Golden: Texas volleyball's Logan Eggleston seeks storybook ending to epic college career

OMAHA, Neb. — At first glance, Logan Eggleston has it all.

She has the smarts, a personality bigger than the state of Texas and that unmistakable humility that makes her the perfect blueprint for how student-athletes should conduct themselves on and off the court.

What’s missing is a national championship, something she has stalked for the last five years. Her teams have come close, but that trophy has eluded her grasp.

As the top-ranked Texas Longhorns take the court against the upstart San Diego Toreros in Thursday’s national semifinals, the spotlight will be on Eggleston, a veritable Pied Piper who has brought her team to within two wins of the program’s third national title and first since 2012.

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One of a handful of instantly recognizable athletes at Texas, Eggleston has become accustomed to getting stopped by admirers on campus who can’t wait to exchange greetings or grab a quick selfie as witnessed by several googly-eyed fans who all wanted a piece of her after she left Gregory Gym following last Saturday’s regional final win over Ohio State.

She’s a rock star whose instrument has provided a final opportunity to make history. Eggleston will step onto the CHI Health Center court with the same high stakes attached as the 2020 season when the Horns lost here 3-1 to Kentucky in the title game, albeit in much quieter conditions due to COVID-19 fan restrictions.

“Although we have been here before, it's a completely different year and we're going to approach it a little bit different for sure,” she said. “But we're excited and walking to this gym definitely gave us a little bit of that taste of what it felt like to not win. We don't want to feel that way again.”

Eggleston is to this team what the legendary Cat Osterman was to Texas softball. Like Eggleston, Osterman carried her program and won national player of the year awards, three times to be exact for Osterman. Her teams played in three College World Series, but the Horns never broke through for a title.

For Eggleston, a championship would be the perfect ending to a spectacular five-year career where she has not only grown as a player but also as a young businesswoman who has taken advantage of NIL opportunities, as well as a campus leader and community activist who has used her platform to better her city and enhance the lives of others.

She has at least one Texas legend pulling for her.

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“From a freshman until now, she’s made such an impact that she became the face of the program, and that’s saying a lot with the athletes that have come before her for Longhorn volleyball,” Osterman said this week. “Her play is intense, but her passion presence is unmatched, and that is what I believe has separated her. She has been a pleasure to watch and root for, and Longhorn fans have had the opportunity to witness another great that they will talk about for years to come.”

Teammate Asjia O’Neal will be back for a sixth season next year, but this is her last volleyball party with Eggleston, the one player on the team who has been with her from the beginning. They all want a championship for the program reasons, but they’re also playing to win this one for her best friend.

“I think all of our team has that in the back of our minds,” O’Neal said. “Like yes, you want to win for us, but we really want Logan after this year to just be able to hoist that trophy at the end of it all and just feel as if she accomplished everything that she set out to accomplish in her five years.”

Eggleston put butts in seats at the Greg, represented the school with grace and integrity and also helped increase awareness of a sport that continues to grow in large part because of people like her and coach Jerritt Elliott, who fights for volleyball as hard as any coach in the country. Eggleston also stood up against oppression and mistreatment of people of color during the pandemic at a time when the country was fractured among racial and political lines.

Elliott admitted he worried that his star player was taking on too much at the time, but Eggleston handled her business on and off the court and emerged as a resounding voice for students on campus and young people everywhere.

She’s a great volleyball player, but so much more.

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“If the NCAA lets me invest in her, here’s the money out of my own pocket," Elliott said. "I’m investing in whatever business she wants to start.”

Eggleston isn’t one to talk too much about her own accolades, preferring to splash praise on her deserving teammates, but the feeling in this wintry Midwest setting is she and her teammates are preparing for a date with destiny. Of course she wants this, but in true Eggleston fashion, it’s a team goal, not an individual one.

She moved her from Tennessee five years ago to compete with and against the very best, and the results — four All-America nods and a 2021 national player of the year award — have put her on a list with names like Dawn Davenport, Destinee Hooker and 2012 national champion Haley Eckerman, who were the among the best to put on a Texas uniform.

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“All the awards I get and all the conversations I'm a part of, I couldn't do without the people behind me that are setting me up to be successful in today's situation,” Eggleston said. “So it's really an honor to just get to play by the people that I get to play with. They're the reason that I'm who I am and so it's not me, it's all of us.”

The Horns are definitely the deepest of the four teams here, but they go as Eggleston goes. When she’s on, they’re scary good and she’s rarely been off in this epic 26-1 run.  She’s the head of this burnt orange snake and opponents understand that despite the wealth of talent that Elliott will put on the floor, it begins and ends with No. 33.

“I love her strength and her courage and I think that she's a tremendous leader for that program,” San Diego coach Jennifer Petrie said. "She's a fierce competitor and she really is the driving force of that program and it's fun to watch her play because she has so much competitive energy. It will be exciting and a challenge to play against that."

The Horns definitely have the firepower to emerge from this Final Four as the last team standing led by a superstar on the precipice of a perfect sendoff to a sensational career. Eggleston needs this and so does the program. This is her last stop on an incredible collegiate odyssey.

A championship.

It’s the final piece.

NCAA Final Four

Thursday's semifinals (ESPN) — Texas (26-1) vs. San Diego (31-1), 6 p.m.; Louisville (30-2) vs. Pitt (31-3), 8:30 p.m.; Saturday's final (ESPN2) — 7 p.m.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Logan Eggleston seeks elusive national title in her final two games