4/7/04

Longhorns gear up for another weekend spring tournament

	Bethany Howden

AUSTIN, Texas - The Texas volleyball team will continue its spring season this weekend when it hosts Northwestern, Rice and Houston for a tournament at Gregory Gym on Saturday, April 10. The Longhorns will play Rice at 11 a.m., before facing Northwestern at 3 p.m. Other matches that day include Northwestern-Rice at 10 a.m., Northwestern-Houston at 1 p.m., and Houston-Rice at 2 p.m. All matches will be best-of-three games.

Last weekend, Texas went 1-0-2 in three matches at its first tournament of the spring season played at Gregory Gym. In its first match, Texas tied Georgia, 1-1, before defeating Ole Miss, 2-0. In the final match of the day, the Longhorns and Purdue ended deadlocked at 1-1.

"Saturday was really fun, being back out on the court and seeing so many freshman step up," Texas head coach Jerritt Elliott said. "We had six freshman out there and we were doing great things on the court. This time of year is about getting better and I think we'll see an improvement each time we step on the court this spring."

Taking the court in Gregory last Saturday were a nucleus of returnees from the 2003 season, but several new faces also made their first appearances in a Texas uniform. Junior middle blocker Bethany Howden (Austin, Texas), sophomore libero Erin Larson (San Antonio, Texas), freshman setter Jenny Andrew (Houston, Texas), freshman middle blocker Brandy Magee (Mission Viejo, Calif.) and freshman opposite hitter Jessica Curtis (Marietta, Ga.) were joined by redshirt-freshman middle blocker Leticia Armstrong (Elkhart, Ind.), and first-semester freshmen Jen Christian (Gilbert, Ariz.), an outside hitter, and Sarah Holloway (Aurora, Colo.), a defensive specialist.

The Longhorns held out two established players - junior Mira Topic (Kastela Kambelovac, Croatia) and sophomore Dariam Acevedo (Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico) - from the tournament so they could continue rehabilitating injuries suffered last fall.

After this Saturday's tournaments, the Longhorns will hold one final spring tune-up before closing their official off-season practice period. Texas will host LSU on Friday, April 23 at 6:30 p.m. in Gregory Gym for a full, best-of-five-game match. Admission is free.