By Steve Habel, Senior Contributing Writer
AUSTIN, Texas — If the Texas volleyball team had something to prove in its match against rival Texas A&M Friday, it look a little time to embrace that attitude, and if it was looking for a wake-up call, coach Jerritt Elliott was there to fill the role of an alarm clock.
After a series of fits and starts, the third-ranked Longhorns remembered just who they are, and who they were playing, and outlasted the Aggies, 26-24, 27-25, 25-21 before a sold-out crowd of 4,328 fans at Gregory Gym.
Elliott, who usually sits at the end of the Texas bench with his legs crossed and[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] lets his assistants do a lot of the work, was up and walking the sidelines early on, infusing his team with the sense of urgency that was needed, and was the difference, in this match.
“It wasn’t a smooth match all the way through — we had to use some big runs,” Elliott said. ”It was kind of nice the way they went about it. They never showed any kind of frustration, they never showed any kind of anxiety. They just kind of played their game and gave themselves a chance to win.
“And obviously every match is a big match for us, so it’s OK for the coach to get a little passionate sometimes, too.
Texas (6-2) now holds a 75-23 all-time record over the Aggies, whose most recent win in the series was in 2010. The Longhorns got 13 kills from senior outside hitter Micaya White on her 23rd birthday, and 10 from sophomore outside hitter Logan Eggleston in the win.
The victory was a bounce-back match for the Longhorns after they were defeated in five sets by Rice last Wednesday in Houston.
“It was a little bit of a wake-up call for us,” Elliott said. “It allowed us to kind of get back in the rhythm and kind of get back to playing and building back that confidence, and that’s critical.”
The formula for the match was established from the start, with the Aggies, behind senior outside hitter Hollann Hans, taking charge in the early part of games and building considerable leads in the first three. But A&M wilted under UT’ defensive pressure and stick-to-itiveness as the Longhorns showed their mettle and marched back to win.
The Longhorns trailed by as many as five points on four different occasions in the first set, the latest at 16-11 when A&M’s Camille Conner ripped a service ace. It was then that the Longhorns found their stride, roaring back to tie the set at 16-16 on an ace by libero Claire Hahn and two kills from White.
A&M was up, 23-20, and then 24-23 before the Longhorns tied the match on a kill by Skylar Fields that seemed to take the wind out of the Aggies’ sails. Texas then closed out the set with a kill from White and an Aggie hitting error and escaped with a 26-24 win.
UT’s comeback in the second set was even more impressive. The Longhorns trailed, 21-15, and then 22-16 before roaring back, winning seven of next eight points as A&M had five errors and Fields, Eggleston and White had crucial kills.
The Aggies had two set points, at 24-23 and at 25-24, but a kill by O’Neal tied the set at 25-25. Hans then had two crucial errors for A&M to hand the set to the Longhorns at 27-25.
The pattern from the first two sets held true in the third, with the Aggies staking themselves to a 15-10 lead and then watching as Texas rolled off five straight points (on three kills from White and two from setter Ashley Shook) to tie the set. A&M then uncorked back-to-back errors and the Longhorns would not trail again, rolling to a win.
“The main thing is that we just kept pushing and kept putting pressure on them,” White said. “We were keeping (A&M) out of system because once they were out a system, they struggled.”
Elliott lauded the play of Shook, who earned her first significant action of the season as she works her way back from an injury. Shook had 14 assists and three kills in three attempts for the Longhorns.
Texas, which will likely fall from the No. 3 spot in the rankings because of the loss at Rice, is back on the court Wednesday when it opens Big 12 Conference play at home against Iowa State. Elliott said the team got what it needed from the non-conference campaign.
“We got tested really, really well, and you know, to come out of it 6-2 is good,” he said. “Obviously we’d like to be 7-1 right now or 8-0, but we’re still in a good position. We just know it’s going to take one match at a time and we got to get better and we got to get healthy, and we got to just keep improving.”
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