Miya Tanner
The crowd cheers at the Texas volleyball game against Washington State on Sept. 15, 2023.
Head coach Jerritt Elliott, senior Madisen Skinner and redshirt sophomore Marianna Singletary took their seats solemnly at the press conference table Friday afternoon.
Just some weeks before, the No. 13 Longhorns had sailed through the first two rounds of NCAA play by winning both games against Texas A&M Corpus Christi and South Carolina in three-set sweeps. Hope for redemption after a season of struggles was high.
But the Friday loss against Creighton was imminent and came in a hard-fought 3-1 battle — it is just the second time in 19 years that the Longhorns fell in the regional semifinals.
“They were putting a lot of service pressure on us … and being able to get good passes out, they were really efficient,” said Singletary, who hit for 11 kills.
Although Texas won the first set 26-24, Creighton completely stopped the Longhorns from taking the last three. Texas’ blocking game was severely off, while Creighton continued to protect the net and deal damage to the Longhorns’ hitting percentage, which ended at .197. Creighton, by comparison, ended the night with a .307 hitting percentage even though the team had only five more total kills than Texas.
“They were doing a great job defensively, scrambling and putting a good block on us,” Elliott said, chin in hand. “We were battling all night long. … Obviously it’s not the result that we want, but I’m okay with sometimes losing when our kids give me everything they have.”
Even though the Longhorns effectively rallied to close out a successful first set, Creighton took the reins all the way through the second. As typical for the 2024 Texas volleyball team, the latter half of the game started out slow and cost the Longhorns plenty. Another rally brought Texas to a 14-13 lead before Creighton had a 5-0 run largely assisted by errors from the Longhorns and kills from junior Ava Martin and senior Kiara Reinhardt.
The fourth set was a complete shutout, with Texas hitting for merely .024 and handing the keys to the Elite Eight over to Creighton.
“Battling back and trusting one another was the game changer,” Skinner said. “In crunch time it’s just do or die. We felt that pressure but didn’t take it to our advantage.”
Although the hitting game was kept to the Longhorns’ side of the court, Skinner managed to put out 23 kills to finish out her collegiate career, which has featured three national championships in her time at Kentucky and Texas. Now, she and fellow seniors Reagan Rutherford, Keonilei Akana and Jenna Wenaas will say their goodbyes to Texas as they run out of eligibility.
“I’ve enjoyed getting to know (Elliott) and building a relationship with a coach that I can trust and love very deeply,” Skinner said tearfully. “It’s been a special past three years and I know I’ll always have him in my corner for the rest of my life.”