Texas Tops Nebraska to Reach NCAA Semifinals

Omaha, Neb. - The second-seeded Texas volleyball team used another outstanding offensive performance and a dominant effort at the net to defeat No. 10 seed Nebraska, 3-1, on Saturday night in the NCAA Omaha Regional Final in front of 9,253 fans at the Qwest Center.

With the win, the Longhorns advance to the NCAA National Semifinals for the second straight year. Texas will meet 11th-seeded Minnesota on Thursday at 6 p.m. (Central) at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Fla.

The Longhorns dropped the first set on Saturday night, but just as was the case the previous four times it lost the opening set, Texas rallied to win. After falling 25-21 in set one, Texas took the next three sets by scores of 25-18, 25-16, 25-17 to improve to 28-1 on the season. The Longhorns also became the first team in the NCAA era to defeat Nebraska three times in the same season.

Regional Most Outstanding Player Destinee Hooker paced Texas with 18 kills on 40 swings. She was one of five Longhorns who hit above .300 in the match. Juliann Faucette added 14 kills as Texas hit .342 in the match, an impressive figure as the Huskers had held seven straight opponents to .150 or less.

Nebraska only finished with three fewer kills than Texas, but the Huskers were blocked nine times and committed 26 errors while hitting at a .179 clip. After hitting .297 in the opening set, Nebraska hit .167 or worse in each of the final three sets. Three Huskers totaled double-figures in kills, led by Lindsey Licht with 12. Kori Cooper added 11 kills in her final match, while Tara Mueller tallied 10 kills.

Nebraska won five of the first six rallies to jump out to a quick 5-1 lead in set one. The Huskers led 8-3 before Texas burned an early time out. NU stretched the lead to 11-4, before Texas used a 4-1 run to trim the lead to 16-12 and force a Husker time out. Nebraska scored a kill after the break before two Husker hitting errors and a Hooker ace closed the gap to 17-14 and forced Nebraska to spend another time out. The Huskers were the first to 20 at 20-16 and stretched the lead to 23-18 before Mueller closed out a four-point win with a kill, as Nebraska won its its 31st straight set.

In set two, Texas didn't record its first kill until the 14th rally, but by the time Rachael Adams finally found the floor, it tied the score at 7-7 against the error-prone Huskers. The Longhorns took their first lead of the match one rally later on Nebraska's seventh error of the set. Nebraska rallied to take a 12-8 lead before a 5-1 Longhorn run gave Texas a 15-13 lead at the media time out. The Huskers pulled even at 16 before Texas' offense got into a rhythm. The Longhorns won the next five rallies and closed the set on a 9-2 run. In evening the match, Texas hit .364 in the second set but had six fewer kills than Nebraska, as the Huskers had 10 attack errors - including three Longhorn blocks - and four service errors.

It was Texas who got off to the quick start in set three, scoring five of the first seven points. Nebraska got as close as three before the Longhorns pulled away behind an extremely efficient offense. The lead grew to 17-9 when Nebraska spent its final time out. At that point, Texas had 11 kills in the set on only 19 swings while Nebraska had only four kills. The Longhorns led by as many as 10 down the stretch before a Jennifer Doris kill wrapped up the set. Texas hit a blistering .467 in the set, totaling 10 more kills than Nebraska while out-hitting the Huskers by more than .200 for the second straight set.

After Nebraska scored the first two points of set four, Texas answered with a 6-1 run to take a three-point lead. The Huskers chipped away at the lead and used a 4-1 run to move in front 9-8 and force a Texas time out. The Longhorns won the first two rallies after the break and neither team led by more than one until Texas seized control of the set and the match with a decisive 8-1 run that put the Longhorns in front 21-14. Texas then won three of the final five rallies, as Adams punched UT's ticket to the National Semifinals with a kill on Texas' second match point.

Nebraska, which was appearing in an NCAA Regional Final for a nation-leading sixth straight season, saw its 10-match winning streak snapped. The Huskers finished the season with a 26-7 record.

Omaha Regional All-Tournament Team: Victoria Henson (Iowa State), Sarah Ammerman (Texas A&M), Kori Cooper (Nebraska), Sydney Anderson (Nebraska), Juliann Faucette (Texas), Ashley Engle (Texas), Destinee Hooker (Texas).

Omaha Regional Most Outstanding Player: Destinee Hooker (Texas)