 "Photo: Rachel Taylor/The Daily Texan")
On the eve of All Hallow’s Eve, No. 2 Texas (18-0, 13-0 Big 12) spooked No. 8 Nebraska (16-6, 9-4) by sweeping them in three straight sets and sending them back to Lincoln, Neb., without any treats.
Instead, the Cornhuskers were tricked into thinking they could come into Gregory Gymnasium and leave with a win. Nebraska would come out to early leads in all three sets only to see the Longhorns surge back for the win — especially in the third set, when Texas fell behind big early on.
“We could have given up [when we were] down 10-4 in game three, but we kept battling, kept battling and had some big plays in that 18-point range to really change momentum and get the crowd behind us,” said Texas coach Jerritt Elliott.
After Texas tied the set at 13, Nebraska went on a 5-2 run to regain the lead at 18-15. Then, riding the encouragement of an unusually vocal Elliott, Texas rallied with a 10-1 run to win the set 25-19.
“I was trying to interject some energy to them, trying to be able to create a little bit of synergy and enthusiasm for them,” Elliott said. “If I have to be a cheerleader at times, then I’ll do that to kind of push them to get going. I don’t know if that was the key, but I was just trying to help out.”
Elliott’s encouragement from the sidelines may not have been pivotal, but the play of All-American outside hitter Destinee Hooker certainly was. Hooker played at a higher level the entire match and posted her sixth double-double of the season.
“I thought Destinee was really good … in all the games; she just loves being in that situation,” Elliott said. “She’s a winner, she knows how to win. She just loves performing at that kind of level to be successful. She wants the ball when it’s crunch time.”
And in the crunch, the senior seemed to single-handedly carry the team to victory.
“I was thinking, ‘We’re not going to lose this game. We’re not,’” Hooker said. “We’ve worked too hard in the practice gym, and this whole season, to let up now.”
During that 10-1 run, Hooker posted six of her 19 kills, including all three of Texas’ final points.
“I got the eye contact from [Ashley Engle], got a good pass from [Heather] Kisner, and terminated the ball,” Hooker said of her final blow to Nebraska’s hopes of pulling the upset.
On hand to watch Texas’ sweep were King Leonidas, Pocahontas, a random penguin and an assortment of others.
But despite those figures and the more than 4,000 others in the stands, all the focus was on the history that Texas made at Gregory Gymnasium on Friday night. The Longhorns’ sweep of the Cornhuskers marked only the fourth time in seven years that Nebraska failed to win a set. It also was the Longhorns’ 27th-straight regular season win, an all-time record.
