Texas Volleyball: Longhorns top San Diego in four sets, move within one win of national title

It takes more than one punch to beat a champion, and you have to respond when you’re knocked down to win a championship. Texas answered the challenge in both of those aspects and are in line to win a national title because of it.

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Texas, the top-ranked volleyball team in the nation for the entire season, survived a shaky start and a first-set haymaker from talented San Diego to produce a 26-28, 25-18, 25-18, 25-20 win on Thursday in the NCAA tournament semifinal in Omaha, Neb.

The Longhorns (27-1) head to the national championship match for the ninth time in history and will face either Louisville or Pittsburgh on Saturday evening. Texas is in hunt for its third NCAA championship and its first since 2012.

“This is a super-tight team and they believe in each other,” Texas coach Jerritt Elliott said afterward. “They can look each other in the eye and make sure they know that they do it. They could have got down after game one but they stuck together and fought back.”

The Longhorns were led by Madisen Skinner’s 17 kills and .394 hitting percentage. Logan Eggleston added 16 kills after struggling in the first set and Molly Phillips had 14. Zoe Fleck had a game-high 21 digs and Saige Ka’aha’aina-Torres distributed 46 assists and had 11 digs.

Texas recorded 12 blocks and limited the Toreros to just .112 hitting for the match.

Breana Edwards led San Diego (31-2) with 14 kills, with Gabby Blossom adding a team-high 37 assists and 18 digs as the Toreros had a 28-match win streak snapped.

The Longhorns are the favorites to win the whole shebang and they played like it over the final three sets on Thursday.

Both teams were dealing with plenty of nerves in the first set, which went back and forth until Texas took a 21-20 lead on a dual block by Eggleston and Kayla Caffey. The Toreros scored the next two points on an Eggleston attack error and a kill by Katie Lukes.

The Longhorns survived a set point at 24-23 when San Diego had a service error, another at 25-24 when Skinner ripped a kill to the floor, and a third at 26-25 on another San Diego service error before a kill by Edwards and a block of Phillips’ kill attempt gave San Diego the first set at 28-26.

It was just the fifth time this season that the Longhorns lost an opening set of a match.

San Diego won the first set because it made fewer mistakes, outhitting Texas .129-.056. The Longhorns had 11 errors in the set (four of them by Eggleston) and four service errors, basically giving away 15 points.

But then the Longhorns took over.

Texas trailed 4-2 early in the second set but rallied to take a 7-6 lead on a kill by Eggleston. San Diego tied the set at 12-12 on an ace by Blossom before the Longhorns ran off five of the next six points to go up 17-13, which – at the time – was the largest lead by either team in the match.

The Toreros stemmed the tide momentarily when Leyla Blackwell produced a solo block at the end of a spirited rally but Texas would not be denied, winning the next four points to go up 21-14. Back to back kills by Skinner and Ka’aha’aina-Torres set the table for the set win, and Skinner finished it off with a ringing kill as the Longhorns won 25-14.

Texas outhit the Toreros .333-.077 in the second set, racking up 15 kills with just two errors.

“It was fantastic. I mean, that’s resiliency,” Fleck said of the turnaround. “That’s experience and that’s good team culture. That was a full team win – there wasn’t one person on the bench or one person on the court that we could have done that without.”

The Longhorns kept up the momentum in the third set, taking a 6-2 lead on an ace by Fleck and never letting San Diego get closer than two points the rest of the way in winning 25-18. Texas closed out the set with kills from Phillips, a Torero service error and a combo block by Eggleston and Bella Bergmark.

Much like the second set Texas dominated the net, outhitting San Diego .300-.000 (the Toreros had eight kills and as many errors) and making just four errors.

San Diego began the fourth set with four straight points but the Longhorns rallied to tie the set at 7-7. Texas grabbed the lead for good at 14-13 on a kill by Asjia O’Neal and extended its advantage to 20-17 on a kill by Skinner and then to 23-19 on another kill by Eggleston.

An O’Neal kill gave Texas match point and a final kill by Eggleston finished off the match 25-20.

Texas will carry the experience advantage into the final match as neither Pittsburgh or Louisville have ever advanced to the title game.

If the first 28 games of the season is any indication, the Longhorns are loaded and ready. They certainly have the cast of characters and the right attitude to bring home the title.

“Nobody has to play perfect volleyball. Nobody has to have a game of their life in order for us to win,” Fleck explained. “And each of us come from teams or come from situations where we had to be that person and if we didn’t have the best game of our lives, we wouldn’t win.

“Now to be in a situation where we can really just rely on each other and not have to have the pressure of having to win the game yourself, it’s something I’ve never felt before.”