Stanford spoils home opener, championship banner celebration for Texas volleyball
While the Texas volleyball team and its rabid fans celebrated the Longhorns’ 2022 national championship with a pregame ceremony Sunday, a powerful Stanford squad served up a reminder that this is indeed a new season.
Undaunted by the sellout Gregory Gym crowd, No. 2 Stanford (3-1) rolled to a 25-23, 25-20, 25-15 sweep behind a masterful performance from All-American setter Kami Miner. The Cardinal triumph was the first time the Longhorns have been swept since 2018 — also by Stanford — as well as Texas’ first regular-season home loss at Gregory since 2017 to Minnesota. Heck, the Horns hadn’t dropped a home opener since coach Jerritt Elliott took over the program in 2001.
Elliott couldn't care less about history or any home records, however. He knows he has a team filled with plenty of talent but one that has lots of new faces in new places. Getting better — and getting ready for Big 12 play later this month and NCAA competition in November — is the top priority. Texas will play again Friday against visiting Florida Gulf Coast.
“There's only one way to respond, and that’s to get back out there,” Elliott said. “That’s what we talked about in the locker room. I don't think we're broken. I think we've got a good team. I think we're a younger team. And we've got to have some people kind of step up and learn some of those (new) responsibilties.”
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Elliott: 'We can definitely do better'
Those responsibilities start with a more efficient offense. Texas (2-2) committed 20 hitting errors compared with 34 kills on 108 swings for a paltry hitting percentage of .130. A big block by the Cardinal certainly contributed to those offensive miscues; 6-foot-5 opposite Kendall Kipp and 6-2 middle blocker McKenna Vicini got their hands on a combined 15 of Stanford’s 26 block assists.
However, Elliott said his team’s inability to smoothly transition into its offense proved the difference.
“We can definitely do better,” he said. “We threw it in there and just didn't convert very well. We throw it in there low and tight, we're getting blocked. The height at which you attack is really important.”
In comparison with Texas’ offensive struggles, Miner conducted an explosive attack for the Cardinal. The daughter of former USC basketball star Harold Miner doled out 35 assists while helping Stanford fire 47 kills with just seven hitting errors. Elliott knows his freshman setter Emma Swindle has the potential to develop into a floor general like Miner, but he also knows it will take time.
“The goal is to continue for her to get her better so she's playing in an elite level by November,” Elliott said of Swindle. “There's a lot of growth process, a lot of responsibility that goes on her plate. There's some things that we can do to continue to help that, but I don't think today was her loss by any means. It was the nonsetters sending the ball that we struggled with, and our outside hitters have to score at a better level.”
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Raising the banner, celebrating 2022
An energy buzzed through the crowd before the match even started. The home opener offered the fans their first real chance to celebrate the 2022 championship with the team, and the UT athletic department embraced the moment with video highlights from last season’s title run before the unveiling of the program’s fourth national championship banner.
The crowd even had a few members of last year’s title team who have moved on from college, including national player of the year Logan Eggleston.
But there might have been too much feeling, senior Asjia O’Neal said; she and fellow upperclassmen Madisen Skinner and Molly Phillips discussed how to manage the emotions of the moment.
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“We talked about it, and we knew that we weren't going to let that affect the game,” O’Neal said. “But I don't think we did a good enough job of making sure all the underclassmen or the newbies understood how to kind of take that out of the game and focus on what we have in front of us.”
Despite the disappointment of the loss, O’Neal thinks this year’s squad can learn some valuable lessons from the emotional day.
“Every year since I've been here during games, I would look up and always say I wanted to raise a banner,” she said. “Being able to do that was crazy, but I think it also really lights a fire for this year because, obviously, I came back because I want to do it again.
“So just knowing all that it took last time and how it's going to be even harder because people are really coming for us because we won last year, it's definitely adding fuel to the fire.”
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Stanford spoils home opener, sweeps Texas volleyball team
