The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Oklahoma
No. 2 Volleyball preview: Oklahoma
11.09.2021 | Volleyball
The Longhorns return to Gregory Gym to host the Sooners on Thursday and Friday.
No. 2 Texas Volleyball vs. Oklahoma
Texas: 18-1 (9-1) | Oklahoma: 10-13 (4-8)
Thursday, Nov. 11 – 7 p.m. CT | Friday, Nov. 12 – 7 p.m. CT
Gregory Gymnasium | Austin, Texas
THE MATCHUP
Texas leads the all-time series against Oklahoma, 57-4, with the Longhorns winning all four matches last season. The teams met twice last fall in Big 12 play and in a pair of non-conference matches in the spring. The Longhorns have won the last 14 meetings over the Sooners, dating back to the 2014 season.
RANKINGS
For the first time this season, Texas has dropped out of the top spot and sits as the No. 2 ranked team in the AVCA Coaches' Poll. 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 Poll and remained in the top spot for 10-consecutive weeks. The Longhorns are one of two Big 12 teams in the top-25 as Baylor sits at No. 6.
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 .829 winning percentage is the best in program history.
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.
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 (144 aces in 65 sets). Melanie Parra leads the Big 12 with 41 aces and Logan Eggleston has 31. Asjia O'Neal has 24 aces and Nalani Iosia is fourth on the team with 19. In all, Texas has six players with 10 or more aces so far this season.
EFFICIENCY
Texas ranks third nationally with a .327 hitting percentage this season. Brionne Butler leads the Big 12, hitting .447, while Asjia O'Neal is hitting .371, Molly Phillips is at .359 and Skylar Fields is hitting .340. 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.
BLOCK PARTY
In recent weeks the Longhorn block has picked up steam, with nine or more total blocks in six-straight matches. With this recent block surge, Texas ranks No. 13 nationally with 2.67 blocks per set. Over the last six matches, the Longhorns are averaging 11 blocks per match and opponents are averaging just four. In the Oct. 21 match at Iowa State, Texas had a season-high 17 blocks, the most since having 20 blocks against Florida in 2018. Also in that match, the Longhorns held the Cyclones to a .000 hitting percentage, the lowest by an opponent since Albany in the 2019 postseason.
RANK AND FILE
UT owns a 128-56 (.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 4-1 against ranked opponents with wins over San Diego, Minnesota, Stanford and Baylor.
ROAD WARRIORS
The Longhorns have won 19 of their last 20 road matches dating back to the 2019 season. Since the 2011 season Texas has produced a 100-19 (.840) record in true road matches, with only four of those losses coming to unranked teams. The Longhorns' last two road losses have been against top-10 ranked Baylor.
WEEKLY AWARDS
• Logan Eggleston was named the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week for the second time this season and the seventh time in her career on Nov. 8. She helped Texas split a pair of matches on the road against No. 10 Baylor, handing the Bears their first sweep of the season. She led the league with 5.14 kills per set during the week, finishing with 36 kills in the two matches. Eggleston hit .333 and added 14 digs, three blocks and two service aces.
• 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.
CHAMPIONSHIP PEDIGREE
After clinching last season's Big 12 title, the Longhorns have won 26 conference championships, including 13 Big 12 titles and 13 Southwest Conference Championships. The 2020 title was the fourth-straight Big 12 Championship for the Longhorns, who have won or shared nine of the last 10 league championships and 12 of the previous 14.
FIVE ALL-AMERICANS
Texas returns five players who landed on the AVCA All-American teams in 2020, led by first teamers Logan Eggleston and Brionne Butler. Additionally, Jhenna Gabriel was named to the third team and Skylar Fields and Asjia O'Neal received Honorable Mention All-America accolades. Eggleston and Butler received their third All-American recognition, after being named second team All-Americans in 2019 and receiving honorable mention as freshmen in 2018.
PRESEASON AWARDS
Logan Eggleston was named the Preseason Big 12 Player of the Year and teammates Brionne Butler, Jhenna Gabriel, Skylar Fields and Asjia O'Neal joined her on the preseason team. The Longhorns were picked first in the Big 12 Preseason Poll for the 11th consecutive season and the 14th time in program history.
HONDA INSPIRATION AWARD WINNER
Asjia O'Neal was named the winner of the 2021 Honda Inspiration Award, presented annually by the Collegiate Women Sports Awards (CWSA). O'Neal recovered from open heart surgery in 2020 to help lead Texas to the runner-up finish at the NCAA Tournament. The heart surgery took place in January 2020 and was her second to repair a leak in her mitral valve, a condition she was born with. The surgery, which lasted more than eight hours, was extremely successful and there was no more leakage. O'Neal worked back to full strength and finished second in the Big 12 Conference with a .411 hitting percentage to go with 222 kills. She was named first team All-Big 12 and first team AVCA All-Region, as well as an Honorable Mention All-American. She also excelled in the classroom, being named to the Academic All-Big 12 First Team as a Corporate Communication major.
SCHOLAR-ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
Capping an incredible year filled with numerous honors, Logan Eggleston was named the 2021 Big 12 Volleyball Scholar-Athlete of the Year. The award came after Eggleston was already named the Big 12 Conference and AVCA Southwest Region Player of the Year, as a well as a First Team AVCA All-American. A management major, Eggleston has a 3.57 cumulative GPA and is a two-time Academic All-Big 12 First Team honoree.
