The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
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No. 2 Volleyball knocks off Baylor in Big 12 play, 3-0
10.07.2014 | Volleyball
The Longhorns did not trail for a single point in the three set victory.
AUSTIN, Texas -- No. 2 Texas Volleyball squad won its second Big 12 home match of the season by sweeping the Baylor Bears (25-12, 25-13, 25-17) on Wednesday night in front of 2,504 at Gregory Gymnasium.
The Longhorns did not trail for a trail for a single point in the match, and hit .473 in the victory. Texas also tallied 11 blocks to the Bears' three and only had four attacking errors to Baylor's 25. The Longhorns also held Baylor to a .047 hitting percentage in the three sets.
Junior Amy Neal proved to be the offensive catalyst on the night, serving on 19 of the Longhorns points in the match. She led the team with four service aces and tied for a team-high six digs in the victory.
Senior Haley Eckerman and sophomore Chiaka Ogbogu also led the way for the Horns, tallying seven kills each, with Eckerman hitting three service aces and Ogbogu posting four blocks.
Sophomore Chloe Collins added three aces of her own to go along with a team-high 15 assists, giving her a team-leading 195 on the season.
Freshman Cat McCoy tied Neal with six digs on the night, and junior Molly McCage led the squad with five blocks. Senior Khat Bell added six kills.
The Horns got out to a fast start in the first set, scoring the first six points and 10 out of the first 11 for a commanding 10-1 lead. They continued to control the set and extend their lead from there, eventually closing it out 25-12. Texas hit an impressive .643 in the set, and held the Bears to a -.069 hit percentage. Led by McCage with three, the Horns had five total blocks in the set, while Baylor had zero. Texas also capitalized on 11 Bear attacking errors while committing none themselves.
Set two generated much the same result, with the Longhorns getting out to an early 15-5 lead before putting the game away, 25-13. Eckerman led the way in set two, scoring six points, including the final two of the set on service aces. Baylor narrowed the lead to 18-13 for a short time, but seven straight points for Texas with Eckerman serving allowed the Horns to comfortably close out the set.
Baylor tried to keep it close in set three, tying the game at six apiece and drew within one at 9-8. However, the Horns were too strong and pulled out the final set, 25-17. Texas only had one attacking error in the final set, while Baylor had seven and hit an impressive .471 to .167 in route to the final game victory.
Katie Staiger, Laura Jones and Andie Malloy led the way for the Bears on the night, scoring eight, seven and seven points respectively.
The win improves Texas to 12-0 on the season and 4-0 in the Big 12. They will have a quick turnaround before hosting Texas Tech on Thursday, Oct. 9 at 7 p.m.
Head Coach Jerritt Elliott
Opening Statement
I'm pleased with what we did. Things that we've been working on, with our routines. It has been great. I think we've had two really good performances from both of our setters in the last two matches and I think we are getting in better form, we are feeling more comfortable about what we are doing. And as a result, I thought that we were just very efficient.
On not getting overconfident with these performances: We're not talking about being overconfident, we're talking about what we need to do. We've got a really good group of girls that understands what it takes to be great, and they want that. They need help in certain areas, in terms of reminders, to tell them what we want as a staff. They have pretty high goals and expectations, so it's about us getting better. We know that we can win enough games to get into the tournament and that at some point we could lose a game. But it's really about focusing, it's about improving and getting our continuity and getting better in the areas that we are working on practice.
On the performance of the defense: Our team came out and executed at a very high level. Our blocking has been getting better. It's a big part of our practice, we are doing the same thing every
single day in the gym getting good in those areas and we are starting to see some results from it .
On the balance of the team paying dividends: We're very balanced and we're very deep. The biggest challenge for me is just managing the team and trying to make sure that everyone understands what we're trying for. I can only play so many players at a time but we are very fortunate, because we have great chemistry and our second side has been pushing. It's creating opportunities to look at some different players.
On looking ahead at their match against Texas Tech:. It's what we need to get better. There's a lot of areas that we can just clean up. There are some things that we didn't do well tonight in terms of taking care of some balls. Just little things. I told the team this: At some point we've got to take accountability for being good throughout the entire match. We've got to put some matches together and this is a very good opportunity.
On if there was his first match where he didn't use a timeout: No, I've had some before. It's been awhile.
On if there's any difference today in comparison to the first three conference games: Not at all. I think it's just going through practice and the same routines. Over time we are just starting to gel together.
On the team's great serving night: Again, it all goes back to routine, doing the same thing over and over again. That translates over into the match what you do in practice, so I try to execute that.
