AUSTIN (KXAN) — After rising to No. 2 in the latest national rankings, the Texas volleyball team backed it up with a wild win Sunday over No. 6 Stanford at Moody Center.
In the first-ever volleyball match at Moody Center, the Longhorns claimed a 5-set nailbiter in front of a state-record crowd of nearly 11,000. Set scores were 25-15, 25-23, 21-25, 13-25, 18-16.
Longhorns head coach Jerritt Elliott said it was a special match to be part of.
“The fans got every penny’s worth,” he said. “That environment, the passion behind volleyball, it just means a lot.”
Torrey Stafford led the Longhorns with a double-double, notching 18 kills and 10 digs, for her third double-double of the season. Setter Ella Swindle had 32 assists, and libero Emma Halter had 10 digs. Cari Spears had a career-high 14 kills.
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Stanford had a better hitting percentage for the match, .272 to .236, but the Longhorns got it done in the final set. Texas trailed 10-5 in the set, but then went on a 6-0 run to move ahead 11-10, and then managed to keep the Cardinal from scoring match point three times. A final 3-0 flurry, capped by a Cardinal attacking error, clinched the match for the Longhorns.
“We came out with a different zest,” Elliott said of the fifth set. “We played really hard, and down 10-5, made some huge plays, great digs. We had big transition plays and Torrey took some big transition swings for us.”
Elia Rubin led Stanford with 18 kills, followed by Ipar Kurt with 15.
Texas (4-0) travels to Dickies Arena in Fort Worth to face No. 3 Louisville at 8 p.m. Wednesday, in the Shriners Children’s Showdown at the Net.
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