Volleyball: The California Sport

The Lady Longhorns road towards a National Title came to an end this weekend in a way familiar to many NCAA teams, at the hands of a California school. The Lady Longhorns fell 3-0 to #2 seed and #5 Nationally ranked USC in the Elite Eight of the tournament.

After defeating #10 Florida 3-1 on Friday, Texas ran into the buzz saw that is California Volleyball. The Lady Trojans will be joining Stanford and California in the Final Four. Stanford beat UCLA to get there. Sensing a theme? Me too. California defeated #2 Nebraska 3-0. So #1 Penn State will be the rest of the country's lone hope to derail the California volleyball train. We will all be rooting for you Lions.

This season was a breakthrough for the Longhorns. After losing early in the season to Penn State twice and Nebraska, the Longhorns didnt lose again for 23 straight matches, winning a share of a Big XII Title in the process.

While the Longhorns lose senior middle blocker Brandy Magee and setter Michelle Moriarty, they return the stars of their team in Julianne Faucette (FR), Ashley Engle (SO), Destinee Hooker (SO), and Lauren Paolini (JR). Throw in what will surely be another top recruiting class, and the Longhorns will be in the mix again in 2008.

Volleyball clinches Big XII Title

The Lady Longhorns volleyball team wrapped up their 2007 regular season this past week with a 3-2 win at Iowa State and a 3-0 win versus Kansas State this past Saturday. The win improved the #3 ranked Longhorns to 24-3 on the year with a 19-1 mark in the Big XII Conference. The win gave the Longhorns a share of the Big XII title with Nebraska, and it is the Longhorns first conference title since 1997.

With the Conference championship comes a slew of All-Big XII awards. Head Coach Jerritt Elliott won his second Big XII Coach of the Year honors (First in 2004). The Longhorns also placed 5 players on the First Team All-Big XII. Sophomores Ashley Engle and Destinee Hooker, and junior Michelle Moriarity marked their second appearance as first teamers. Junior Lauren Paolini and Julianne Faucette were also named to the First Team. Faucette also was named the Freshman of the Year in the Big XII.

As apparently is the case for the Longhorns and the NCAA tournament in minority sports this season, the Longhorns received a bit of an unfair seeding. While they are a #1 seed Nationally, they find themselves in the Gainesville, FL bracket, which would set them up for a third round match up at the home arena of the #10 Florida Gators, the #4 seed in the region. Yeah, that makes sense. Though I'm not sure it will make a difference. The Longhorns have won 20 straight matches and are firing on all cylinders this season. Their losses this season come to #1 Penn State and #2 Nebraska.

The Longhorns open up their quest for a National Title this Friday against #16 seed Texas State. They will then face the winner of LSU (#9 seed) and #14 New Mexico State (#8 seed). Both matches will take place in Austin. Other teams of note in the Longhorns bracket are #5 USC (#2 seed), #25 Long Beach State (#7 seed), #18 St. John's (#3 seed), and #23 Oklahoma (#5 seed).

Texas Wins Big

The unbeatable, unstoppable #1 Huskers marched into Gregory Gym last night and in front of a record sell-out crowd of 4,286, fell to the #5 Texas Longhorns 30-22, 30-25, 30-20. That would be 3-0 for those of you scoring at home.

While #5 beating #1 doesn't seem like that great of an upset, hopefully yesterday's post illustrated the magnitude of the win, and also completely jinxed the Huskers. While I can't say that I am a volleyball fan outside of the shorts, there's something to be said for overcoming slim odds and achieving the unthinkable. I'm sure Gregory was an electric place to be, and I couldn't help being excited. (I would have been there, but you know, not living in the state of Texas makes that challenging)

Texas got exactly what they needed to come out of this victoriously. Michelle Moriarity had clutch plays throughout the match, and Brandi Magee chipped in with 8 kills. The Longhorns also were helped by 13 kills and 8 kills by Juliann Faucette and Ashely Engle, respectively.

However, the game ball (they give out game balls in volleyball right?) goes to Destinee Hooker who had an unreal 17 kills (that's unreal, take my word for it). Texas played flawlessly for most of the match, and it was a landmark win for a program that has been around the top for the past few years, but hadn't gotten that signature win.

This is a young and extremely talented team with argueably their top three players as sophomores and a freshman. It would appear they only place is up. Good times!

Texas Prepares for the Good Nebraska

While the Texas football team prepares to face the artist formerly known as Nebraska this weekend, the Texas women's volleyball team prepares for a much more stern test from the #1 Nebraska Cornhuskers. Ranked #5, Texas is no slouch in their own right, but they still pale in comparison to this Nebraska team.

Texas is 14-3 this season, with their only losses coming in Lincoln, NE against #1 Nebraska (3-0) and two losses in State College, PA against #2 Penn State (3-1, 3-1). Other than these three losses Texas has looked impressive. Since their loss to open up Big XII play against the Huskers, Texas has won 10 straight matches, losing only 3 games along the way. They also posted impressive wins on the road against #15 Kansas State (3-2) and #21 Oklahoma (3-0).



(Left) Nebraska is crazy good. (Right) Julianne Faucette could be the Freshman of the Year

However, this Nebraska team is the defending National Champions and looks about as unbeatable as you can get. They are 19-0 on the season, losing only 1 game this year against #7 UCLA (W, 3-1). They also defeated #2 Penn State (3-0). They haven't missed a beat all year and look just a step above everyone else.

However, this Texas team is extremely young and extremely talented, and on the right night could up end the Huskers. The Horns will need everything to fall in place for them tonight and will need great games from their senior leaders Brandy McGee (Middle Blocker) and Michelle Moriarty (Setter). Both of the seniors will need to have the night of their lives to lead this Texas team to victory. If they can play well to go along with big nights from Texas' young guns of Julianne Faucette (FR, Outside Hitter), Destinee Hooker (SO, Outside Hitter), and Ashely Engle (SO, Right Side/Setter), who knows what could happen.

Faucette and Hooker have been leading this Texas team all season, but Texas will need an amazing performance from everyone involved. Gregory Gym will be rocking tonight, but the Horns will need the performance of the year to dethrone the #1 Nebraska Cornhuskers.