The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
4-1
Stanford
2-2
No. 6 Volleyball topples second-ranked Stanford, 3-1
09.08.2013 | Volleyball
All-Americans Haley Eckerman and Bailey Webster led the offensive effort with double-digit kill performances.
AUSTIN, Texas -- One day removed from taking down top-ranked Penn State, No. 6 Texas Volleyball came back for a 3-1 (29-27, 18-25, 25-16, 27-25) win over No. 2 Stanford to conclude the Nike Volleyball Big Four Classic at Gregory Gym. The back-to-back victories mark the first time the Longhorns have defeated a No. 1 and 2 opponent in the same season since 1995.
The nation's premier collegiate volleyball tournament drew 8,629 fans and notched the first back-to-back sellouts in Texas Volleyball history.
The Longhorns (4-1) were led offensively by All-Americans Haley Eckerman and Bailey Webster with 15 and 13 kills, respectively. Setters Hannah Allison (20 assists, 12 digs) and Chloe Collins (20 assists, 13 digs) recorded double-doubles in the win. It was Collins' second-straight double-double in her freshman season.
Texas jumped out of the gate with a pair of service aces and four kills for an 8-4 lead in game one. After pulling ahead to a 17-12 advantage, the Cardinal crept back with five straight points to tie the game. The two teams traded points until the score was 20-all, and Texas built a 24-21 lead and set its eyes on closing out the game until Stanford again tied it up. Tied at 27-all, the Longhorns finally put the Cardinal away on an attack error and subsequent block by sophomore middle blocker Molly McCage.
With roles reversed in the second set, Stanford built an 8-4 lead before Texas notched five of its 10 kills in the game for a 12-all score. With the two teams battling back-and-forth and Texas trailing 15-17, the Cardinal capitalized on a 5-0 run for a 22-15 cushion to put set two out of reach for the Longhorns.
Finding its offensive rhythm following the break between sets, Texas led the entirety of game three behind four kills by Webster. Ahead by seven and the score at 13-6, the Longhorns never let the Cardinal within more than a six-point reach en route to taking a 2-1 lead in the match.
Texas sustained its momentum from game three early in the fourth set and broke away from a 3-all tie with a 6-1 run to go up 9-5. Using a 6-2 rally to make up ground, Stanford pulled within two at 18-16. Following a Texas timeout, the Cardinal took advantage of a pair of Longhorn hitting errors and tied the game at 20 points apiece. The teams matched one another point-for-point before Eckerman delivered her fourth ace of the day to set up match point and Webster added a block to clinch the match on a 27-25 finale.
Four players recorded double-figure kills for the Cardinal (2-2), with Brittany Howard leading the quartet with 14.
The Longhorns return to action in next weekend's State Farm Classic at Illinois, one of the four hosts for the 2014 NCAA Regionals. Texas will face Arizona State at 5 p.m. Friday evening before meeting the host Illini Saturday evening.
Post-match Notes
- Texas improves 8-18 in the series against Stanford. The Longhorns last win against Stanford came Sept. 3, 1999 (3-1). Of the eight wins, today's marks the first of the Elliott era.
- Junior outside hitter Haley Eckerman put-up a season-high 15 kills and four aces against Stanford.
- The Longhorns totaled a season-high 74 digs.
- Sophomore outside hitter Amy Neal collected 34 digs throughout the tournament, including a career-high 20 against Penn State.
- Senior libero Sarah Palmer matched a career-high in assists (4).
- Senior setter Hannah Allison recorded her first double-double of the season with 12 digs and 20 assists.
- Freshman Chloe Collins recorded her second consecutive double-double with 20 assists and 13 digs.
Post-match Quotes
Texas Head Coach Jerritt Elliott
On today's match: Well, obviously a great weekend for us in front of a great home crowd. They were a big factor in us winning both matches. I can't script it any better to play two of the top teams in the country and have to deal with the emotional status of being able to play one night and bounce back and play well the next night; that's a challenge. I was really proud of our team for how they responded, and we were able to pull out two tight games and win this match.
On the learning lessons from matches against Penn State and Stanford: It's early, but the players that have been around are used to it and our younger players haven't been around an environment where they have to emotionally bounce back and be competitive and be challenged. I think they got a lot out of it, but should Penn State and Stanford and Florida do well this bodes well for us because Penn State beat Florida and Florida beat Stanford. Those three are picked to win their conferences, so we potentially could get good RPI points to become the top seed. We still have to take care of business. We still have some very big emotional matches coming up, and some big challenges on the road next weekend. It doesn't get any easier for us. It may get tougher with school, and trying to continue the focus of what we are doing.
Senior L Sarah Palmer
On difficulty of defending Stanford: They ran a really great offense, so it was just something that we had to get used to. Eventually we picked up on that, and our blockers did a great job toward the end of the game picking up on the hitters and knowing their tendencies, which really helped out with the defense in the back row.
Senior OH Bailey Webster
On physically and mentally recovering from the weekend: The older girls have been through this before. You can be in a situation like this in the tournament, and after we won we just looked onto Stanford and scouting them and worrying about the next day. Everybody had good rest and were able to recover and get ready for today.
