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Historic Night for Texas Volleyball

Updated: Wednesday, August 29 2012, 10:56 PM CDT
Wednesday, in the first ever Big 12 conference contest for West Virginia, Texas head volleyball coach Jerritt Elliott earned his 200th career conference win.

Sophomore All-America outside hitter Haley Eckerman had 15 kills while hitting .538 (15-1-26) as the No. 2 Texas Longhorns earned a 3-0 sweep (25-15, 25-18, 26-16) at the West Virginia Mountaineers in the Big 12 opener for both squads.  Texas improves to 4-0 on the season.

Bailey Webster added 13 kills and a .522 hitting clip (13-1-23) for the Longhorns.

Arielle Allen led West Virginia (2-2, 0-1) with 10 kills.  Texas hit .363 as a team while WVU hit .137 on the evening.

West Virginia used the large crowd to gain a 5-5 tie in the first set.  Sha’Dare McNeal’s kill started a 6-1 run as Eckerman’s kill forced a timeout by the Mountaineers with the 11-6 UT lead. Sarah Palmer added a service ace as the lead grew to eight, 18-10.  Eckerman registered two kills as Webster later put the first set away as UT hit .400 in the first stanza (12 kills, two errors).

With Texas trailing 8-7 in the second set, Khat Bell started a 6-1 run as two straight blocks gave the 13-9 score to UT.  Eckerman rolled up an ace on the jump serve to make it 19-13.  She would finish it out and give Texas the 2-0 lead in the match with another kill.

Webster came out with three kills to lead the third set as the Longhorns worked to a 6-3 advantage.  Eckerman added two kills with Kat Brooks adding a service ace later as UT led by four, 12-8.  UT closed out the match with the 6-1 run to remain perfect on the season.

Texas travels this weekend to the Nike Big Four Volleyball Classic to play No. 18 Florida on Friday (Aug. 31) and host No. 4 Penn State on Saturday (Sept. 1).

Notes:  Tonight was the first-ever meeting between Texas and West Virginia in women’s volleyball…Texas is 14-1 all-time when both Haley Eckerman and Bailey Webster record double-digit kills in a match…Texas has not lost a set this season…with nine blocks in tonight’s match, Texas is averaging over four blocks a set this season (4.08 bps).Historic Night for Texas Volleyball