The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
4-1
Florida
4-0
No. 3 Volleyball falls to No. 4 Florida, 3-1
09.05.2015 | Volleyball
Senior Amy Neal posted a career-high 18 kills.
AUSTIN, Texas – No. 3 Texas Volleyball suffered its first loss of the season to No. 4 Florida, 3-1 (20-25, 25-21, 18-25, 26-24) on Saturday afternoon at Gregory Gym.
Senior Amy Neal posted a career-high 18 kills on 38 swings for a .316 hitting percentage. She also had two aces, six digs and two blocks for the Longhorns.
Juniors Chiaka Ogbogu and Paulina Prieto Cerame also had double-digit kills for Texas, both with 10, while Ogbogu led in blocks with three.
Junior Chloe Collins recorded her first double-double of the season with 44 assists and 10 digs, while also adding four kills.
In the first part of set one, Texas and Florida tied the score seven times until the Gators executed a series of runs and led by as many as five at 20-15. The Longhorns slowly chipped away and pulled to within two at 20-22, but Florida won the last three points to take the set, 25-20.
The Gators jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the second set and maintained one and two-point leads until Texas evened it at 16 after back-to-back kills by McCage. Florida regained the lead again at 17-16, but the Horns fought back once again and took their first lead of the set at 18-17. Texas extended its lead to a 21-17 advantage, but the Gators evened it again at 21. From there, UT won four-straight points to take the set, 25-21 and even the match, 1-1.
The third set looked similar to the first, as Florida and Texas started close, tying seven times until 9-9, when the Gators went on a 3-1 to take a 13-10 lead. From there, the Longhorns pulled to within two points, but could not close the gap and the Gators closed the set, 25-18.
In the fourth set, Florida took control early, jumping out to a 6-3 lead and keeping a steady advantage until Texas tied it at 12 with back-to-back kills. The Gators sustained the lead until the Horns tied it back at 12. Neither team led by more than one until Florida took a 19-17 lead, but Texas rallied back and retook the lead at 22-21. The Gators then won three-straight points and the Longhorns saved two match points, but the third match point gave Florida the set, 26-24 and the match, 3-1.
Texas will host the Texas Classic on Friday, Sept. 11 and Sunday, Sept. 13, beginning with UTSA at 12:30 p.m. and Santa Clara at 7:30 p.m. at Gregory Gym.
2015 VERT CHALLENGE ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Tournament MVP - Rhamat Alhassan, Florida
Mackenzie Dagostino, Florida
Ziva Recek, Florida
Amy Neal, Texas
Chiaka Ogbogu, Texas
Kelly Hunter, Nebraska
Kelsey Fien, Nebraska
Amanda Benson, Oregon
Martenne Bettendorf, Oregon
POSTGAME QUOTES
Head Coach Jerritt Elliott
On his thoughts on the match: We've had this squad for the last week, so it's not that big of an adjustment. Obviously, we haven't trained with it for a couple days. I felt like the beginning of the match was… I was very disappointed in our commitment to compete. We were very soft today and I don't think we battled and ultimately I don't think we ever believed we could win that match. You could just see it in their eyes. That's the thing that's most disappointing, is that we can win a big match but emotionally we're not mature enough to come back and battle.
On the team's blocking: Well, I mean, the middles were dominant with their numbers. We were a step behind on everything we usually were today… defensively, blocking-wise, all of our little touches that we had, over passes, our serving game… I mean, there was nothing that was consistent. We put a couple of runs together, but we never controlled ball and for the most part we were dominated in every facet of the game.
On going back to training: We got to go back and watch film and talk to them about the mentality side of it. Your hope is that they have a little bit of pride and they come back and battle, you know, the cohesive unit. In game two they came back and won that and they weren't able to sustain it. You learn a lot about the pressures. Give Florida credit, they were starting out at a very high level and that rattled us a little bit and we just never got into a groove. It's like 22-21 and we get a hover pass and we're not ready for it we're throwing the ball and it's 22 all. You look at the number of errors we had… we had 44 in a four-game match. We need to be about five or six, and a lot of that is mental.
On Amy Neal's performance: She makes a lot of good attack selections. I think she was getting a feel for the ball, she was hitting the high hands, and rolling the court with it. She's been steady for us. She had average passing and I wish her shooting was a little bit better, and she wasn't able to find that route. She's improving in that area and so we need her to be a good 0-2. For her to post those kinds of numbers against that kind of team is great for us.
On Florida's performance: We were just stuck behind. Again, we had plenty of opportunities to win game four. I thought we were up and we got some touches and you just can't get teams that way. I think we had five over passes and we only converted on one of them. If you're a top ten team you should convert on every one of those. But they've got great players and they were in synch a lot better than we were and they believed and were fighting and were more competitive than us.
On Florida's passing: I thought [Ziva] Recek did a nice job. We got them in some situations where we could control the ball, but they were passing well. When they're passing they've got two of the best middles in the country. I mean, [Rhamat] Alhassan… she's at a highest point. And you know you can't do anything early on. One of our freshmen was asking about what to do and I was like you can't do anything. So there are certain parts of this game that physicality won't have answers to, but you've got to do a good job from the service line and get them in a system and hit the zones.
On not having Ebony [Nwanebu] in today's game: You just lose a lot of transition swings. First ball is okay, but we've got to be able to solve that problem.
Senior Outside Hitter Amy Neal:
On what the difference was between last night and today: I think the beginning of game one was slow, and I don't think we ever really responded. We tried. I mean we obviously started playing better, but I don't think we were ever really going after it. I think it was less focused, timid, and we just kind of looked scared out there. I think last night we were a lot more aggressive with our mentality.
On playing without Ebony Nwanebu: We have been playing without her all preseason, and I don't think it has anything to do with that. We just started off slow and we just waited too long to respond.
On what they learned over the weekend: Just that this is the type of competition we will see later on in regionals and in the regional finals. And I think it is good we did this early so we know that it is going to happen later on in the season, and on just knowing on to bounce back.
On practices moving forward: I think it will make us more competitive and we will realize that anyone can beat us. Florida is a very good team and has very good middles. So I just think it will show us what we need to work on and make us more competitive to take every game really seriously and wake up when the game is more on the line.
Junior Middle Blocker Chiaka Ogbogu
On the difference between last night and today: Yeah, it is just all about mentality. Like she said game one was slow only because we didn't approach that game like it mattered, or that we wanted to win.
On playing without Ebony: I think the approach to any game should be the same no matter the lineup; so that should not be an excuse.
On what they learned over the weekend: It also shows us on what we need to work on. So we can practice and I'm sure our coaches will get on us for what we need to work on. So I think it is a good lesson that we learned. It is not ever good to lose, but I think we learned a lot from that game.
On how they will respond: Just how we compete in each game. I think the reason why we schedule these tough matches is to see how we will respond. But I think as far as the team goes, like Amy said, it is just going to make us more competitive. And the good thing is that it is preseason. At the end of the day it is not the end of the world. So we are just going to go back to practice and work on the things we need to work on.
