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Oct. 17, 2012

Final Stats |  Photo Gallery 

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AUSTIN, Texas -- Sophomore All-America outside hitter Haley Eckerman had 23 kills, 12 digs and two aces Wednesday as the No. 8 Texas Longhorns rallied from an 0-2 deficit for a five-set win against the No. 22 Iowa State Cyclones (26-28, 18- 25, 25-17, 25-15, 15-9) in a Big 12 match. It was the first time that Texas has won after losing the first two sets of a match since the 2009 season opener against Long Beach State.

Bailey Webster tied a career best with 17 kills while hitting .417 (17-2-36) with four blocks as Texas remained perfect in Big 12 play (8-0) while winning its 10th straight match to improve to 16-3 on the season. Texas avoided its first-ever loss to Iowa State in Austin as the Longhorns are now 19-0 all-time against the Cyclones (10-7, 4-3).

Junior setter Hannah Allison registered 54 assists, moving into 10th place on UT's all-time career assists list (2,211) while she guided the Longhorns to a .333 hitting night. Sha'Dare McNeal posted 10 kills with no errors for a .476 hitting night to go with 12 digs and seven blocks. Khat Bell added six kills, two aces and seven blocks as Texas posted 16 blocks.

Victoria Hurtt led Iowa State with 22 kills, hitting .326 (22-8-43). Hurtt registered 11 kills in the first set alone. Jamie Straube had 13 kills while hitting .294 for the Cyclones while Alison Landwehr had 59 assists and nine digs. Rachel Hockaday had a double-double with 10 kills and 10 digs while libero Kristen Hahn had 30 digs.

The Cyclones raced out to a 10-4 lead in the first set before the Longhorns steadily climbed back with an 8-3 run. Hurtt added three kills for the 18-15 advantage, before McNeal's kills started a 5-1 run as Texas took its first lead, 20-19. Hurtt gave set point for the Cyclones at 24-23, but Eckerman tied it. Sarah Palmer's ace gave UT a set point, but Hurtt again answered. After Iowa State tied it, UT committed a hitting error before Hockaday handed the Longhorns their first set loss in Big 12 play this season.

The Longhorns took a 6-4 lead to start the second before Straube's serve, including two aces, was part of five straight points for the Cyclones. Texas would come back to make it a 12-11 lead, but the Cyclones went on a strong 8-1 run to serve their way to a 2-0 lead in the match.

After committing seven combined hitting errors through the first two sets, UT responded after the intermission with five hitting errors the rest of the match. Texas hit .433 (15-2-30) in the third set to keep the Cyclones off-balance. At 10-7 in the fourth with the lead, Eckerman's back row kill started a 7-1 run as Texas took the commanding 17-8 lead and force the fifth and deciding set.

Webster and Hurtt went back-and-forth in the fifth set. McNeal's solo block broke a 6-6 tie and proved to be the key momentum changer. Molly McCage made it 9-6 for the host Longhorns as Texas closed out the rally on Webster's kill on the 5-1 run.

Texas resumes Big 12 play on Wednesday (Oct. 24) against Baylor with a 7 p.m. match (presented by Discovered - Powered by Intel). The match will be broadcast live on Longhorn Network. An audio webcast and Gametracker live stats will be available on TexasSports.com with live Twitter updates @TexasVolleyball.

Notes: With tonight's win, the Texas Volleyball program has recorded a streak of 10 or more wins in six of the last seven seasons...Texas has won a school-record 36 consecutive conference matches at home, dating back to the 2008 season...Texas is now 7-3 this season against ranked opponents...Texas is 2-1 in five-set matches this season (all three against ranked opponents)...Texas has won Haley Eckerman has posted a double-double in four straight matches (career high)...Bailey Webster had 17 kills in a match for the fourth time in her career, tying her previous season best set on Sept. 6 against Minnesota...Khat Bell had a season-high two aces tonight...Hannah Allison surpassed Lisa Denker (1982-83) for 10th place on the UT career list for assists...Allison now trails Pavlina Steffkova (1996-97) for ninth place (Steffkova with 2,343 assists).

ISU	28-25-17-15-9
TEXAS	26-18-25-25-15 

Records: Texas (16-3, 8-0), Iowa State (10-7, 4-3)
Kills: Haley Eckerman 23 (Texas), Victoria Hurtt 22 (Iowa State)
Team:	ISU	TEXAS
1	.368	.300
2	.325	.176
3	.242	.433
4	.057	.500
5	.069	.296
Match	.223	.333 

Post-Match Quotes

Head Coach Jerritt Elliott
On turning things around in the third set: In order to turn things around, we started to be very efficient. Our defense was really struggling early on, allowing Iowa State to hit well over .300. If you look at the stats we were 17-52 on our side out balls in the first two sets then after set two, we went 37-43. That is a big difference in terms of our efficiency. Getting Eckerman back into the match and the passers doing a great job led up to the better efficiency. Early on, Sha'Dare did a great job of giving us more balance and ultimately our defense improved tremendously. We got a lot calmer and stated consistent.

On the takeaway from the first half of conference play: Anytime you go undefeated in the Big 12 is huge. We are still in the battle to win this conference. To do that, we have to be able to push forward. Our team has been performing well. We are starting to get more balance, as you look at the numbers from the beginning; our production and efficiency is a lot better. There are still a lot of things we can do and points we can touch on to get more proficient in terms of our touches but we have time before the next match.

Sophomore outside hitter Haley Eckerman
On the team's comeback: Our main thing was to stay calm, continue to fight and work on the basics of Texas Volleyball, which is siding out and not allowing them to get runs. We were not going to let the third set be done with. We were determined to come out playing the basics of Texas Volleyball. That was our main focus.