MATCH STATS
- No. 5 Texas def. No. 21 Baylor 3-0 (25-19, 28-26, 25-17)
- Texas moves to 10-2, 2-0 Big 12; Baylor falls to 12-4, 2-1 Big 12
- Austin, Texas
- Attendance: 3,659
- Box Score
AUSTIN, Texas – A strong blocking front and tough serving lifted No. 5 Texas to a home sweep of No. 21 Baylor Wednesday night. The Longhorns bested the Bears 9-5 in blocks and served up five aces in the win.
Texas also outhit Baylor .263 to .250 and notched 45 kills to the Bears’ 41.
Sophomore outside hitter Micaya White and freshman outside Lexi Sun notched 11 kills apiece to lead the Longhorn offense. White hit at a .321 clip and added three of the team’s five aces. Senior outside Ebony Nwanebu chipped in eight kils and three aces and junior middle blocker Morgan Johnson accounted for seven kills, a team-leading .417 hitting effort and a team-best five blocks. Freshman setter Ashley Shook guided the defense with 15 digs to go with her 31 assists, while senior libero Cat McCoy chipped in 11 digs and eight assists.
Redshirt senior outside Katie Staiger paced the Bears with 12 kills, followed by redshirt sophmore middle Shelly Fanning (10) and freshman outside Yossiana Pressley (9). Senior middle Camryn Freiberg recorded seven kills on a team-best .400 hitting effort, while also adding a team-leading three blocks. In the back court, senior libero Jana Brusek notched a team-high 13 digs, while freshman setter Hannah Lockin added 10 to round out a double-double with 34 assists.
Baylor struck first with an early 5-2 lead in Set 1 as Texas committed two hitting errors. The Longhorns rallied with five straight points, including a kill and a block by Chiaka Ogbogu to vault ahead 7-5. The teams tied at 7-all, sparking a string of seven ties, the last at 14. From there, the Longhorns gained built a four point lead at 20-16 with two kills and block by Sun and two Bear errors. Up just three at 21-18, Texas closed out the win with a 4-1 run, including two White putaways.
The teams traded points over the first 14 points of Set 2. Texas broke away with an 8-3 run, including kills by three different players. Down 15-10, Baylor chipped away, eventually tying it up at 21. Three Staiger putaways, two from Freiberg and two blocks and a kill by Fanning helped the Bears to the knotup at 21. Baylor took the lead at 23-22 on a Pressley kill and had the first chance at the set at 24-23 after a Texas miscue. A Johnson kill and a stuff by Ogbogu and Nwanebu gave the Longhorns a try at 25-24. The Bears had another shot at 26-25 after kills by Freiberg and Fanning, but Texas closed out the stanza with a 3-0 run, as two Baylor miscues set up a final kill by White.
Texas went up by five early in Set 3, taking an 11-6 lead as Baylor committed three errors and Sun and White each turned in two kills. The Longhorns pushed the margin to eight at 17-9 as four players notched putaways and Claire Hahn served up an ace. Down 23-13, Baylor rallied with four of the next five points, incluidng a kill by Fanning to thwart the first Texas match-point try. White, however, came through on the next attempt to close out the victory.
PRESS RELEASES
Courtesy: Texas Athletics
No. 5 Texas Volleyball (10-2, 2-0) defeated Baylor (12-4, 2-1), 3-0 (25-19, 28-26, 25-17) in its Big 12 home opener on Wednesday evening.
Sophomore Micaya White and freshman Lexi Sun led Texas with 11 kills each, recording hitting percentages of .321 and .222, respectively. White added a season-high three service aces and five digs.
Junior Morgan Johnson led Texas with five blocks and a team-high .417 hitting percentage on seven kills. Freshman Ashley Shook and seniors Ebony Nwanebu and Chiaka Ogbogu all contributed three blocks to lead the Longhorn block to a 9-5 advantage.
Texas ended Baylor’s four-match streak hitting .300 or above, holding the Bears to a .250 clip and recorded five service aces to Baylor’s zero.
Shook posted her third-consecutive double-double and a sixth on the season, with team-highs of 31 assists and 15 digs. Senior Cat McCoyadded 11 digs and tied her career-high mark with eight assists.
After Baylor held a narrow lead through a scrappy opening to the match, a block from Ogbogu tied the score at 5-5. With the teams then trading points, a tentative three-point advantage and Baylor’s first timeout was drawn by a kill from Johnson to make it 19-16. Taking momentum from the middle blocker’s only kill on the set, Texas executed a 6-3 run to secure the first frame, 25-13.
Gaining composure from taking the first set, Texas maintained a narrow lead opening the second. Despite kills from Sun, White, and Nwanebu leading Texas, Baylor answered by tying seven times and taking a 23-22 lead. After saving two set points, Texas rallied with consecutive points to edge the set on a kill from White, 28-26.
With a 2-0 match lead, Texas jumped out to an 8-5 lead in the third as Sun’s 10th kill forced Baylor’s first timeout of the third set. A Johnson block pushed the lead to five points, 12-7, with the Bears’ second timeout coming as an ace from Claire Hahn widened the gap to seven, 16-9. After a block from Shook made it a ten-point lead, White sealed the sweep with a kill, 25-17.
Texas will return home on Saturday, Sept. 30 to welcom Kansas State to Gregory Gym at 1 p.m. The match will be televised live on Longhorn Network.
Postgame Quotes
Head Coach Jerritt Elliott
On what the team showed him during the long second set: We were at 19-15 and then we missed a serve. They got a couple of breaks in terms of some mis-hits and got themselves back in the match. We were down though and fighting in that game. I think they had two swings for points to win the set and our block came though. We did a nice job with taking an area and making them be great. I thought we had some great composure. You look your team’s reaction this time of year and I thought we were really calm and played well at the end of that set.
On what he has seen from Ashley Shook and Lexi Sun in their freshman season: For freshman it’s always a little bit difficult. I think we started the season off trying to run a little bit of a faster set. Just the nerves and everything else caused us to not be very efficient. We had some matches where we had to win and slowed down the set a little bit more. Then we had some opportunities to change our play sets and now we’re getting into more of a tempo. Sometimes you would like to do that early on in the season, but with the competition we had it was delayed. Now we’re starting to develop it and work on it. It takes time in building that trust and we haven’t been doing it for a long time. It got better and better as the match went on and obviously the numbers went up.
Freshman Setter Ashley Shook
On the defense setting the tone in the first set: I think we focused a lot this week on being relentless on defense with a lot of communication. That showed tonight. It was all communication-based and that’s why we played so well.
On what’s it is like to be the main setter for the fifth-ranked team in the country: I’ve been looking forward to it since I committed here. It’s awesome that I’m finally here and the team has been so supportive and helpful to me. It’s just been great to be out there and play with everyone. I’ve just been waiting.
Freshman Outsider Hitter Lexi Sun
On how her and Ashley Shook connected in the second set: Ashley (Shook) and I have been working a lot in practices just trying to get our groove down and trying to get the right set. I think all of our hard worked showed tonight.
On how she has developed her chemistry with Ashley Shook: Ashley (Shook) is a really hard worker. She stays calm and takes feedback very well. If you give her feedback she doesn’t take it personally. She really works hard at getting you the perfect ball. I think off the court we’ve bonded a lot. Our rooms are one room away so we’re basically neighbors. It’s been really great playing with Ashley and it’s been a great start to the year so far.
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