No. 2 Texas volleyball cruises past Albany in NCAA first-round sweep

By James Schleicher
Editor

AUSTIN, Texas — Tournament time resumed for the No. 2 Texas volleyball team with a 3-0 sweep of Albany: 25-9, 25-16, 25-15 in front of a crowd of 3,532 at Gregory gym Thursday night. The win makes the Horns a perfect 33-0 in NCAA Tournament first-round play.

“Our goal tonight was to try to find some rhythm,” Texas head coach Jerritt Elliott said, “to get ourselves comfortable in this NCAA tournament. I thought, offensively, we did a really nice job. We played steady pretty much the entire match and I’m pleased with what we did.”

The Longhorns (22-3) made the Great Danes look not so great, leading from wire-to-wire in the first two sets. Albany led for a few early points[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] in the third set, and managed to stay within striking distance before Texas eventually pulled away midway through the third set and then cruised to the match win.

“I think we played smooth,” senior outside hitter Micaya White said. “We found our rhythm and just tried to build some trust before tomorrow.”

Albany (16-11) proved almost completely overmatched by the Longhorns and trailed in almost every statistical category save for service errors (UT committed 12, compared to six by Albany). UT’s arsenal outhit Albany, .514-.028, and Texas had 43 kills to Albany’s 19.

“We came out and executed at a really high level,” Elliott said. “Our blocking and transition game was really good. We really managed our errors. The only area that was a little bit disappointing tonight was our serving, but we can fix that by tomorrow night.”

White led Texas with 13 kills, followed closely by freshman Skylar Fields and sophomore Logan Eggleston who had 10 kills apiece. Sophomore Jhenna Gabriel had 33 assists to keep the offense rolling steady.

Defensively Texas controlled the match and had 18 blocks, compared to Albany’s 4. Elliott said he said he had no complaints on his team’s play in the first-round win.

“I thought everyone was dialed in,” Elliott said. “Our concentration level throughout the match was good, and what we wanted in the first match.”

Now the Horns move to the second round, where they will face UC Santa Barbara (23-5). UCSB beat Texas State, 3-1, in the first round of the tournament. Texas will face UCSB at 7 p.m. Friday in Gregory Gym. A second-round win would propel Texas into the Regional round, which it would host next weekend.

Elliott said he knows a little bit about the UCSB squad, which he expects to pose a more formidable challenge than Albany did.

“They’re in a 6-2,” Elliott said. “Their Libero is pretty special. Their outside hitters are really good, their opposite is good, and they can score in the middle. Obviously the California style, they can play some volleyball, control the ball at a high level and serve and pass well. If they’re in system, it’s a speed that kind of hard to contain. We’ve got to get them out of system with our offensive schemes and play well throughout an entire match.”
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