Logan Eggleston Has More In Store After Texas Volleyball

Eggleston in a 2022 game against Texas Tech.

Logan Eggleston, BBA ’22, Life Member, was already going to be a Longhorn legend prior to her senior year, but there are still two distinct categories of University of Texas greats. Would the volleyball star leave Austin in the same column as Earl Campbell, Cat Osterman, and T.J. Ford—transcendent talents who experienced great individual and team success, but didn’t win a national championship? Or would the graceful and intimidating outside hitter join the likes of Vince Young, Marshevet Hooker, and Roger Clemens—all-timers who were also part of teams that got to raise the biggest NCAA trophy?  

Prior to this season, Texas Volleyball coach Jerritt Elliott may have been wondering that himself. His dynastic program, which claimed UT’s second NCAA championship in 2012, had been to the Final Four five times since then without a title, including a tough loss to Kentucky in the 2020 COVID-delayed championship game. So to say the 2022 team’s win was guaranteed would be a lie. But it was a season of dominance and triumph, including regular sellouts of Gregory Gym and Elliott’s 600th career win. The first Longhorn to win the American Collegiate Volleyball Association Player of the Year, Eggleston headlined a formidable squad which also included middle blocker Asjia O’Neal, libero Zoe Fleck, Kentucky transfer Madi Skinner (who was on the team that beat UT), and setter Saige Ka’aha’aina-Torres. By the time they got to Omaha, Eggleston was talking about the tears of happiness that would come with the final point as a matter of when, not if.  

“That’s kind of how you have to be,” she says with a knowing laugh. “I call it manifesting a little bit. It’s definitely confidence—I knew our team was super strong—but I wanted to speak it into existence and have those conversations flowing around the locker room.”  

Of course, when the Brentwood, Tennessee, native left high school a year early to enter UT, she expected to win multiple championships. Maybe even four of them.  

“That was the goal,” she says. “Obviously it’s hard to win. We know that. We’ve tried many times. But I think Jerritt recruited me for that reason. I had that winning mentality. I’m just so grateful that we finally got it—to be the bow on the end of my career.” 

Eggleston’s obvious attributes as a player—physicality, length, hand-eye coordination, and, as Elliott puts it, her ability to hit “a heavy ball”—were rounded out by her fierce competitive spirit and unrelenting work ethic, both at practice and in the weight room. She finished her UT career with 1,921 kills—point-scoring attacks at the net—the third-most in Longhorn history. In 2022, she also set the single season record for service aces with 208. As an outside hitter, she takes the most pride in her kills, not just because of their dramatic, in-your-face quality, but because it takes the whole team to set one up.  

That sense of team play is also why she first picked volleyball over basketball early in her teens. 

“I think in basketball and in other sports, one person can take over a game,” she says. “But in volleyball, every single contact affects the next person. You really have to be intentional with everything you do. And I liked that the pressure was never only on one person. It’s really a team unit that has to work together to get the job done.” 

“And it’s so cool you get to celebrate with your teammates after every single point,” she adds.  

Eggleston at the NCAA fourth-round game against Ohio State in 2022.

In Austin, Eggleston didn’t just thrive as an athlete and a student—she graduated with a degree in management in May 2022, then added a certificate in business ethics and leadership during the fall semester—but became the person she is still becoming, an equally important aspect of the college experience.  

A big part of that was her activism and community outreach work. During and after the summer of 2020, she and her teammates were front and center in the Black Lives Matter movement, with Eggleston and O’Neal co-writing a powerful video for the team’s official Twitter account. And once the COVID-delayed season resumed, they took the court in Black Lives Matter T-shirts for warm-ups before every game. As the president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, Eggleston was among the group of Black Longhorn athletes who helped push the university to take such steps as honoring Julius Whittier, BA ’74, MPAff ’76, Life Member, UT’s first Black football player, with a statue, and renaming certain buildings. Eggleston was also the sole current student-athlete on “The Eyes of Texas” history committee and played a key role in LEAD (Longhorns for Equity, Access, and Diversity). LEAD made $500,000 in athletics money over five years available to nonprofit organizations, mostly focused on children from underprivileged communities (one of her choices was Break the Pipeline, a child-centered nonprofit that helps break the cycle of incarceration). 

“I’ve never had a player that’s been able to handle that much,” Elliott says. “But I think Logan is one of those people that, the more that she has on her plate the better that she performs. I think she’s the greatest all-around human being that I’ve ever coached. In regard to being able to fulfill a lot of things in the classroom, in the community, and on the court.” 

“She really is somebody that you kind of want to model your life after,” Ka’aha’aina-Torres told ESPN last season. “Just the way that she carries herself. You see her and you’re like, Wow, that is Logan Eggleston. She’s amazing at what she does. She’s a great leader in the community; she’s a great leader on the team.”  

With just a few bumps along the way—a loss to Iowa State that was a “what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger moment,” and a later-season stretch where Eggleston got both rest and motivation when Elliott stopped playing her in all six rotations—the Horns entered the NCAA tournament with a 23-1 record, and yes, great expectations. They won every tournament match either 3-1 or 3-0; even when they lost a close first set in the semifinal to San Diego or took just a few extra points to finish out Louisville in the championship, you could see the confidence and calm.  

“We just learned how to trust each other and not get too caught up in what the other team was doing,” Eggleston says. “We talked a lot about making eye contact with each other, and really connecting in that moment, and letting that take the pressure off of ourselves. Because we could look around and see, ‘Oh, I have five other people that are fighting right beside me.’” 

Eggleston’s ACVA award has also prompted talk of a possible jersey retirement. But right now, she’s still happier basking in what the team accomplished. “We won the national championship, and that’s what I wanted,” she says. “I’m excited to come back and have our 10-year reunion, and then our 20-year reunion, and our 30-year reunion.” 

However, coming “back” may be relative. For now, Eggleston has traded in her burnt orange for the plum purple uniform of the Turkish pro team Galatasaray HDI Sigorta, where she is signed through 2024, and she has her hopes on playing in the 2026 Olympics. But Austin is now the place she considers home, and she has plans for a career in business. There’s a particular gig in town she has her eye on.  

“My dream job is to be the athletic director at Texas,” she says. “And I’ve told Chris Del Conte this. He knows he’s keeping my office warm for me.”  

CREDITS: Texas Athletics

 
 
 

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