Texas stays on top of tables at 2011 NCAA Women’s Volleyball Tournament
The Longhorns of Texas kept the momentum going in the third round of the 2011 NCAA tournament and clawed their way to the regional finals. The Texas ladies were challenged by Wildcats of KU in the regional semi-final of the tournament on Friday, December
9. The Longhorns demonstrated a spectacular performance and made KU suffer a home loss in four-set match. Texas achieved the winning status with the final score of 3-1 (25-23, 22-25, 27-25, 25-23). The Memorial Coliseum in Lexington, Kentucky provided the
backdrop for this action-packed thriller and around 4,000 rowdy fans showed up to witness the volleyball scrimmage.
It was not an easy win for UT as they had to fight for every single point in the match. The hosts KU fought bravely and gave a hard time to the visiting team. The Longhorns were literally on their knees, tackling the tricky shots from their opponents. Texas
managed to secure the opening set but Wildcats electrified the arena with quick response in the second set. They tied the game-score by winning the second set. The next two frames were closely contested and experienced many ups and downs. UT captured both
sets with narrow margins and eventually took away the game from the hosts.
Four KU players went into double-figures in the kills' column. Junior Ashley Frazier led the Wildcats with 16 kills, whereas the freshman Lauren O'Conner tallied 13 with seniors Becky Pavan going for 12. Junior setter Christine Hartmann passed out 52 assists
and created enough trouble for Texas Longhorns.
The Head Coach of Texas, Jerrritt Elliott, shared his thoughts after the match. He said: “It was a heavyweight fight. This match could have gone either way. We made some plays at the end. I was very pleased with how we fought tonight, and specifically how
we battled.”
"I didn't expect it to be as evenly matched as far as statistics. I thought we could have done a lot of things defensively, blocking and attacking. The one thing I did not expect tonight was Texas to play the floor defense they did tonight, we hit some rockets
and they came up with them and that was probably the difference in the match." said the Head Coach of KU, Craig Skinner.
With the loss the KU Wildcats concluded their season behind perhaps their best performance of the year. They closed out the year with an overall record of 28-6, while the Texas improved to 26-4.
The Longhorn's will take on UCLA on Saturday. The UCLA Bruins defeated Penn State in their respective regional semi-final. The next match between Bruins and Texas will surely create a lot buzz. Check back for the latest news and updates.
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