The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Baylor
No. 1 Volleyball preview: at No. 10 Baylor
11.04.2021 | Volleyball
The Longhorns and Bears will square off in a pair of top-10 matchups on Friday and Saturday.
No. 1 Texas Volleyball at No. 10 Baylor
Texas: 17-0 (8-0) | Baylor: 13-4 (7-1)
Friday, Nov. 5 – 8 p.m. CT | Saturday, Nov. 6 – 6 p.m. CT
Ferrell Center | Waco, Texas
THE MATCHUP
Texas leads the all-time series against Baylor, 88-3, with the Longhorns winning all four matches last season. The teams met twice last fall in Big 12 play, with the Longhorns winning both matches in five sets. In the spring, Texas defeated Baylor in a pair of non-conference matches in preparation for the NCAA Tournament. The Longhorns' last loss in a road Big 12 match was at Baylor in 2019.
RANKINGS
Texas remains as the No. 1 ranked team in the 2021 AVCA Poll for the 10th-consecutive week. Returning nearly the entire roster from the team that finished as the NCAA runner-up last season, Texas was picked first in the Preseason AVCA Coaches' Poll. The Longhorns are one of two Big 12 teams in the top-25 as Baylor sits at No. 10.
ELLIOTT MAKES TEXAS HISTORY
On Oct. 22 at Iowa State, Texas head coach Jerritt Elliott won his 523rd match at Texas, making him the winningest coach in Texas Longhorns Volleyball history. He surpassed Mick Haley, who won 522 matches at Texas from 1980-96. Elliott's career .830 winning percentage is the best in program history.
UNDEFEATED
With a 17-0 record, the Longhorns are one of two remaining undefeated teams. Texas has swept 11 matches this season and only dropped seven total sets, while in eight Big 12 matches the Longhorns have won six via sweep and only dropped three out of 27 sets played. Last season, the Longhorns started the season 20-0 before dropping their only regular season match. Louisville is also undefeated at 21-0 and sits second in the AVCA poll.
HOME COURT ADVANTAGE
A large part of the Longhorns winning nine of the last 10 Big 12 Championships has come down to winning at home. Texas has won 55-straight home matches in Big 12 play, dating back to the 2014 season. During that streak, the Longhorns have had 42 sweeps and only dropped a total of 16 sets. Over the last 11 seasons, the Longhorns have gone 91-1 in home league matches. The Longhorns' only home Big 12 loss since 2010 came against Oklahoma on Oct. 25, 2014.
ROAD WARRIORS
The Longhorns have been great on the road too, winning 18-straight road matches dating back to the 2019 season. Since the 2011 season Texas has produced a 99-18 (.846) record in true road matches, with only four of those losses coming to unranked teams. The Longhorns' last road loss was in five-sets at then-No. 3 Baylor in 2019.
EFFICIENCY
Texas ranks third nationally with a .321 hitting percentage this season. Brionne Butler leads the Big 12, hitting .433, while Asjia O'Neal is hitting .367, Molly Phillips is at .365 and Skylar Fields is hitting .335. All four players rank in the top-10 in the Big 12. Last season, Texas hit .334 on the season to finish third in the nation. That mark was also the fourth-best in Longhorn history. The 2019 team led the nation with a .325 hitting percentage, which is the fifth-best in Texas history. The Longhorns hit over a .300 clip in each of the last six seasons from 2015-20, all ranking in the top-10 single season marks in program history.
ACE IN THE HOLE
The Longhorn service game has been lethal early this season, currently ranking second in the nation with 2.22 aces per set (129 aces in 58 sets). Melanie Parra leads the Big 12 with 39 aces and Logan Eggleston has 29. Asjia O'Neal has 21 aces and Nalani Iosia is fourth on the team with 16. In all, Texas has six players with nine or more aces so far this season.
WEEKLY AWARDS
• Asjia O'Neal picked up the Longhorns' fourth weekly award of the season, being named Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week on Oct. 26. O'Neal had a tremendous blocking performance in a pair of road wins over Iowa State. She had back-to-back nine block efforts to tally 18 total blocks on the weekend. O'Neal also added 10 kills, three aces and three digs over the two matches.
• Skylar Fields was named the AVCA National Player of the Week and the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week following the back-to-back sweeps of West Virginia. Fields finished with 31 kills and hit .537 over the two matches.
• Logan Eggleston and Skylar Fields were the back-to-back recipients of the Big 12 Conference Offensive Player of the Week award, Sept 7 and Sept. 14. Eggleston was awarded on Sept. 7 following wins over No. 10 Minnesota and No. 20 Stanford. She had 30 total kills (4.29 kills per set) and finished with 17 digs, six blocks and one service ace. Fields won the award after wins over Texas State, Arizona and Notre Dame in which she totaled 43 kills and a .380 hitting percentage.
RANK AND FILE
UT owns a 127-55 (.696) record against ranked opponents over the last 18 seasons (2004-21) and boasts a 59-12 (.829) home mark against ranked opponents at Gregory Gymnasium (56-12) and the Frank Erwin Center (3-0) during that span. So far this season, Texas is 3-0 against ranked opponents with wins over San Diego, Minnesota and Stanford.
