The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
10-2, 2-0Big 12
Baylor
12-4, 2-1Big 12
No. 5 Volleyball sweeps Baylor in Big 12 home opener
09.27.2017 | Volleyball
Sophomore Micaya White and freshman Lexi Sun led Texas with 11 kills apiece.
AUSTIN, Texas – No. 5 Texas Volleyball (10-2, 2-0) defeated Baylor (12-4, 2-1), 3-0 (25-19, 28-26, 25-17) in its Big 12 home opener on Wednesday evening.
Sophomore Micaya White and freshman Lexi Sun led Texas with 11 kills each, recording hitting percentages of .321 and .222, respectively. White added a season-high three service aces and five digs.
Junior Morgan Johnson led Texas with five blocks and a team-high .417 hitting percentage on seven kills. Freshman Ashley Shook and seniors Ebony Nwanebu and Chiaka Ogbogu all contributed three blocks to lead the Longhorn block to a 9-5 advantage.
Texas ended Baylor's four-match streak hitting .300 or above, holding the Bears to a .250 clip and recorded five service aces to Baylor's zero.
Shook posted her third-consecutive double-double and a sixth on the season, with team-highs of 31 assists and 15 digs. Senior Cat McCoy added 11 digs and tied her career-high mark with eight assists.
After Baylor held a narrow lead through a scrappy opening to the match, a block from Ogbogu tied the score at 5-5. With the teams then trading points, a tentative three-point advantage and Baylor's first timeout was drawn by a kill from Johnson to make it 19-16. Taking momentum from the middle blocker's only kill on the set, Texas executed a 6-3 run to secure the first frame, 25-13.
Gaining composure from taking the first set, Texas maintained a narrow lead opening the second. Despite kills from Sun, White, and Nwanebu leading Texas, Baylor answered by tying seven times and taking a 23-22 lead. After saving two set points, Texas rallied with consecutive points to edge the set on a kill from White, 28-26.
With a 2-0 match lead, Texas jumped out to an 8-5 lead in the third as Sun's 10th kill forced Baylor's first timeout of the third set. A Johnson block pushed the lead to five points, 12-7, with the Bears' second timeout coming as an ace from Claire Hahn widened the gap to seven, 16-9. After a block from Shook made it a ten-point lead, White sealed the sweep with a kill, 25-17.
On Saturday, Sept. 30, Texas will face Kansas State at Gregory Gym. Starting at 1 p.m., the match will be televised live on Longhorn Network.
Postgame Quotes
Head Coach Jerritt Elliott
On what the team showed him during the long second set: We were at 19-15 and then we missed a serve. They got a couple of breaks in terms of some mis-hits and got themselves back in the match. We were down though and fighting in that game. I think they had two swings for points to win the set and our block came though. We did a nice job with taking an area and making them be great. I thought we had some great composure. You look your team's reaction this time of year and I thought we were really calm and played well at the end of that set.
On what he has seen from Ashley Shook and Lexi Sun in their freshman season: For freshman it's always a little bit difficult. I think we started the season off trying to run a little bit of a faster set. Just the nerves and everything else caused us to not be very efficient. We had some matches where we had to win and slowed down the set a little bit more. Then we had some opportunities to change our play sets and now we're getting into more of a tempo. Sometimes you would like to do that early on in the season, but with the competition we had it was delayed. Now we're starting to develop it and work on it. It takes time in building that trust and we haven't been doing it for a long time. It got better and better as the match went on and obviously the numbers went up.
Freshman Setter Ashley Shook
On the defense setting the tone in the first set: I think we focused a lot this week on being relentless on defense with a lot of communication. That showed tonight. It was all communication-based and that's why we played so well.
On what's it is like to be the main setter for the fifth-ranked team in the country: I've been looking forward to it since I committed here. It's awesome that I'm finally here and the team has been so supportive and helpful to me. It's just been great to be out there and play with everyone. I've just been waiting.
Freshman Outsider Hitter Lexi Sun
On how her and Ashley Shook connected in the second set: Ashley (Shook) and I have been working a lot in practices just trying to get our groove down and trying to get the right set. I think all of our hard worked showed tonight.
On how she has developed her chemistry with Ashley Shook: Ashley (Shook) is a really hard worker. She stays calm and takes feedback very well. If you give her feedback she doesn't take it personally. She really works hard at getting you the perfect ball. I think off the court we've bonded a lot. Our rooms are one room away so we're basically neighbors. It's been really great playing with Ashley and it's been a great start to the year so far.
