Match Stats
- #4 Texas def. Oklahoma 3-1 (22-25, 25-23, 25-20, 25-22)
- Texas moves to 11-2, 3-0 in Big 12; Oklahoma falls to 9-6, 0-2 Big 12
- Norman, Oklahoma (Oklahoma hosted)
As is often true in most rivalry matchups as heated as this one, an out-matched Oklahoma team came out on fire and put a charge into the heavily-favored Longhorns on Wednesday evening, taking the first set 25-22.
While all three sets were closely contested, the Longhorns would take the next 3 to win the Red River Rivalry, winning their third-straight matchup with the Sooners.
The Longhorns leaned heavily on their freshman Micaya White, who had a career high 26 kills in the game on 60 swings – an overall .333 hitting percentage. She also added 12 digs to her tally.
6’4″ junior outside hitter Ebony Nwanebu, one of the team’s stars, added in 17 kills of her own, and with just a single error hit .444 overall hitting average.
Oklahoma very nearly pushed the match to a 5th tie-breaking set, leading much of the 4th, but a late run including two back-to-back kills from White put the Longhorns ahead for good.
Press Releases
Courtesy Texas Athletics:
NORMAN, Okla. – No. 4 Texas Volleyball defeated Oklahoma, 3-1 (22-25, 25-23, 25-20, 25-22) in its second Big 12 road win on Wednesday night.
Freshman Micaya White posted a career-high 26 kills on 60 swings, hitting .333. She also recorded her second double-double of the season, adding 12 digs and finishing with two blocks and one ace.
Junior Ebony Nwanebu and senior Paulina Prieto Ceramealso finished with double-digit kills, Nwanbu posting 17 hitting .444 and Prieto Cerame with 16, hitting .256.
It marks the ninth time this season that all three players have finished with double-digit kills.
Senior Chloe Collins led in assists with 54, also adding six digs and two blocks, while junior Cat McCoy led with 13 digs and sophomore Morgan Johnson with four blocks.
In the first set, the Sooners jumped out to an early 6-3 lead and kept it until the Horns tied it at 12 behind kills from White and Nwanebu. Oklahoma then went on a 4-0 run to take a 15-12 lead, but Texas scratched its way back and tied it again at 18, taking its first lead on a Nwanebu kill at 19-18. The Sooners responded with a 6-1 run to regain the edge and took the first set, 25-22.
The second set featured 12 ties with neither team leading by more than two. The Longhorns took a 20-18 lead late, but the Sooners rallied with a 3-0 run to regain a 21-20 advantage. Texas answered with two straight points, but OU followed with two-straight points to lead, 23-22. At 23-23, the 16th tie of the set, White posted a kill and a block with Johnson to close out the second set, 25-23.
The early points of the third set looked like the second until Texas took a 9-6 lead, but Oklahoma rallied back on a 4-1 run to tie it back at 10. The Longhorns responded with a 2-0 run and maintained the lead, but the Sooners stayed close and evened the score at 18. UT answered with a 7-2 run to take set two, 25-20.
Oklahoma had an early edge in the fourth set, but UT stayed close until the Sooners took control with a 3-1 to lead, 12-8. The Horns chipped away and evened the set at 15. From there, neither team could pull away until kills from White and Prieto Cerame gave Texas a 23-21 advantage. The Horns won two of the next three points to take the set, 25-22 and the match, 3-1.
As a team, Texas hit .349 and outblocked Oklahoma, 7.0 to 6.0, improving to 11-2, 3-0 on the season.
The Longhorns will hit the road again to take on Kansas State on Saturday, Oct. 2 at 7 p.m. in Manhattan, Kan. The match will be live on ESPN3.
Courtesy Oklahoma Athletics:
NORMAN, Okla. – The University of Oklahoma volleyball team claimed the first set against No. 4 Texas before being narrowly defeated in four sets in front of 1,874 fans at McCasland Field House on Wednesday night. The Sooners dropped to 9-6 overall and 0-2 in the Big 12, while the Longhorns improved to 11-2 and 3-0.
Oklahoma won the first, 25-22, before Texas evened the match with a 25-23 win in the second. The Longhorns went on to win the next two; 25-20 and 25-22. For the match, they hit .349 and the Sooners countered at .289.
“The second set should’ve bounced our way. We were up 23-22 and it didn’t bounce our way, unfortunately,” started head coach Santiago Restrepo. “All the sets were pretty even, but we did fight. It was good.”
Junior middle blocker Marion Hazelwood (Beach City, Texas) set a career-high in kills to lead OU with 19 on a .500 attack rate. She tallied eight of her kills on 10 attempts without an error in the first set.
“We planned to run everything through the middle,” Restrepo said of Hazelwood’s success. “It worked for some [of the match]. At some points, we couldn’t pass the ball well enough to set the middles.”
In the first set, Oklahoma went into the media timeout on a 3-0 run and picked up its largest lead of the set at 16-12. Texas would tie the set at 18-18, but the Sooners went in front at 21-20 on a Hazelwood kill and held on to win the set.
Oklahoma led 18-17 in the second, but Texas answered with a 3-0 run to go in front 20-18. Senior outside hitter Kimmy Gardiner (Grapevine, Texas) then put down three-consecutive kills to give OU the lead and force a Texas timeout. The Longhorns got back-to-back points out of the timeout to tie the set. Redshirt-senior outside hitterMadison Ward (Lawton, Okla.) then netted a kill as the Sooners regained the lead, but Texas ended the set on a 3-0 run to claim the set and even the match at one apiece.
The Longhorns, who hit .300 or better in every set, gained separation by hitting .310 to the Sooners’ .159 in the third. Micaya White, who led all players with 26 kills on a .333 attack rate, tallied eight kills in the set.
Ebony Nwanebu hit .444 on 17 kills and Paulina Prieto Cerame added 16 kills. White recorded a double-double with 12 digs.
For Oklahoma, Ward finished second on the team with 16 kills and added eight digs. Gardiner was second on the team in digs at 13 to redshirt-sophomore libero Rachel Manriquez’ (Edmond, Okla.) 15. Sophomore setter Audrey Alford (Norman, Okla.) collected a team-leading 32 kills. Freshman Ashley Brown (Prosper, Texas), seeing her first significant playing time as OU ran a 6-2 for the first time all year, totaled 20 kills off the bench.
Texas setter Chloe Collins led all players with 54 assists. Cat McCoy grabbed a team-leading 13 digs.
The Sooners are on the road for six of their next seven matches. Oklahoma faces off against TCU in Fort Worth at 12 p.m. ahead of the OU-TCU football game at 4 p.m.
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