No.1 Texas Volleyball opened up their 2013 postseason with a dominating 3-0 sweep of Texas State (25-13, 26-24, 25-16) on Thursday night at home in front of an energetic crowd. With the win, the Longhorns (24-2) advance to face former long-time rival [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] Texas A&M in second round action for the second straight year.
Texas A&M swept UTSA in game one Thursday night to earn the chance to advance to the next round. The Longhorns and Aggies will face off Friday night at 7 p.m. at Gregory Gym.
“I think we were just ready to play,” Eckerman said. “It is exciting to be in this tournament and so I think for us it was just focusing on doing what we do best and that is what we did.”
To start off the match, the Longhorns took a quick lead over the Bobcats. Texas cruised to a 10-4 victory, a six-point margin that Texas State was unable to overcome. The Longhorns outhit the Bobcats with a hitting clip of .429 to -.031 in set one and finished with 15 kills and 14 digs.
Texas took advantage of a struggling Texas State team early in the second set, pushing to a commanding 11-2 lead early in the set. Towards the middle of the contest, the Longhorn offense calmed down and the Bobcats were able to battle back, evening the score five times and forcing the set into extra points. With the score tied, senior outside hitter Bailey Webster came up with back-to-back kills to give Texas the 26-24 victory.
The Longhorns struggled at the beginning of the final set and Texas State took advantage by jumping out to an early 9-5 lead. Texas battled back to tie the score at 10-all, helped by Texas State errors. From there, the Longhorns went on a 15-6 scoring run to earn the set and match victory off a kill by junior outside hitter Haley Eckerman.
“It is great that we are moving on and we got a big match tomorrow night against Texas A&M,” Texas head coach Jerritt Elliott said after the match. “We would like to play smoother for longer periods of time but I like what our team is doing, we are in a good mindset and I am looking forward to it.”
[/s2If] [s2If current_user_is_not(s2member_level2) OR current_user_is_not(s2member_level3) OR current_user_is_not(s2member_level5) OR current_user_is_not(s2member_level6)OR current_user_is_not(s2member_level7)]
The rest of this article is available to Digital Subscribers only. Login or Subscribe to continue reading. [/s2If]
#HookEm
Discover more from Horns Illustrated
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.