By Steve Lansdale
AUSTIN, Texas — The No. 4-seeded University of Texas volleyball team improved its season record to 23-4 with a relatively easy 25-14, 25-16, 25-17 sweep of UT-Rio Grande Valley in the first round of the NCAA Tournament Friday at Gregory Gym. The victory pushes the Longhorns through to the second round at 7 p.m. Saturday, when they will face SMU, which improved to 26-7 this season after sweeping Texas A&M, 25-23, 25-23, 25-18.
The victory stretched to 30 the Longhorns’ streak of [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]victories in the first round of the NCAA tournament, and improved their record of NCAA matches played in Austin to 64-9 and all NCAA tournament matches to 84-30.
Sophomore Yaasmeen Bedart-Ghani led UT with career highs in kills (13) and hitting percentage (.929). Her hitting percentage is the best in a match by any Texas player (with a minimum of six kills) this season. Her performance was even more important considering she played middle blocker Friday, but normally is an outside hitter.
“We were lacking in that position — not by talent, but by experience,” Texas head coach Jerritt Elliott said when asked about the decision to move Bedart-Ghani into the middle. “When we lost obviously Chiaka [Ogbogu] and being able to get Orie [Agbaji], we knew Orie is a really good volleyball player for us, but she doesn’t have a lot of experience at the high end and so the game was a little fast for her to able to catch up. The one that Yaazie always has is that she has the best demeanor on our team and she doesn’t get rattled. She stays steady and I just threw her into practice and told her, ‘try to hit a couple of these balls, let me see what it looks like.’ We got one of the lazier ones, and that’s why our quickest is not as quite as fast as the other ones but she was able to do that. We started doing some box transitioning to see what she could do. After about a week or two, I was just training her over a period of time and I felt confident in what she could do and she’s developed.
“The other side is that she’s worked extremely hard to get in the best shape she has ever been in and so she’s jumping higher she is more confident now. I think she feels great and understands the game at a higher level and she’s been able to adapt. Her blocking game has gotten better. Her transitioning footwork has gotten better and her trust. Both of our middles are playing at a higher level than they have at the first half or three quarters of our season.”
The sweep was UT’s 11th of the season, and improves the Longhorns’ record this season in Gregory Gym to 14-1. Texas hit .300 or better for the 13th time this season.
Senior Paulina Prieto-Cerame said she was pleased with her team’s performance, but said the Longhorns realize the victory over UTRGV is just the first step in their postseason.
“It’s awesome,” Prieto-Cerame said. “The way we came out with energy and knowing that UT Rio Grande Valley would come out with energy as well and the way that we kept composed, I was very happy about that. So we’re just taking it one game at a time and we’re looking forward to SMU tomorrow.”
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