Match Info
- West Virginia at #5 Texas (Big 12 Match)
- Austin, Texas
- Texas improves to 17-2 (9-0); West Virginia falls to 14-9 (3-7)
- Attendance: 4124
- Box Score
Middle blocker Chiaka Ogbogu led a balanced Texas offense to a home sweep over the visiting Mountaineers of West Virginia late Saturday night in Austin. Set scores were 25-19, 28-26, and 25-17. Ogbogu collected 11 kills and 7 blocks while Micaya White and Ebony Nwanebu finished with 9 and 7 kills respectively. The Longhorns finished the night with a .358 hitting efficiency compared to just .151 for West Virginia. Ashley Shook dished out 33 assists and Cat McCoy tallied 12 digs for the Longhorns who kept their perfect conference record intact. Texas will look to keep that unblemished record intact on Wednesday, November 1st when they travel to Manhattan to take on Kansas State.
The Mountaineers actually led the match in kills and aces, but an 8-1 blocking advantage for the Longhorns was the difference in the match. Texas also held a 48-43 advantage in digs.
West Virginia had three players collect double digit kills as Natania Levak led the way with 12. Payton Caffrey tallied 11 kills and 3 aces, while Mia Swanegan chipped in 10 kills. Setter Erin Slinde totalled 33 assists while Gianna Gotterba paced the defense with 14 digs. With the loss, West Virginia drops to 14-9 (3-7) and will return to the court on Tuesday, October 31st to host Robert Morris.
Press Release:
Courtesy of Texas Athletics
AUSTIN, Texas. – Senior Chiaka Ogbogu finished with 11 kills and seven blocks to lead No. 3 Texas (17-2, 9-0) past West Virginia (14-9, 3-7), 3-0 (25-19, 28-26, 25-17) on Saturday evening at Gregory Gym.
Ogbogu’s 11 kills came on 22 swings and only three errors, finishing with a .364 hitting percentage.
Sophomore Micaya White posted nine kills for the Longhorns, recording no errors to hit .321, while senior Ebony Nwanebu finished with seven kills, also with no errors for a .538 efficiency. Junior Morgan Johnson recorded a team-high .556 hitting percentage, with six kills and one error on nine swings.
Senior Cat McCoy recorded her 18th match with double-digit digs with 12, tying the all-time career digs record set by Demetria Sance in 1998. White also finished with double-digit digs with 11.
Freshman Ashley Shook finished with 33 assists, also posting six digs and four kills.
The Longhorns outblocked their opponent for the 18th time this season with an 8.0 to 1.0 advantage.
Texas began the match with four unanswered points on McCoy’s service, forcing a West Virginia timeout at 4-0. Unable to capitalize on the lead, the Longhorns were limited to a .222 clip when the Mountaineers drew within one at 19-18. Continuing to hold the slim advantage through the set, Texas clinched a 25-19 finish when forcing a 10th error from the visitors.
The Longhorns again gained early momentum as a White service ace opened a 6-3 lead in the second set. Despite eight kills from White and seven from Ogbogu leading offensively, West Virginia tied eight times before taking a 19-18 lead. Texas rallied with White and Ogbogu combining defensively with a block to tie at 22-22. After six more ties, Sun terminated a kill and the set at 28-26.
After battles to take the first two sets, Texas had to come from two points behind in the third frame to tie at 11-11. Texas’ first two-point lead came on a White kill to end a long rally, starting an 11-2 run for the Longhorns to secure the match with a 25-17 finish for the third set.
Texas will hit the road again to take on Kansas State on Wednesday, Nov. 1 at 8 p.m. The match will be televised live on ESPNU.
Postgame Quotes
Head Coach Jerritt Elliott
On how he handles close situations like the second set: We train for it. There’s in-system and out-of-system. When you’re in-system things are rolling and when you’re out-of-system you’ve got to manage your game at a high level and be really good at it. You just need to be methodical about the system we run – our blocking scheme, our defenses that we run behind that, and trust in it. We can’t give free outs. We gave a lot of free outs just from some positioning that we were in. But they pulled it together in game two when it was a little rocky. Credit to them, when we came out down 4-0 in the game three and then snapped back into it. We’ve just got to be able to do things longer to give ourselves a shot at being great.
On the quick turnaround against Kansas State: We’ve got a day of rest again. Then we’re going to get back and train really hard. We’re going to focus on what their strengths are and being able to execute from our side of the net.
Senior Middle Blocker Chiaka Ogbogu
On her general thoughts about the game: I thought West Virginia did a good job serving tough and then just coming on the court and not making many errors. It put a bit of pressure on us and I think we did well responding even though all of our touches weren’t the cleanest.
On continuing the rhythm she has going on: I think that with more practice, getting comfortable, and just working on the things that we need to work on has helped us get better.
On the sold out crowd during tonight game: I mean it’s awesome playing at home in front of this crowd and we’ve been away for a while, so it’s nice to see that our crowd is behind us and that we basically had a sold out crowd. It was just cool to see our fans come out and support us.
On keeping the control during the end of the second set: Our talk has just been about staying calm in those situations. I think that just remembering our routine and going back to the basics has really helped us just not be frantic and just do what we do.
Press Release:
Courtesy of West Virginia Athletics
AUSTIN, Texas – Playing its sixth opponent ranked inside the AVCA Coaches’ Top 25 Poll, the West Virginia University volleyball team dropped a 3-0 match to No. 3 Texas on Saturday evening inside the Gregory Gymnasium in Austin, Texas. The Longhorns (17-2, 9-0) claimed the match in set scores of 25-19, 28-26 and 25-17.
Sophomore right side hitter Natania Levak led the Mountaineers (14-9, 3-7) with 12 kills, followed by sophomore outside hitter Payton Caffrey with 11. Senior middle blocker Mia Swanegan rounded out the Mountaineers in double figures with 10, hitting a team-high .238 in the process.
In addition, senior libero Gianna Gotterba had a team-best 14 digs, while sophomore setter Erin Slinde dished out 33 assists. Caffrey led the Mountaineers in service aces with three, while Swanegan and Slinde notched two apiece in tonight’s contest for a team total of seven.
West Virginia finished the match hitting .151 with 42 kills and one team block. Led by Chiaka Ogbogu‘s 11 kills, Texas hit .358 with 41 kills and eight team blocks.
Caffrey led the squad with five kills in the first set loss to the Longhorns. Texas claimed five of the first six points for a 5-1 lead, though back-to-back points for WVU brought the Mountaineers within one, down 9-8 on a Caffrey kill. Caffrey later found the floor two more times to cut the team’s deficit to one point, trailing 19-18. However, consecutive hitting errors by West Virginia helped the Longhorns to a 23-18 lead after a four-point scoring streak. A Texas kill brought up set point at 24-19. The Longhorns then capitalized on a Mountaineer attacking error to claim the set, 25-19, to go up 1-0 in the match.
A 4-0 Mountaineer run tied the score at 15-15 in set two, as the two teams stayed close throughout the remainder of the set. West Virginia held a late 22-20 lead, but the Longhorns capitalized on a couple Mountaineer miscues to tie the set at 22, forcing West Virginia to take a timeout. Caffrey put the ball through the pins out of the stoppage to go up 23-22, but Texas notched back-to-back kills to bring up set point at 24-23. The Mountaineers stayed alive, though, as Levak and Swanegan each added a kill to take a 25-24 lead once again. The match was then extended, as Texas’ Micaya White threw down a kill, 25-25. The Longhorns then went on to claim two of the next three points to win the set at 28-26 and take a 2-0 match advantage.
The Mountaineers went up 3-0 in the third set, but the Longhorns countered with a 4-0 run of their own to take an early 4-3 lead. Texas later scored five straight points, holding a 17-12 advantage and forcing WVU to take its first timeout of the set. Though the teams traded points down the stretch, West Virginia couldn’t overtake a Longhorn team hitting .417 and dropped the set, 25-17, to end the match.
Of note, Saturday’s match marked West Virginia’s sixth opponent ranked in the AVCA Coaches’ Poll this season. No. 3 Texas has been nationally ranked for all previous meetings, with the Longhorns now holding a 12-0 lead in the all-time series. Saturday also marked the Mountaineers 22nd match in the Lone Star state as a member of the Big 12 Conference, with the team attaining a 5-17 record since joining the league in 2012.
Up next, West Virginia will take a break in league play with a nonconference match against Robert Morris on Tuesday, Oct. 31. First serve is set for 6 p.m. ET.
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