The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Texas Tech
No. 2 Volleyball sweeps Texas Tech at home
10.17.2015 | Volleyball
The Longhorns recorded their sixth-straight match hitting .300 or better.
AUSTIN, Texas – No. 2 Texas Volleyball defeated Texas Tech, 3-0 (25-18, 25-23, 25-17) on Saturday inside Gregory Gym to improve to 16-1 on the season and undefeated (6-0) in Big 12 play.
Senior Amy Neal led the Longhorns with 19 kills and a season-high 12 digs, with her second-best hitting mark of the season at .485.
Junior Chiaka Ogbogu led Texas in blocks with eight for her second-best mark of the season and second-straight match with eight or more blocks. Ogbogu also posted nine kills hitting .471. She has hit .400 or better in 10 of Texas' 17 matches this season.
Freshman Yaazie Bedart-Ghani also had an exceptional hitting night with her six kills on 10 swings (.400).
As a team, Texas made it six-straight with hitting percentages of over .300 (.351) while holding Texas Tech to .143.
The Longhorns maintained a narrow lead over Texas Tech early in the first set until the Red Raiders pulled within one at 14-13 after a kill. It was all Texas from that point on, including a 5-0 run featuring kills from Neal and junior Paulina Prieto-Cerame that gave Texas the first set, 25-18.
Senior Kat Brooks opened the second set with an ace for the Longhorns, who cruised to an early 7-2 advantage. The Red Raiders then battled back with an 11-3 run to give them a 13-10 lead heading into a Texas timeout. Kills from Ogbogu and Neal tied the score again at 13. Texas Tech continued to fight back and held a 23-19 lead until the tides turned for Texas, who went on an unanswered 6-0 run behind the strong serving of Brooks once again to take the set, 25-23.
Texas trailed in the beginning of the third set, but back-to-back blocks by junior Chloe Collins, Bedart-Ghani and Ogbogu gave Texas a 9-7 advantage. The Longhorns kept the momentum and closed out the set, 25-17 and the match, 3-0.
Texas will return to action on Wednesday, Oct. 21 in Manhattan, Kan., to take on the Kansas State Wildcats. The match is scheduled for 6 p.m. and will be broadcast live on ESPNU.
Post-match Comments
Head Coach Jerritt Elliott
Opening statement: It was great to have a sold-out crowd and the city of Austin to come out and support us, it's always nice to have a full venue. It was kind of a match that had lots of ups and downs, at least on our side. It wasn't as smooth as we'd like to be, but I think we stayed down and we saw some change with the team and got some good matchups. I thought our passing was really good tonight--our serving hurt us a lot, but I was most impressed with the way we came back in game two. At that point, I think the team kind of got into a good focus and were able to kind of battle a bit and put us in a position to win that game and win the third game.
On getting and keeping players focused throughout the year: Well that's the challenge, right? The discussion was, I thought we had a really good week of practice. I think we've been playing well we need to control our mentality. Do I think they're threatened? No, but I think they know they're a good team. And more importantly, I hope they're respecting the way that we play the game, go about business and continue to build on that. But at the end of the day, we were really erratic in game two and sometimes that can be a good thing, because we haven't been in the opportunities to be in that situation, to feel that way. And if we can address those and use those as learning points, I think that's the key to the development side of it.
On looking forward to next week's match against Kansas State: Kansas State is going to be tough at home. They beat Oklahoma pretty badly last night on their floor and hit better than we did against them at home. We know what that game's about. I think we'll have to discuss it and we'll have our leadership make sure they discuss it. If you overlook Kansas State on the road you're going to come back home with a loss. I think the advantage we have is that we've been in this situation. The upperclassmen know that a loss is a loss. You can't look ahead and you just have to take one game at a time. I think we'll prepare really well for Kansas State and be ready for them, because they'll be very, very good. We'll have a huge crowd and we have a great student section.
On having veteran leadership on the team: Well it's great. The leadership on our team has been really solid this year. I think there's a lot of trust within this team and I think they trust each other. They know they can look each other in the eye when its crunch time and I think they have a lot of confidence and they get the job done.
Senior Outside Hitter Amy Neal
On what made her so successful tonight: I would say trusting my teammates and trusting the system. I think Chloe's doing a really good job of putting up really good sets for me. And just managing my game. I think that's the biggest thing I've been focusing on this year. 'Don't swing away, and if you're blocked, don't expect to get a kill every time. Use the line, put it in the court when it's a bad set, manage our game and take smart swings.'
On how she developed discipline as a player this year: My coaches have really put that in my mind--make the ball your friend, put it in the right spot on the court to get the team out of system and to give us a free ball back. So not going for a kill every single set I get and just placing it to get a good ball back to run our offense.
Junior Middle Blocker Chiaka Ogbogu
On big blocks in the second set and how it impacted Texas Tech's confidence in the third set: Erik [Sullivan] really stresses that we need to be low and over when we're blocking, because not many teams are going to hit over us. But as long as we're low and over and pressing and talking to each other with our timing, we usually get touches on it. So we just need to trust our teammates and talk to each other.
On looking at the team and how ready they will be when tournament time starts: Like Jerritt has been saying, we've been building a lot of confidence within our team over the past couple games. We played hard the past four or five games. We're not looking ahead to the tournament, we're working on what we need to work on to finish out the Big 12 tournament. But so far, we're playing well together.
