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NORMAN, Okla. -- The sixth-ranked Texas Volleyball team out-hit No. 23 Oklahoma .418-to-.135 to sweep the Sooners, 3-0 Wednesday night at McCasland Field House. The Longhorns 30-21, 30-20, 30-21 victory stretched Texas' winning streak to nine matches and improved UT's all-time record against Oklahoma to 29-1.

Texas' junior middle blocker Lauren Paolini headlined the Horns' attack on the night, tallying 11 kills on .733 hitting, while freshman outside hitter Juliann Faucette recorded a kill/dig double-double with 16 kills and 12 digs. Sophomore outside hitter Destinee Hooker joined the duo in double-digits with 12 kills on .375 hitting.

Faucette and sophomore opposite hitter Ashley Engle jumpstarted the Texas offense early in game one, tallying two kills apiece to give the Horns a quick 4-0 lead. The Longhorns stretched their advantage to nine points at the 16-7 mark on a kill by senior middle blocker Brandy Magee and extended the lead to 10 on an OU miscue that moved the tally to 23-13. Oklahoma rallied back with a 4-0 run late in the game, whittling the Texas lead to 26-20, but three Sooners' errors and a kill by Hooker allowed UT to close out game one, 30-21.

After falling behind to start the second stanza, Texas stormed back, erasing the OU lead and piecing together a 4-0 run to claim an 8-5 edge. The Sooners answered by tying the game at 13 on a block by seniors Mariana Blum and Anna Stadel, but a pair of UT blocks pushed the Horns' lead back to 15-13. Late in the game, Texas widened the margin to 26-18, using a 5-0 run fueled by two Engle kills. The Longhorns then closed out the frame, 30-20 on a service ace by Magee.

Texas took advantage of a 3-0 run and two straight blocks to take its first lead of game three at the 11-8 mark. The Sooners responded with two consecutive points, but OU followed the points with four straight errors and allowed the Horns to take a15-10 advantage. The Longhorns pushed their lead to seven on a Faucette kill at the 23-16 mark and increased the lead to 28-20 on Hooker's 12th kill of the match. Moriarty and Magee recorded back-to-back kills to close out the game and give UT a 30-21 game-three victory.

The Longhorns out-blocked the Sooners in the match, nine-to-three and Texas recorded 54 kills and OU only registered 36. Moriarty steadied the UT offense for the night, tallying 46 assists and pitching in seven digs, while senior libero Alyson Jennings paced the Texas defense with 12 digs.

Texas returns to action when it travels to Columbia, Mo. to take on Missouri at 6:30 p.m. CDT on Saturday, Oct. 20.

POSTMATCH QUOTES
TEXAS HEAD COACH Jerritt Elliott
On the match: Oklahoma is always a tough place to play because we are such big rivals. I was very pleased with our performance tonight and I think we will continue to improve as the season goes on. We do have several things that we need to work on as we begin the second round of Big 12 play.

On the play of junior middle blocker Lauren Paolini: Lauren played very well tonight and she has been playing very smooth since we moved her back to the middle. I thought our team's production was very balanced tonight and all of our players were playing at a very high level.

On the importance of the victory: Getting a win against a Top 25 team on the road in this conference and having to play in a hostile environment is a very tough thing to do. This win gives us nine wins in a row and a 9-1 record in the first round of Big 12 play. That is a very difficult feat to accomplish when we play a very tough conference schedule. We have played a lot of tough games on the road and that sets us up good for the second half of the season as we travel to play a very good Missouri team on Saturday.