The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
17-2, 9-0Big 12
West Virginia
14-9, 3-7Big 12
No. 3 Volleyball sweeps West Virginia at home
10.28.2017 | Volleyball
Senior Chiaka Ogbogu led the Longhorns with 11 kills and seven blocks.
AUSTIN, Texas. – Senior Chiaka Ogbogu finished with 11 kills and seven blocks to lead No. 3 Texas (17-2, 9-0) past West Virginia (14-9, 3-7), 3-0 (25-19, 28-26, 25-17) on Saturday evening at Gregory Gym.
Ogbogu's 11 kills came on 22 swings and only three errors, finishing with a .364 hitting percentage.
Sophomore Micaya White posted nine kills for the Longhorns, recording no errors to hit .321, while senior Ebony Nwanebu finished with seven kills, also with no errors for a .538 efficiency. Junior Morgan Johnson recorded a team-high .556 hitting percentage, with six kills and one error on nine swings.
Senior Cat McCoy recorded her 18th match with double-digit digs with 12, tying the all-time career digs record set by Demetria Sance in 1998. White also finished with double-digit digs with 11.
Freshman Ashley Shook finished with 33 assists, also posting six digs and four kills.
The Longhorns outblocked their opponent for the 18th time this season with an 8.0 to 1.0 advantage.
Texas began the match with four unanswered points on McCoy's service, forcing a West Virginia timeout at 4-0. Unable to capitalize on the lead, the Longhorns were limited to a .222 clip when the Mountaineers drew within one at 19-18. Continuing to hold the slim advantage through the set, Texas clinched a 25-19 finish when forcing a 10th error from the visitors.
The Longhorns again gained early momentum as a White service ace opened a 6-3 lead in the second set. Despite eight kills from White and seven from Ogbogu leading offensively, West Virginia tied eight times before taking a 19-18 lead. Texas rallied with White and Ogbogu combining defensively with a block to tie at 22-22. After six more ties, Sun terminated a kill and the set at 28-26.
After battles to take the first two sets, Texas had to come from two points behind in the third frame to tie at 11-11. Texas' first two-point lead came on a White kill to end a long rally, starting an 11-2 run for the Longhorns to secure the match with a 25-17 finish for the third set.
Texas will hit the road again to take on Kansas State on Wednesday, Nov. 1 at 8 p.m. The match will be televised live on ESPNU.
Postgame Quotes
Head Coach Jerritt Elliott
On how he handles close situations like the second set: We train for it. There's in-system and out-of-system. When you're in-system things are rolling and when you're out-of-system you've got to manage your game at a high level and be really good at it. You just need to be methodical about the system we run - our blocking scheme, our defenses that we run behind that, and trust in it. We can't give free outs. We gave a lot of free outs just from some positioning that we were in. But they pulled it together in game two when it was a little rocky. Credit to them, when we came out down 4-0 in the game three and then snapped back into it. We've just got to be able to do things longer to give ourselves a shot at being great.
On the quick turnaround against Kansas State: We've got a day of rest again. Then we're going to get back and train really hard. We're going to focus on what their strengths are and being able to execute from our side of the net.
Senior Middle Blocker Chiaka Ogbogu
On her general thoughts about the game: I thought West Virginia did a good job serving tough and then just coming on the court and not making many errors. It put a bit of pressure on us and I think we did well responding even though all of our touches weren't the cleanest.
On continuing the rhythm she has going on: I think that with more practice, getting comfortable, and just working on the things that we need to work on has helped us get better.
On the sold out crowd during tonight game: I mean it's awesome playing at home in front of this crowd and we've been away for a while, so it's nice to see that our crowd is behind us and that we basically had a sold out crowd. It was just cool to see our fans come out and support us.
On keeping the control during the end of the second set: Our talk has just been about staying calm in those situations. I think that just remembering our routine and going back to the basics has really helped us just not be frantic and just do what we do.
