By Steve Habel, Senior Editor
AUSTIN, Texas — There’s a lot to be said about the Texas volleyball team’s continued string of success and five — count ’em, five — straight trips to the NCAA semifinals, especially considering the different skillsets of the players the Longhorns have put on the court since 2011.
Alas, UT has just one national championship, in 2012, to show for the past four appearances in the NCAA championship tournament.
This year’s attempt to add another banner to [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]the rafters of venerable Gregory Gym is daunting, and it continues Thursday when fourth-seeded Texas squares off against Nebraska, the nation’s top-ranked team, in the second national semifinal at 8:30 p.m. CST at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.
The Longhorns (26-4) lost in three sets to Nebraska (31-2) at the VERT Classic in Eugene, Ore., on the opening weekend of the 2016 season and the sting from that defeat still resonates with Texas coach Jerritt Elliott and his team, even more than the Longhorns’ loss to the Cornhuskers in last year’s national championship match.
The Huskers won, 25-15, 25-16, 25-21, back in late August as Texas hit only .140, its only sub-.200 hitting percentage performance of the entire season.
“(The loss to Nebraska earlier this year) was one of the biggest beatings I’ve taken as a head coach,” said Elliott, who took over Texas’ program in 2001 and has taken the Longhorns to eight of the past nine Final Fours (every year from 2008 through 2016 except 2011). “They are a different team now, but so are we. I really think we are peaking at the right time.”
The winner of the second semifinal will square off against either Minnesota or Stanford in the championship match.
The Texas team that lost to Nebraska in August was nowhere near the team the Longhorns have become in the three-and-a-half months since. Texas is peaking, having won seven consecutive matches after a five-set loss Nov. 12 to Iowa State that ultimately cost it the Big 12 Championship.
“I am excited to play Nebraska again, just knowing that we have changed so much and developed as a team,” Texas senior setter Chloe Collins said. “Coming into this match, we have a certain confidence because of how we’ve been playing this past month-and-a-half.”
Texas defeated UT-Rio Grande Valley, SMU, BYU and Creighton in the first four matches of the NCAA tournament, each of which was played at Gregory Gym.
Freshman outside hitter Micaya White has led the Longhorns in kills with 56 (4.0 per set), hitting .324 and service aces with six (0.43 per set) and has the team’s second-highest mark with 50 kills (3.57 per set). Junior outside hitter Ebony Nwanebu has 54 kills (3.86), hitting .467 and senior outside hitter Paulina Prieto Cerame has 48 kills (3.43), hitting .283 and 10 blocks (0.71).
Junior libero Cat McCoy has led Texas in digs with 62 (4.43/set) and sophomore outside hitter Yaasmeen Bedart-Ghani has led in blocks with 17 (1.21), also posting 28 kills (2.00) and hitting .522.
UT’s NCAA semifinal appearance is its 12th all-time, and Elliott has coached the Longhorns to eight Final Four appearances in his 16 seasons on the 40 Acres. Texas is 5-6 all-time in NCAA semifinal matches and is 87-30 (.744) all-time in NCAA tournament matches.
Nebraska is led by seniors Kadie and Amber Rolfzen. The twins are averaging 3.19 and 1.96 kills per set, respectively.
Elliott lauded the Huskers’ serve-receive acumen and Nebraska’s overall balance and experience.
“They’re the No. 1 team in the country for a reason,” he said.
Both Texas and Nebraska had to fight to get to the Final Four, each team surviving five-set challenges in the regional semifinals (when the Longhorns beat BYU and the Cornhuskers came from behind to eliminate Penn State) despite playing all of its matches at home.
Texas and Nebraska have met six times in the past four seasons, with the Longhorns holding a 4-2 advantage. Two of those meetings have been in the NCAA Tournament: in 2015, Nebraska won in the title game, while in 2013 Texas won in Regional Final).
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