The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
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Minnesota
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No. 5 Volleyball drops 3-1 decision to No. 1 Minnesota
09.08.2017 | Volleyball
Freshman Lexi Sun led Texas with 19 kills.
AUSTIN, Texas – No. 5 Texas Volleyball (6-2) fell to No. 1 Minnesota (8-0), 3-1 (25-21-25-27, 26-24, 25-19) on Friday night at Gregory Gym in the final match of the American Campus Classic.
Freshman Lexi Sun led the Longhorns for the sixth time this season with a career-high 19 kills, also adding 13 digs for her second-career double-double.
Sophomore Micaya White and junior Morgan Johnson also recorded double-digit kills, with Johnson tying her career-high with 11 kills on a team-leading .529 hitting percentage. White recorded 16 kills while adding four digs and three blocks.
Freshman Ashley Shook recorded her second consecutive double-double, leading the Longhorns with 43 assists and 17 digs. Senior Cat McCoy also finished with double-digit digs, posting a team-high 20.
Texas and Minnesota were tied for kills, with 61 apiece, while Minnesota outblocked the Longhorns, 12 to nine, marking the first time UT has been outblocked this season.
Beginning the match, Texas and Minnesota traded points through competitive rallies inside a raucous Gregory Gym. Taking the opening set's first three-point lead at 19-16, drawing a Texas timeout and again at 21-19, the Golden Gophers pushed to set point at 24-19. Texas saved two set points before Minnesota secured the frame, 25-21.
Minnesota carried a slim lead from early on in the second set, but with Texas keeping pace. The score remaining knotted, with the Longhorns gaining a set point advantage at 26-25 following five consecutive set-tying kills from Sun. On the next point, a block from Ogbogu and White gave Texas the set at 27-25.
After the Golden Gophers took a 6-3 lead to begin the third set, the two teams continued to trade points as Shook and McCoy paced the Longhorns' defense. Offensively, kills from White, Sun, and Johnson pushed Texas to challenge for the set, only for Minnesota to outlast the Longhorns, 26-24.
The fourth set began with Minnesota again earning an early lead, of up to three points at 7-4. With a strong presence at the net, the Golden Gophers restricted Texas' hitting power while stretching the lead to six at 18-12 and 22-16. Serving for match point at 24-19, Minnesota closed the match out.
The Longhorns will hit the road to take on Texas A&M on Wednesday, Sept. 13 at 7 p.m. The match will be televised live on the SEC Network.
American Campus Classic All-Tournament Team
MVP: Stephanie Samedy, Minnesota
All-Tournament Team:
Lexi Sun, Texas
Samantha Seliger-Swenson, Minnesota
Cat McCoy, Texas
Brittany Gilpin, Texas A&M Corpus Christi
Becca Latham, Denver
Alexis Hart, Minnesota
Post-Match Quotes
Head Coach Jerritt Elliot
On struggling versus Minnesota: I think they played very well. They were very disciplined with their scouting report. I think we could take better swings. I think we could have more of a purpose behind our swings. I think we could have a different aggression towards our swings. It's a couple of points here and a couple of points there in game three, and we've got a game five. We've just got to be able to perform better. Our serving was poor tonight. It was very easy and didn't put enough pressure on them. We just let them run their offense. That's very challenging.
Senior Libero Cat McCoy
On what Texas learned as a team tonight: I'm really happy a bunch of our fans came out to support us. It meant a lot to us. I just think we got caught up and were too emotional to start off the game. We have a lot of young players who are getting adjusted to the environments. It's so early in the season and we have a long way to go until December. It's sucks to lose in front of such a great crowd, but at the end of the day we're just going to get back to work and keep striving towards our goal.
Junior Middle Blocker Morgan Johnson
On if the team can rely on their experience from last season: Yeah, we don't know who we are or what systems we're going to stick with (until Big 12 Conference play). We usually don't hit the middle of our stride until the Big 12 season. This was a hard game, but it shows what we need to work on and what we need to get better at. We're just going to get better from here. When we get to the Big 12 season, we find out exactly who we are and what we're made of. That's when we hit our stride.