Bell and sophomore Amy Neal earned all-tournament team honors.
• Texas was ranked No. 1 in the preseason AVCA Division I Coaches Top 25 Poll (Aug. 12) for the first time in program history ... Through Week No. 1 of the 2013 season, the Longhorns have appeared in the Top 10 of the AVCA poll for 102 of the last 106 weeks ... Texas has been ranked in the AVCA Top 25 for 141 consecutive week, dating back to 2004.
• Texas has been selected to finish first in the 2013 Big 12 Conference race in a vote of league head coaches ... the Longhorns have been chosen at the top of the preseason poll for the past three seasons and six times overall (1996, 2008, '09, '11-13) ... UT received eight of the possible nine first-place votes, while tallying 64 points overall.
• Junior outside hitter Haley Eckerman has been named the Big 12 Conference's Preseason Player of the Year for 2013 ... Eckerman, senior outside hitter Bailey Webster and junior middle blocker Khat Bell were also named to the Preseason All-Big 12 team.
ADDITIONAL NOTES
TEXAS IN HOME OPENERS
The Longhorns own a 33-6 all-time record in home openers and a spotless 12-0 mark under head coach Jerritt Elliott.
TEXAS IN THE NIKE BIG FOUR VOLLEYBALL CLASSIC
Entering the fourth year of the Nike Big Four Volleyball Classic, Texas owns a 2-4 record ... in 2010 at Florida, the Longhorns dropped matches to both Stanford and Florida ... at the 2011 tournament, UT fell in five sets to Florida before picking up a five-set win over Penn State in Palo Alto, Calif. ... last year, Texas earned the win over Florida in University Park, Penn., before the host Nittany Lions downed the Longhorns in three sets.
BEAT THE BEST TO BE THE BEST
Texas owns a 67-36 record against ranked opponents over the last 10 seasons (2004-13) and a 34-7 mark against ranked opponents at Gregory Gym during that span ... Texas is 5-11 all-time at home against a No. 1 opponent ... the Longhorns' last home win over the nation's top-ranked team came on Oct. 24, 2007, when Texas toppled Nebraska in three games (30-22, 30-25, 30-20) ... that match was the second-largest crowd in Gregory Gym history, as a sell-out audience of 4,286 were in attendance.
