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Oct. 27, 2009

The second-ranked Texas volleyball team travels to No. 25 Texas A&M on Wednesday, Oct. 28 for the State Farm Lone Star Showdown. First serve is set for 7 p.m. Central on ESPNU.

Head coach Jerritt Elliott
On the upcoming week: This is the toughest stretch we have--at A&M, back here on Friday night against Nebraska and then at Iowa State.  It is going to tell us a lot about our conference race. The important thing is that we are just taking it one day at a time and really focusing on A&M at this point.

On how the squad has remained undefeated in conference play: The team has responded. I think that this is very mature team. They have been competitive every day in practice and gotten better, which is a key component to being successful. Most importantly, they have brought energy. To be successful, you have to show up every night, especially when you're Texas and have the No. 2 ranking like we have. Hopefully we will continue that this week.

On playing in Texas A&M's new facility: It is the first time we will not be in G. Rollie White Coliseum. They are playing in their basketball facility. We will get a look at it tomorrow afternoon for the first time and have about an hour to practice on the floor prior to the match. We have seen some film on it. It will probably seem a little bigger and the visual components of it will be a little different, but overall it is going to be a chaotic environment like it usually is.

On whether Texas will be back to full strength against Texas A&M: The great thing that our staff has is we have 12 people on our roster, and all of them are capable of playing and helping this team win. We have gone through numerous players and numerous lineups throughout the season. We have had a couple players that have been out and they are back in the lineup now and will be ready to compete full-strength tomorrow night.

Junior outside hitter Juliann Faucette
On the difficult week the team has in front of team: One step at a time. I think that is the key thing that we keep telling each other.  We need to make sure that we are just taking Texas A&M first, and then whoever is next, we will take them on afterwards. We are looking forward to tomorrow's game. We are all really excited about it.

On playing at Texas A&M Wednesday: This week we are in the new gym for the first time. It should be pretty interesting. They have a lot of great diehard A&M fans. It should be a really fun atmosphere, just like ours in Gregory Gym.

On the team's goals at this point in the season: Our goal is to keep pushing through and hopefully win that Big 12 Championship. Like I said before, we have to take it one step at a time. Every step of the way I think that teams are going to step up when they play us because we have such a high ranking and a big target on our back.

On changes the team has made on the court: We have had to tinker with a few lineups and have different people make plays at different times. It has been great for our team bonding and team chemistry on the court. It gives everyone a chance to play and contribute. It is great for our team.

Junior middle blocker Jennifer Doris
On Wednesday's match against Texas A&M: A&M is such a huge rival. It is always so much fun to play there. Their fans are loud. We have to take from the Colorado game and use what we have learned against A&M because they are a very good team. Every time we play in conference, it is a different challenge. We just need to capitalize on our practices and carry it over into matches.

On the prospect of winning the Big 12: We have set some pretty high goal for ourselves. Coming into the season, one of our goals was to win the Big 12. We are focusing on one game at a time right now, and it all starts in the practice gym.

On how challenging this week is: It is probably one of the toughest weeks because we are playing the top teams in the Big 12 right now. Coach Elliott prepared us with a tough preseason season and we need to carry that over right now.