After earning a decisive 3-0 victory against the No. 21 Baylor Bears on Friday in Gregory Gymnasium, the No. 2 Texas Longhorns have officially tied the bow on an undefeated nonconference season.
With respective scores of 25-18, 25-12 and 25-13, the Longhorns asserted dominance throughout the entire matchup.
“We just handled ourselves emotionally and stayed in the match overall and got some really good balance because of our passing and serving,” head coach Jerritt Elliott said after the game.
Freshman outside hitter Cari Spears totaled 18 kills, leading the team’s offensive effort and continuing to establish herself as a major threat for opposing defenses. She accumulated a hitting percentage of .654, and after just eight games of college volleyball, Spears seems to have learned how to stump the defenses of highly ranked teams.
This demonstrated itself most prominently in the second set, when she earned six kills and helped her team claim three of the set’s first eight points. They used the momentum from an aggressive start to propel them towards a 13-point victory in the set and set the tone for the third and final set to take a similar shape.
While Spears led Texas’ offensive initiative, this win was a team one through and through. After the game, Elliott cited a reason that they have been able to establish such a strong rhythm with one another.
“They have a lot of joy,” Elliott said. “I think they like being around each other. I think they take care of each other, they push each other and they train really hard. They’re super competitive. So when you get a combination of that, you get really good chemistry, you get a lot of trust and then you can perform at a high level.”
As a team, the Longhorns tallied 45 kills, eight service aces, 41 digs and five blocks. Junior setter Ella Swindle and senior libero Emma Halter helped keep the team largely in system, and their offensive attack forced Baylor to play out of system several times throughout the match’s duration.
After earning its third consecutive sweep in front of a home crowd, Texas now prepares to turn its attention towards conference play next week. They will kick off their Southeastern Conference campaign by taking on the Vanderbilt Commodores at home on Wednesday.
Elliott believes this conference will provide tough opponents for his team this year.
“Yes, it’s a really good competition, probably the best it’s ever been,” Elliott said. “So we know that there’ll be some really good competition, and we’ve got to get ready, and we’ve got to see what we can do because we’ve also got the conference tournament at the end of the year.”
This team has lofty goals ahead, and with eight wins against Top 25-ranked teams under its belt as it exits nonconference play, it will be interesting to see what happens next.
