 "Photo: Peter Franklin/The Daily Texan")
All that Colorado outside hitter Kerra Schroeder could do was laugh at herself.
She had just fallen victim to the wrath and fury of a Destinee Hooker kill.
“I thought the ball was going out, so the fact that she touched the ball was great,” Hooker said. “It was unfortunate that it happened to hit her in the face.”
It was early in the match when Schroeder’s face attempted to block Hooker’s attack, but much like her team, she was only left discombobulated by the quickness of defeat. The Longhorns trumped their evolutionary relatives in sweeping fashion with plenty of time to spare before the football game.
“We know that we can win a lot of matches,” said head coach Jerritt Elliott. “But for us to be successful, we have to have our own standards that we force ourselves to live up to when we execute our wins.”
Colorado entered the match close to the basement of the Big 12 Conference. Last Saturday, second-ranked Texas took on Texas Tech, ranked dead last in hitting percentage, opponent hitting percentage, assists, digs and kills. Ranked just ahead of Tech in each of those categories is the lowly Colorado.
Second-ranked Texas entered the match with every reason to dominate the Buffaloes. But with All-American setter Ashley Engle still sidelined with a top-secret ankle injury, the Texas attack looked sluggish at times. Hooker’s facial reconstructive surgery of a kill on Schroeder was her only kill in the first set, a rare occurrence, considering she’s averaging nearly five kills per set on the season.
But Hooker made her share of contributions and then some on her serving. Not only did she double her season high and outdo her career high, but Hooker’s six service aces matched a Big 12 Conference season high. Five of those aces came in the first set.
“I was just trying to be aggressive,” Hooker said. “I tried not to take anything off of the ball and after the first few, I began to get into a rhythm, and everything turned out great from there.”
Juliann Faucette and Jennifer Doris led the way for the Texas attack, each finishing the match with eight kills. Texas was uncharacteristically balanced across the board, with all but two players collecting kills and seven players having at least three.
“It shows the depth of our team and how well we can step up,” Faucette said.
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