The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
7-0
Florida A&M
0-9
No. 2 Volleyball improves to 7-0 after sweeping Longhorn Classic
09.13.2014 | Volleyball
Texas defeated UCF and Florida A&M to conclude the 26 West Longhorn Classic on Saturday.
AUSTIN, Texas – No. 2 Texas Volleyball improved to 7-0 after sweeping UCF and Florida A&M to win the 26 West Longhorn Classic on Saturday afternoon.
UT started the day with a 3-0 (25-17, 26-24, 25-9) defeat of UCF and followed with a 3-0 (25-18, 25-20, 25-13) win over Florida A&M.
The day's second victory marked Texas' 28th-straight win in Gregory Gymnasium.
As a team, the Longhorns posted 16 services aces and 23.0 blocks in both matches.
Amy Neal led Texas with 17 kills and 15 digs on the day, while sophomore transfer Paulina Prieto Cerame had 12 kills and eight blocks.
In addition, senior Haley Eckerman posted 14 kills and six aces, sophomore Chloe Collins had 40 assists and junior Sara Hattis added nine blocks on the day.
In the first match, Texas swept UCF behind a season-high ten services aces recorded by five players in the match.
In the first set, Texas led 8-6 and then went on a 5-0 run to build a 13-6 advantage. Texas never looked back and won the set 25-17.
UCF had set point in the second set at 24-22, but the Longhorns were able to rally and win the final four points and the set, 26-24.
The third set was all Texas and Eckerman as the Longhorns closed out the match with the 25-9 set victory. Eckerman had nine kills and three aces in the final set.
In the second match, UT battled with FAMU in the first set, trading points until the 13-13 mark. McCage and Prieto Cerame came up with two big blocks to execute a run and never trailed after that. The Longhorns took the first set, 25-18.
Freshmen Mirta Baselovic and Kate Palladino and junior Tiffany Baker made their weekend debuts in the second set, helping Texas out to a 9-5 lead. From there, UT kept a steady lead and finished the second set, 25-20.
Prieto Cerame paced UT in the third, jumping out to an early lead and closing the match, 25-13.
Texas will hit the road again next weekend to Lincoln, Neb. to take on No. 11 Nebraska on Saturday, Sept. 20 at 2 p.m.
26 West Longhorn Classic
MVP: Amy Neal, Texas
All-Tournament Team
Cat McCoy, Texas
Haley Eckerman, Texas
Madi Kingdon, Arizona
Penina Snuka, Arizona
DeLaina Sarden, UCF
Pamela Soriano, Florida A&M
Post-match Comments
Texas Head Coach Jerritt Elliott
On playing two games today: It's just great to get opportunities to get better. At our school, we don't have a lot of opportunities and time to get ready, so every time that we play it's an opportunity to gel. I thought we did a really nice job, we played hard. We had some really good stretches and a lot of good things to build off of. A lot of players got some playing time. We can evaluate some more in terms of our personnel so we are excited about it. This is obviously going to be a huge week and we look forward to it.
On the obstacles they faced in the second set against UCF: They played extremely well. We had a tough time. They played well. But we were calm at the end and we were able to pull it out. We need to be in some of those games. It's good to be tested and be pushed sometimes, get into a situation in which you've got to excel to win the game. They did that.
On playing so many players: That's the strength of our program. We just have so many good players right now. Those players have worked really hard. They haven't played that much, but we want to make sure that we give them as much time to see how they would do and give them some experience. It's a lot of fun to be a part of.
