Following Texas inching their way back up in the AVCA Coaches poll from #8 to #6 this week – made possible by Pittsburgh and Penn State losses over the weekend – the Longhorns beat the Texas Christian University Horned Frogs on the forty acres in four sets. TCU was missing their star freshman Elan McCall (Leander) to an undisclosed injury which should have made the match less challenging for the Longhorns than their earlier season meeting in Fort Worth, but it wasn’t their best showing.
Starting with a 7-1 lead, Texas took charge in the first set. In what seemed like had only been minutes of play, freshman libero Sydney Petersen’s (Dike, Iowa) ace earned her team’s 22nd point followed by a roof for the 23rd point by sophomore setter Ashley Shook (Plainfield, Illinois) and freshman middle blocker Brionne Butler (Kendleton). The initial set to Texas (25-13) but then a familiar pattern from the Longhorns – a sluggish second set against the Horned Frogs leading to their first set loss in Gregory Gym this conference season (20-25). In addition to several errors, the teams’ hitting percentages for the set demonstrated the disparity in play with Texas at .158 and TCU at .306, respectively.
Texas hitters and Shook seemingly out of sync, Coach Jerritt Elliott made a substitution at setter with freshman Jhenna Gabriel (Honolulu, Hawaii) that put Texas back on top of TCU (12-11) with an 8-4 run in the third set. A noticeable chemistry change on the court with the Longhorns going on a 10-0 run to reach 19-12 over the Horned Frogs, and finally securing the set (25-17).
Sticking with what worked, Elliott kept Gabriel at setter in the fourth and Texas jumped out to 3-1 over TCU. While there was a lot of lead changes, the Longhorns looked like they were finally racing to take the fourth for the match (22-17) but the Horned Frogs made a 5-0 run putting themselves within reach of snatching the set from them. Senior outside hitter and 2018 Preseason All-Big 12 selection Yaasmeen Bedart-Ghani (Los Angeles, California) broke TCU’s momentum to get Texas to 23-22 and won final match point with a kill (25-23), giving her a total of 14 kills for the match.
Top Ten Rankings will be released Sunday giving fans a sense of potential tournament seeds. If the selection show were today, an undefeated #1 BYU would be the natural first seed followed by one-loss #2 Stanford, and #3 Minnesota who took down #5 Wisconsin last night rounding out third. It is that fourth slot that Longhorn fans and the team are eyeing to secure a regional in Austin.
The Longhorns have a week to explore setter personnel before they face Kansas State at home on Wednesday, November 7 at 7PM.
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