By Steve Habel/Associate Editor
About the only thing worse that seeing an Oklahoma player flash the “down Horns” sign while competing against Texas is watching the Sooners celebrate a win against the undisputed top squad on the 40 Acres – the Longhorns’ volleyball team.
Both happened Saturday when the unheralded Sooners stunned [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]No. 2 Texas 26-24, 26-24, 26-24 before a Gregory Gym-record crowd of 4,402 fans, in the process ending a handful of winning streaks for the Longhorns.
The loss killed the Longhorns’ hopes for an undefeated season and snapped Texas’ 34-match overall home victory streak as well as the team’s 34-match regular season win streak and the 44-match home Big 12 win run. All three were Texas records, but, thanks to OU, they’re all gone.
It was the first time since Sept. 3, 2010 against Illinois that the Horns have been swept at home (a span of 63 home matches) and the first time since Sept. 13, 2013 against Arizona State that Texas has lost a match in three games.
Those marks ended because the Longhorns (15-1 overall and 7-1 in conference play) played their worst match of the season and Oklahoma likely played its best. Texas, uncharacteristically, had 14 service errors (four each by Haley Eckerman and Pilar Victoria) and eight return errors.
Conversely, Oklahoma (15-6, 6-2 in league play) had 10 service errors and just lost just two points on return mistakes. That’s a 10-point swing in a match that was ultimately decided by six total points.
“Those are points we just gave away and you can’t do that when you’re not playing at your best and your opponent is,” Texas coach Jerritt Elliott said. “We just never got into any kind of rhythm and couldn’t find any way to get into a groove. That’s what happens when you keep shooting yourself in the foot.”
Texas outhit the Sooners .230-.179, had 41kills to OU’s 37 and outblocked the Sooners 13-7. But Oklahoma had 50 digs to Texas’ 44 and eight service aces to the Longhorns’ two. The match had 22 ties and 12 lead changes.
Eckerman led Texas with 10 kills but swung at just a .194 kill percentage. It was the third straight match and the seventh time this season that she has had double-digit kills.
Texas returns to the court Monday when Zhejiang, an upper-tier Chinese professional team, comes to town for the first of two matches in two nights at Gregory Gym. Zhejiang has already beaten TCU and Texas Tech on its current trip through the United States.
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