By Steve Habel, Senior Editor
AUSTIN, Texas — Plenty of work remains to be done for the Texas volleyball team, but every indication from the third-ranked Longhorns’ performance in winning all four of its matches in three days at the American College Classic at Gregory Gym shows that it’s on the correct path.
The Longhorns’ final match in the round-robin tournament — an easier-than-the-score-indicates 25-17, 25-19, 25-10 victory Saturday over a shorthanded Miami team — was their most dominating of their four contests.
Take away UT’s serving issues [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]and it would be difficult to find a way things could have gone better. The Longhorns sprayed 12 service errors in the three sets against Miami (eight in the first set alone), had 23 in the tournament and has 43 for the season through six matches.
The Longhorns (5-1) hit at a .494 pace (to just .152 for Miami) and had three outside hitters record double-digit kills for the third straight match. As in UT’s win Friday over Army, freshman Micaya White led Texas with 14 kills and hit a whopping .583 on 24 swings.
Junior Ebony Nwanebu added 12 kills and senior Paulina Prieto Cerame contributed 10. Even two Longhorn middle blockers got in the act, with sophomore Morgan Johnson (seven kills) and freshman Orie Agbaji (five) combining for 12 more.
Senior Chloe Collins continued her stellar early-season play, distributing 37 assists and recording eight digs. Junior libero Cat McCoy led both teams with 10 digs.
The Hurricanes (3-3) barely had a chance, especially with their top two setters missing in action and Texas swarming at them from every part of the court. The Longhorns committed just six hitting errors in the match while Miami had 13; Texas had nine blocks to three for the Hurricanes.
“We get more comfortable as each match progresses and we played steadier today,” Texas coach Jerritt Elliott said. “We were able to do the things we do in practice. It’s the part of the season where you figure yourself out and it takes a little bit of time, but I like what I saw tonight.”
Elliott said the team has progressed since losing in three sets last Saturday in Oregon to top-ranked Nebraska.
“We just watched some film and looked into the things we could do,” Elliott said. “We just keep working on the players playing into each other and getting comfortable.”
Miami was led by UCLA transfer Olga Strantzali’s 12 kills.
Neither team led by more than two points early in the first set until the Longhorns went on a 7-1 run behind kills and a solo block from Prieto Cerame to lead, 13-7. Texas did not allow Miami to score more than three consecutive points and finished the set hitting .621 and a 25-17 margin.
Texas and Miami tied six times early in the second set until a 6-0 run behind three kills from Prieto Cerame to lead 12-6. Texas maintained at least a three-point lead until the Hurricanes went on a 4-0 run of their own to pull within one at 17-16. But a combined block by Collins and Johnson and a Prieto Cerame kill gave the Longhorns momentum and Texas closed out the second set by a score of 25-19.
The third set was more of the same as the Longhorns jumped out to a 9-2 lead behind three more kills from White. From there, Texas built on its lead and didn’t look back, closing out the set on a block by Collins and 25-10 win.
The Longhorns return to the courts Friday when they open play in the Rams Volleyball Classic in Fort Collins, Colo., against host 25th-ranked Colorado State. Texas also will play Wichita State in the round robin.
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