UT Volleyball Dominates Nation’s Top Two Teams

By Jordan Schraeder in Blog, Special, Sports on September 9, 2013 at 4:12 pm | No Comments

Take heart, UT sports fans. Though we’d like to forget a certain game this weekend ever happened, the ladies of Longhorn volleyball gave us something to truly be proud of. The squad toppled the top two teams in the nation—first-ranked Penn State and No. 2 Stanford—this weekend in the Nike Volleyball Big Four Classic.

The tournament was one for the books: A record-breaking audience of 8,629 Longhorn fans piled into Gregory Gym to see the No. 6 Texas team take down two of its most challenging preseason opponents. It’s the first time the ‘Horns have defeated first- and second-ranked opponents in the same season since 1995, and they did it in front of the first back-to-back sellout crowds in Texas Volleyball history.

Coming off a season-opening loss to Hawaii in August, the Longhorns rallied for a nailbiting 3-2 victory over the top-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions on Saturday, and a 3-1 win over Stanford on Sunday.

The weekend’s standouts included junior outside hitter Haley Eckerman, who racked up 30 kills over both matches, and Alcalde cover star and senior outside hitter Bailey Webster, who had 22.

In their quest to defend their 2012 national title, the Longhorns will participate in the State Farm Classic in Illinois this upcoming weekend, and conference play begins Sept. 25 against TCU in Fort Worth.

Photo courtesy UT Athletics.

Tags: Bailey Webster, Haley Eckerman, Longhorns, Penn State, Stanford, texas volleyball