2023 Texas Volleyball - Back to Back!

[MirrOlure 14478]

Such a great win.  Watched both the it and Nebraska press conferences.  Neb was a little salty.  That hottie Murray girl said they will win the next three championships and their coach sorta dissed the way ut builds teams via transfers the last two years and said "I kinda like the way were building teams by growing our own players."
 good for him!  it's important to feel good how you got to 2nd place.
 

Yeah, well he and Tom Osborne can have a two man circle jerk on how they think team building should be done.

[Js1 83624]

7 minutes ago, MirrOlure said:

Yeah, well he and Tom Osborne can have a two man circle jerk on how they think team building should be done.

Yeah I don’t get it. Construct your team however you want. Patty Gasso lives off transfers and is elite and wins titles and no one criticizes how OU softball builds their program.  When it works, it’s good.  And it comes with a whole different set of challenges of adding players in from other programs, adapting coaching styles, team chemistry, etc  

Elliot has 2 titles with just this portal approach. Clearly it works for Texas, so Texas will continue to do so and John Cook and Dabo can commiserate over how mean the portal is to such blue collar programs like Nebraska volleyball and Clemson football. 

A good blend of homegrown talent (Eggleston, O’Neal, Phillips, Swindle, Halter) and transfers (Skinner, Fleck, SKT, Akana, Barnes, Bergmark/Caffey) is just the times. 

Edited December 18, 2023 by Js1

[Xminus6 739]

1 hour ago, TwiceHorn said:

Having become a fan of women's volleyball, I have tried to watch some men's.

While it is a fantastic display of athleticism, it is so high and fast as to be virtually unwatchable.  You can't tell what's going on .

Shit, depending on the camera angle, women's can be hard to decipher at times, too.

Yes. I was telling since friends I was watching with today that Volleyball is the only sport where the men’s version is less fun to watch than the women’s. Usually at best it’s a push like in tennis. 

Edited December 18, 2023 by Xminus6

[honolulu horn 6154]

Exactly. It's a shame we're a destination school and city, and our NIL options are first rate. Maybe you should stop sucking, Nebraska. 

[honolulu horn 6154]

A little late to the celebration, but congrats, champs! So freaking badass to go back to back, over so many top seeds. Hook 'em!

 

[LonghornSean 3911]

1 hour ago, ScottS said:

It will be interesting to see what the ratings for today's match end up being.  Going up against the NFL is usually not great for most programming.  But my completely uneducated guess is that moving the championship match to Sunday and putting it on broadcast television is a signal that ABC and ESPN are looking to give women's sports some more exposure.  If I recall the women's basketball title game pulled in some good numbers on ABC but I have no idea what it was up against programming-wise.

Yeah very interested to see the ratings. The one-sided nature of the match probably didn’t help, though that likely wouldn’t affect it as much as a blowout usually does for a more well known sport.

But, simply being on ABC will give the ratings a big boost. Hard to compare with the WBB final which probably went up against some golf and not much else.

[kingkoopa6 8275]

Bruh. Madi only a junior!?

Run this shit back back  back

[perfectchaos007 6540]

1 hour ago, Xminus6 said:

Yes. I was telling since friends I was watching with today that Volleyball is the only sport where the men’s version is less fun to watch than the women’s. Usually at best it’s a push like in tennis. 

Agreed that womens volleyball and womens tennis are, from a viewership entertainment standpoint, on par with the male counterpart. Womens tennis and womens volleyball should be the two most broadcast womens sports in an ideal world, but volleyball is way behind right now. 

[Rickylovesweed 14087]

You can just feel the hurt from Nebraska fans and their coach. 

But let me sum up why they feel that way. They only have 1 good sport at Nebraska and it's volleyball. Texas steals two of their top players from the portal (Akana/Caffey) and then wins the national title. Texas then follows that up by embarrassing Nebraska in the national title match the next season. 

Volleyball is the only enjoyment Nebraska fans have and they're having to watch their volleyball "rival" absolutely own them. It's glorious. I can fully understand their hurt. 

[wood 10962]

2 hours ago, Xminus6 said:

Yes. I was telling since friends I was watching with today that Volleyball is the only sport where the men’s version is less fun to watch than the women’s. Usually at best it’s a push like in tennis. 

The women's game and the men's game are so different in many ways. I just enjoy them both. They're both amazing.

[Pam Cummings 9423]

We can go ahead and remove the question mark from the thread title 🤘

[MirrOlure 14478]

….or edit it to “2024” and add another “…to back?”

[smoky 837]

You can just feel the hurt from Nebraska fans and their coach. 
But let me sum up why they feel that way. They only have 1 good sport at Nebraska and it's volleyball. Texas steals two of their top players from the portal (Akana/Caffey) and then wins the national title. Texas then follows that up by embarrassing Nebraska in the national title match the next season. 
Volleyball is the only enjoyment Nebraska fans have and they're having to watch their volleyball "rival" absolutely own them. It's glorious. I can fully understand their hurt. 

Plus, their fans have spent $0 traveling to bowl games in the last 8 years so they can all afford to travel to volleyball final fours.

[jofus 2265]

Looking for a gif of the neb player that got nuked, meet the fockers style. It was in the third set, I believe…

[Js1 83624]

I thought a bunch last night about how utterly different Elliot's 3 title teams have been

2012 - offensive firepower. Haley and Bailey went off that night (12 kills hitting .400 for Haley and 14 kills hitting .500 for Bailey).  We suffocated Oregon at the net (15-1 in blocks). It was just insane - Oregon was barely a traffic cone defensively against Texas. 

2022 - more of a defensive/passing clinic.  Texas held Louisville to .189, outblocked them 9-4 and outdug them 46-39.  It was the Logan, Madi and Asjia show - Logan 19 kills hitting .341 and O'Neal 9 kills, no errors, hitting .643, Madi 12 kills hitting .407. 

2023 - it was almost purely serving Nebraska off the floor. 12 aces and held Nebraska to .013 hitting (we only outblocked them 8-7).  That was not a great hitting performance by Texas compared to the other 2 finals (.264) but we didn't need to be. Nebraska had 20 kills and 19 errors. 

[shadow_operative2.0 15740]

.013 will never not be funny.

And I kinda like that #. 

[Js1 83624]

It is great in that context that Texas faced the #1 offense, #2 offense, #4 offense, #18 offense, #36 offense and #75 offense - in terms of hitting % - during their title run. 

aggy - season .238, hit .131
SMU - season .257, hit .146
Tenn - season .304, hit .235
Stanford - season .316, hit .278
Wisky - season .310, hit .223
Nebraska - season .278, hit .013

Texas faced an offensive gauntlet to win this title and shut them all down. 

[TrashMaster G 17299]

1 minute ago, Js1 said:

It is great in that context that Texas faced the #1 offense, #2 offense, #4 offense, #18 offense, #36 offense and #75 offense - in terms of hitting % - during their title run. 

aggy - season .238, hit .131
SMU - season .257, hit .146
Tenn - season .304, hit .235
Stanford - season .316, hit .278
Wisky - season .310, hit .223
Nebraska - season .278, hit .013

Texas faced an offensive gauntlet to win this title and shut them all down. 

It's so amazing to think that we faced a match point in the 3rd round and went on to win the whole damn thing.

Sports is crazy sometimes.

[TwiceHorn 30851]

3 minutes ago, TrashMaster G said:

It's so amazing to think that we faced a match point in the 3rd round and went on to win the whole damn thing.

Sports is crazy sometimes.

Kinda gotta think this is/was, again, a product of playing the B12.  It was a little more challenging this year than last, but we weren't generally rising to the level of our competition, rather quite the opposite.

Tennessee gave us a little test, we survived it and turned things up significantly.  I'm not sure I had any idea we could play like the last three matches.  For all the talk about Madisen Skinner, I think EVERYONE turned it up, individually and as a team.

[Guest]

Last night:

[Js1 83624]

4 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

Kinda gotta think this is/was, again, a product of playing the B12.  It was a little more challenging this year than last, but we weren't generally rising to the level of our competition, rather quite the opposite.

Tennessee gave us a little test, we survived it and turned things up significantly.  I'm not sure I had any idea we could play like the last three matches.  For all the talk about Madisen Skinner, I think EVERYONE turned it up, individually and as a team.

Uh yeah, some of the defense shown by Akana, Barnes, Halter and Swindle was insane. Barnes especially - that one armed stab while running backwards was beautiful  

I really hope we can find another portal libero who is okay playing DS. Barnes took a bit to adjust to not being a libero anymore, but damn she was really on by the end of the season in her role. 

[WBT 20278]

46 minutes ago, Js1 said:

I thought a bunch last night about how utterly different Elliot's 3 title teams have been

2012 - offensive firepower. Haley and Bailey went off that night (12 kills hitting .400 for Haley and 14 kills hitting .500 for Bailey).  We suffocated Oregon at the net (15-1 in blocks). It was just insane - Oregon was barely a traffic cone defensively against Texas. 

2022 - more of a defensive/passing clinic.  Texas held Louisville to .189, outblocked them 9-4 and outdug them 46-39.  It was the Logan, Madi and Asjia show - Logan 19 kills hitting .341 and O'Neal 9 kills, no errors, hitting .643, Madi 12 kills hitting .407. 

2023 - it was almost purely serving Nebraska off the floor. 12 aces and held Nebraska to .013 hitting (we only outblocked them 8-7).  That was not a great hitting performance by Texas compared to the other 2 finals (.264) but we didn't need to be. Nebraska had 20 kills and 19 

After years of Elliott teams banging their head against the wall with poor defense and serve receive, I can't get over how good we've become at those things with these back to back champions.  It's frustrating how that was the obvious missing piece for so long but credit to Elliott for finally fixing it.

I thought last year might be a one off getting Fleck from the portal but now Emma as a hs recruit has developed into a badass.

 

[RexWilson 1341]

We went to the tower last year when the team took pictures with the trophy. Planned on going again this year but I guess they did it last night when they got back. 

[Js1 83624]

5 minutes ago, RexWilson said:

We went to the tower last year when the team took pictures with the trophy. Planned on going again this year but I guess they did it last night when they got back. 

I figured those girls want to head out for the holidays so just got it done since it was an afternoon championship. 

[Mittens 8036]

Pretty sure they're taking another one today.

[TwiceHorn 30851]

25 minutes ago, WBT said:

After years of Elliott teams banging their head against the wall with poor defense and serve receive, I can't get over how good we've become at those things with these back to back champions.  It's frustrating how that was the obvious missing piece for so long but credit to Elliott for finally fixing it.

I thought last year might be a one off getting Fleck from the portal but now Emma as a hs recruit has developed into a badass.

 

Yeah, it certainly seems a switch was flipped or a light came on in JE's head.

I suppose it still could be something of a fluke, but I hope not.

And, I suppose if it was bad ds eval or development in the past (setter too maybe), the portal seems to offer a quick fix.

[BurntOrange&White 38889]

[RexWilson 1341]

43 minutes ago, Js1 said:

I figured those girls want to head out for the holidays so just got it done since it was an afternoon championship. 

That’s what I figured. 

[TrashMaster G 17299]

Emma and I have a date tonight, so they had to do it last night.

Sorrynotsorry.

[Js1 83624]

15 hours ago, Rickylovesweed said:

I think they will go after a middle if a good one enters the portal. I can't see Elliott being fine with no experience at all. 

 

If a good one enters, yes, I'm sure we will go after her. Hard to say "no experience at all" - Singletary had an entire RS year, practicing against the first team offense, and 23 sets in 15 matches this year. 

If Devin leaves, I hope we go hard after Rutherford from Kentucky at the OPP position.

If Marina decides she'd rather go get playing time elsewhere, we will need a backup setter.

Mackenzie Morris from KSU is who I hope we could target to replace Barnes if she is okay with playing as a DS and a huge chance at winning a ring.  Morris - 107 assists in OOS plays, 22 aces, 4.82 digs per set and her reception was a .964.  Her 22 aces would perfectly replace Barnes' 22 aces and not much of a difference in reception (Barnes .967). 

[LTtxfan 48727]

2 hours ago, BurntOrange&White said:

 

[Rickylovesweed 14087]

I think we're one good middle and defensive specialist away from being a real national title contender again.

I think normally Elliott might be willing to go younger but in Skinner's final year my guess is he's going to try and stack this roster for her via the portal. 

 

[BurntOrange&White 38889]

I think it would be absolutely hilarious to get a player from Nebraska to transfer to Texas that we need.

[Js1 83624]

This makes me hopeful Devin is staying 

[LTtxfan 48727]

 

 

Edited December 18, 2023 by LTtxfan

[Js1 83624]

My dream 2024 rotation:

OH1 Skinner
OH2 Wenaas or Byrd
MB1 Singletary
MB2 Ames
OPP Kahahawai (or Rutherford if Devin transfers)
L Halter
DS Akana/Mackenzie Morris

Portal closes January 2, so I'm sure Devin will go home to Hawaii and discuss things with her family before deciding. And then, of course, any graduate transfer options after the spring, like Barnes. 

[wood 10962]

8 hours ago, smoky said:

Plus, their fans have spent $0 traveling to bowl games in the last 8 years so they can all afford to travel to volleyball final fours.

 

... and they can always go watch us play CWS games almost every year at UT - Omaha.

[speed817 18926]

 

 

[Chicken fried bacon 45]

5 hours ago, Js1 said:

My dream 2024 rotation:

OH1 Skinner
OH2 Wenaas or Byrd
MB1 Singletary
MB2 Ames
OPP Kahahawai (or Rutherford if Devin transfers)
L Halter
DS Akana/Mackenzie Morris

Portal closes January 2, so I'm sure Devin will go home to Hawaii and discuss things with her family before deciding. And then, of course, any graduate transfer options after the spring, like Barnes. 

JS1- what have you heard about Whitney Laurenstein transferring to Texas?

[Rickylovesweed 14087]

2 hours ago, Chicken fried bacon said:

JS1- what have you heard about Whitney Laurenstein transferring to Texas?

Oh boy, Nebraska fans might lose it if this happens. It doesn't seem likely though. 

Edited December 19, 2023 by Rickylovesweed

[Js1 83624]

11 hours ago, Chicken fried bacon said:

JS1- what have you heard about Whitney Laurenstein transferring to Texas?

It's definitely been a rumor.

Honestly, I'd prefer Texas not go after an opposite unless Devin transfers out.  Opposite is her natural position, she's 6'4, a good blocker and would get all the first team reps for the spring/summer.  Free Devin! 

Supposedly someone is visiting this week.  Kind of like when Madi visited over the holiday break, Molly drove down from Mansfield to show her around/host her visit.  Our roster has a distinct non-Texas flavor, so I'd imagine Madi and Jenna will stick around to host this potential transfer since everyone else will have scattered by now (Hawaii, Kentucky, Indiana, Missouri, Florida)

Edited December 19, 2023 by Js1

[Js1 83624]

As of this morning, the only 2 confirmed Longhorns in the portal are Heinrich and Molly (both for beach). 

[Rickylovesweed 14087]

5 hours ago, Js1 said:

It's definitely been a rumor.

Honestly, I'd prefer Texas not go after an opposite unless Devin transfers out. 

Definitely true but also true that Lauenstein is a much more proven player than Devin. 

 

[Rickylovesweed 14087]

 

[Js1 83624]

I’m almost surprised he didn’t compare Ella to Rori. Big reasons they’re 2 of my favorites on campus right now 

[BillyGoatHill 4269]

On 12/17/2023 at 10:45 PM, LonghornSean said:

Yeah very interested to see the ratings. The one-sided nature of the match probably didn’t help, though that likely wouldn’t affect it as much as a blowout usually does for a more well known sport.

But, simply being on ABC will give the ratings a big boost. Hard to compare with the WBB final which probably went up against some golf and not much else.

This was posted in the Championship game thread....not too shabby. 🤘

https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2023/12/ncaa-volleyball-final-record-audience-texas-nebraska-abc/

[Rickylovesweed 14087]

20 hours ago, Chicken fried bacon said:

JS1- what have you heard about Whitney Laurenstein transferring to Texas?

Apparently. Whitney and Elliott's wife just started following each on IG today. 

Feels like this is almost certainly going to happen unless Texas has a change of heart with Devin. 

Edited December 19, 2023 by Rickylovesweed

[Chicken fried bacon 45]

2 hours ago, Rickylovesweed said:

Apparently. Whitney and Elliott's wife just started following each on IG today. 

Feels like this is almost certainly going to happen unless Texas has a change of heart with Devin. 

JE just posted BOOM

[ClubWhatever 12069]

12 hours ago, Js1 said:

As of this morning, the only 2 confirmed Longhorns in the portal are Heinrich and Molly (both for beach). 

Explain why someone who plays a lot would do this  

[Assman 1830]

JE just posted BOOM

Posted what and where? Nothing on his Twitter or IG