5/27/04

Texas improves to 4-0 in Europe with 3-0 victory over VC Tirol

INNSBRUCK, Austria - The Texas volleyball team pushed its record to 4-0 on its European Tour with a 3-0 (25-18, 25-23, 25-23) victory over VC Tirol, a first-division professional team in the Austrian league, on Thursday evening. Freshman Brandy Magee (Mission Viejo, Calif.) led the way offensively for Texas, recording 12 kills and adding five blocks (two solos, three block assists). Junior Bethany Howden added 11 kills and three aces.

“Tonight was a great opportunity for our players to see how European professional volleyball is played, since it’s so different from collegiate volleyball,”  Texas head coach Jerritt Elliott said after the victory. “I was glad we were able to find our playing rhythm after not touching the ball for the last two days while we’ve been traveling. I think our team did well adjusting to both its time off and a new style of play from our opponent.

“Since we were down two players, we had the opportunity to try some different things on the court and were able to get our blockers against some big hitters. I was impressed with Erin Larson’s play in the front court on the right side since she’s been mainly a defensive player for the last two years. I was also happy to be able to test Brandy (Magee) out in the backcourt with the serve receive since she’s been doing a great job in practice.

“I’m looking forward to playing the last match on Saturday, then looking back to see the improvements we’ve made on this trip,” Elliott concluded.

Larson (San Antonio, Texas), who was the team’s 5-foot-8 libero last season, recorded two kills and one solo block to go along with her four digs while playing every point of the game.

Texas played only eight of its 10 roster players on the trip in the match. Freshman Leticia Armstrong (Elkhart, Ind.) sprained her ankle in the team’s first match, and then the squad lost first-semester freshman Jen Christian (Gilbert, Ariz.) on Wednesday to return to the States to attend her high school graduation.

In the first game, the Horns jumped out to a 7-2, including four-straight points on freshman setter Jenny Andrew’s (Kingwood, Texas) serve, to take control of the game. The team traded two-points spurts before Texas was able to score fiver of the last eight points played.

In the second game, UT used an 8-1 run to extend a 16-10 lead over Tirol, but the hosts used their own 7-2 run to pull within one point at 24-23 with a serve for the game. However, a service error by Tirol gave the game to Texas and pushed their lead to 2-0.

In the final game, Texas again opened a 16-10 lead, only to see Tirol come back and knot the score at 19-19 by taking advantage of four UT errors. Texas gutted out the win, though, by scoring five of the last eight points. Howden recorded the final point of the game on a kill in the center of the court.

Junior Mira Topic (Kastela Kambelovac, Croatia) added six kills, while freshman Jessica Curtis (Marietta, Georgia) chipped in four kills in the balanced scoring effort. At the net, Topic also added five blocks, including three solo efforts. First-semester freshman Sarah Holloway (Aurora, Colo.) had a game-high five digs.

The Longhorns, currently on day 10 of their 13-day tour of Europe, will leave Innsbruck on Friday, May 20 and head to Munich, Germany, where the team will play one last match before heading home to Austin.