11/9/02
Texas falls to No. 5 Nebraska, 3-1
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| Kathy Hahn and Caron Blotch |
AUSTIN, Texas --
The University of Texas volleyball team dropped its third straight match
but broke fifth-ranked Nebraska consecutive game winning streak in a
30-23, 23-30, 22-30, 25-30 loss Saturday night at Gregory Gym, with
2,116 fans attending.
Texas (18-7/9-6 Big 12) ended the Nebraska (22-1, 14-0) consecutive
game winning streak at 26. The last team to beat the Huskers in a single
game was Texas A&M on Oct. 6. The Longhorns hit .154 for the match
while NU had a .333 hitting percentage. With her parents in attendance
for the final match of the season, sophomore Mira Topic (Kastela Kambelovac,
Croatia/Vladimir Nazor) led all players with 25 kills on 55 attempts.
Topic recorded her 10th double-double of the season as she added 11
digs.
Sophomores Bethany Howden (Austin, Texas/Westlake) and Kathy Hahn (Leander,
Texas/Leander) tallied 13 kills each. On the defensive side of the match,
junior libero Stacy Millichap (Woodside, Calif./UCLA) came up with 20
digs to tie her career-high while sophomore LaTonya Coates (Bangor,
Mich./Bangor Public) had 10 digs. Freshman Caron Blotch (Franklin, Ind./Franklin)
had 51 assists on the night.
"We were ready to battle tonight," said Texas head coach Jerritt
Elliott. "This was one of the best defensive matches we have played.
We were very sharp in the first game, and I thought we were in game
two. A couple of plays changed the outcome of the match tonight."
The only time the first game was tied was at 1-all. From that point,
Texas took control of the game, winning 30-23. UT hit .476, tallying
22 kills on 42 attacks with two errors while Nebraska hit .395. Texas
steadily extended its lead on Nebraska, making some spectacular digs.
All but two Longhorns tallied a dig in game one. Topic had 11 kills
for a .667 hitting percentage while Millichap had four digs.
Texas couldn't carry the momentum from game one into game two as UT
hit for .023 while Nebraska hit .371 to win the game, 30-23. The match
was tied 10 times and saw the lead change twice. Texas stayed in the
game with three NU service errors and four serve reception mistakes.
Nebraska pulled away at 20-20. Coates had an attacking error, followed
by three straight points by Anna Schrad, to give the Huskers a 24-20
advantage. Topic had five kills in game two while Millichap had eight
digs.
In game three, Nebraska kept the Horns to a negative hitting percentage
of .-020 while hitting a match low .250, to win 30-22. The Longhorns
were down, 10-12, before Jennifer Saleaumua served for seven points
to open up the lead for the Huskers. After a Topic kill, Howden served
for two points to narrow the gap at 18-22. Nebraska continued to gain
points off of UT attacking errors, but a Nebraska kill put the game
away. Senior Amber Holmquist had seven kills on the fourth game while
Hahn and Topic led UT with four each. Millichap had seven digs in game
three.
Texas had the lead until Nebraska came back at 11-11 and held the advantage
for good, winning game four 30-25. Schrad again extended the Nebraska
lead behind three straight points. Nebraska's lead grew to six points
at 22-16 before UT attempted to make a comeback. Blotch served for two
points and Howden slammed a kill to bring Texas within three points,
21-24. After a Husker serving error, Howden continued her scoring to
add two points to cut Nebraska's lead to 27-25. Errors cost the Longhorns
as Nebraska scored the final three points of the match.
Coming up next for the Longhorns is a Wednesday night match in Oklahoma.
The match in Norman is scheduled for a 7 p.m. start.
