The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
8-2
UTSA
2-10
No. 6 Volleyball sweeps UTSA in San Antonio
09.19.2017 | Volleyball
Three Longhorns recorded double-digit kills on a hitting percentage of .324 or better.
SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- No. 6 Texas Volleyball (8-2) swept UTSA (2-10), 3-0 (25-18, 26-24, 25-22) on Tuesday night at Convocation Center.
Three Longhorns recorded double-digit kills with a hitting percentage of .324 or above. Junior Yaasmeen Bedhart-Ghani led the team at a .556 clip on 11 kills, sophomore Micaya White hit .375 on a team-high 17, and freshman Lexi Sun finished with 13 kills, hitting .324.
Texas was paced by freshman Ashley Shook's team-leading 37 assists, who added 11 digs for a double-double. Senior Cat McCoy led Texas in digs, with 14.
Texas outblocked UTSA 14-2 as four Longhorns recorded five or more blocks. Senior Chiaka Ogbogu and junior Morgan Johnson led with six, while Bedhart-Ghani and White added five.
The home-team Roadrunners began the first set keeping pace with Texas' scoring, as the two teams traded points. With the Longhorns' defense absorbing UTSA's opening attacks, Texas steadily grew an advantage of five points before a timeout from the Roadrunners at 13-8. Outblocking UTSA six to zero on the set and with White's team-leading five kills pushing the advantage to as wide as eight points, Texas closed out the frame at 25-18.
Texas' run continued into the second set as five-consecutive Texas kills from Sun fueled a 10-5 lead. But UTSA surged back, taking a 12-10 lead and pacing competitive rallies. With the lead changing hands six times and being tied 16 times as the teams exchanged points, it was the Roadrunners that edged to a set point at 24-23. But saved by a block from Johnson and White to tie at 24-24, the Longhorns secured the following points and the set, 26-24.
Texas was again playing from behind beginning the third set as a UTSA program-record 2,711 crowd cheered the Roadrunners to a five-point lead at 15-10. The gap remained five-points on a Texas timeout at 22-17, only for back-to-back kills from Bedart-Ghani to draw the Longhorns within two at 22-19. With Texas spurred to a scoring run, a towering block from White and Ogbogu secured a match point before a kill from Ogbogu herself sealed a three-set win.
Up next, Texas will open Big 12 Conference play with a road match against West Virginia on Saturday, Sept. 23. The match is set for noon CT in Morgantown, W.V.
Texas Head coach Jerritt Elliott
On finishing sets against UTSA: I thought that the way that we responded and the way that we played, just thought that our energy levels, how we play the game, moving the ball was at a much higher level at the end of those games.
On what he's learned about his team though non-conference play: It's going to be a tough season. Everyone comes out for Texas and there's no nights that we get off. So we've got to buckle down and be ok with being good for long periods of time. And I don't feel like we have been great.
Senior libero Cat McCoy
On fighting back to take sets through the match: It says a lot about the toughness of the whole team, we just need to play like that all the time. We just talked about that in the locker room, so it just runs so smoothly, everyone all doing their jobs. I'm really proud of the way that we fought back.
On readiness for Big 12 Conference play: We've been on the road a lot in some crazy environments. This was obviously a really good environment tonight, I think that they had their highest match capacity. It's just a good way to test us over the season and it's going to help us later on in the year.
