By Riley Zayas
AUSTIN, Texas — As usual when it comes to the Forty Acres, it was an exciting, spirit-filled, winning week in the Texas sports world. Many of the teams and athletes secured key victories, including the volleyball team’s win over the nation’s No. 1 team, twins facing off on the tennis court and baseball and softball home run hitting in fall action — all that and more is in this edition of “411 on the Forty!”
The No. 1-ranked volleyball team [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]started it off well, playing host to the biggest match in college volleyball last Wednesday. Then ranked at No. 4, the Horns took on top-ranked Baylor at Gregory Gymnasium in a matchup of undefeated teams in conference play. All night, Texas put up block after block, tallying 12.0 blocks as a team with Brionne Butler contributing eight. Redshirt freshman Asjia O’Neal celebrated her birthday with five kills to go along with three digs. In addition, sophomore Logan Eggleston knocked down five kills along with five aces. Because of these contributions, the Horns rolled over the Bears, 3-0 (25-19, 25-10, 25-19) in perhaps the biggest conference match of the season. That thrilling performance was followed up by two more victories later in the week. On the road Saturday afternoon at Kansas, the Longhorns beat the Jayhawks, 3-0, and then swept Texas Tech Wednesday in Lubbock. Now ranked No. 1, UT faces off against Big 12 foe West Virginia Saturday in Austin.
The volleyball team’s success was followed by an inspiring and hard-fought performance by the women’s tennis team’s Bianca Turati at the HEB Women’s Pro Tennis Open last weekend in Austin. In a two-and-a-half-hour match Sunday against her twin sister and fellow Longhorn, Anna, Bianca came away with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory to claim the singles title. The Turatis not only are family and teammates at UT, but also were the top two seeds in the tournament (Bianca was the top seed with Anna at No. 2). Just a day before, the twins teamed up to win the doubles title over the No. 1-seeded team of Texas junior Fernanda Labrana and Melany Solange Krywoj.
The baseball and softball teams kicked off their fall schedules this past weekend as well.
The softball team played its second game of the fall schedule against Tarleton State and picked up a 10-6 win Saturday afternoon, and then knocked off Vernon College a couple of hours later, 5-3. Shannon Rhodes went 2-for-3 to lead the UT offense against Tarleton, smashing a homer and a double and driving in three. Her day at the plate got even better when she hit another home run against Vernon. Miranda Elish anchored Texas on the mound against Tarleton State allowing just a run over four-and-a-third innings with four strikeouts. Now 2-1 in conference play with the only loss coming to LSU a few weeks ago, the Longhorns return to action this weekend, when they will play two doubleheaders. Saturday’s slate starts at noon with St. Edwards followed by a visit from Temple College. On Sunday, the team takes on St. Mary’s and McLennan Community College.
The baseball team scrimaged McLennan Community College in a 16-inning showdown at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. Because the scrimmage was an exhibition, no score was reported, but the Longhorns did get a home run from freshman infielder Brenden Dixon. Next Sunday, the Horns host San Jacinto College for another scrimmage at 2 p.m.
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