SB Nation User Blog: TempestHorn

UT Volleyball faces Judgment Week

TempestHorn — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:00:41 -0000

The Gazelles are facing the most challenging part of the Big 12 schedule beginning this Wednesday at College Station. If they can get wins against A&M, Nebraska and Iowa State in their next 3 matches, they will likely be able to cruise to an outright Big 12 title, go undefeated in Big 12 play, and possibly receive the overall #1 seed for the NCAA tournament. Winning 2 of 3 will probably be enough to get the outright conference title and only slightly impact the chance of getting one of the #1 seeds.

WEDNESDAY: The Gazelles will face the Aggies in College Station for a 7pm match. The match will be broadcast on ESPNU. For those going to the match, be aware that the Aggies have left the building! G. Rollie White no longer plays host to volleyball, the Ags have moved to Reed Arena where the basketball teams play. The Aggies were undefeated in the new digs, until unranked Oklahoma came in last Wednesday night and swept the 21st ranked Aggies. A&M has had a week off to prepare for the Horns. Texas swept A&M in Austin earlier this year.

FRIDAY: The Gazelles return to the friendly confines of Gregory Gym to host the Cornhuskers for a 6pm match. This match will be broadcast on FSN. Earlier this season, Texas took down Nebraska in Lincoln 3-1. The first win in Lincoln since 1988, the last time Texas won a national championship. Tickets are going fast for this one so get yours now if you plan to go. Ticket info.

NEXT WEDNESDAY: The gauntlet finishes with a trip to Ames, Iowa where the team in second place in the Big 12 awaits. This match will be Texas' toughest remaining challenge. More challenging than A&M @ College Station and Nebraska at home. The Cyclones also beat Nebraska in Lincoln 3-2.

Red River Rivalry - Volleyball Style

TempestHorn — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:56:33 -0000

The Gregory Gazelles (Texas Volleyball) will take on the McCasland Maggots (OU Volleyball) this Saturday at noon. Your Texas football ticket shown at the door gets you $3 admission.

The Gazelles are 11-0 with 8 wins against the Top 25. They are 6-0 in the Big 12. Last year OU upset the Longhorns in Austin in a 5 set match that deprived the Horns of an outright Big 12 Championship. If you have yet to catch a volleyball match, Saturday is the perfect opportunity. Take a break from tailgating and walk over to Gregory.

Parking and Ticket Info here

Volleyball Gets a HUGE Win!

TempestHorn — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 01:04:35 -0000

The Gazelles ended a 20 year drought in Lincoln, Nebraska with a 25-22, 18-25, 25-17, 25-17 victory over #6 Nebraska. The last time Texas won in Lincoln was 1988. Interestingly enough, that year is the last year Texas Volleyball won a national championship.

Recap

The win keeps Texas in first place tied with A&M. A&M will likely enter the Top 25 poll on Monday by virtue of their win over #6 Nebraska on Wednesday night. A&M only needs to hold on and beat Missouri tonight. They are up 2-1. The Lone Star Showdown will be a battle for outright first place in the Big 12. First serve is at 7:30 pm on Wednesday night at Gregory.

Texas Volleyball Fan Group on facebook

Volleyball opens up Big 12 Play This Week

TempestHorn — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 04:12:55 -0000

The Gregory Gazelles begin defense of their Big 12 Championship Wednesday night at Gregory Gym. #24 ranked Baylor comes to town with an 11-0 record. First serve is at 6pm

The Gazelles continue their home stand Friday night at 6:30 against tenth ranked Iowa State in a rematch of last year's regional final.

Preview of Baylor match here:

Baylor Preview

The Baylor match will be on ESPNU for those of you outside the Austin area.

The Exes promotion for the Iowa State match (use password TEXAS)

Promotion

Volleyball Season Opener This Weekend

TempestHorn — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 19:45:29 -0000

#2 Texas Volleyball opens their season at Long Beach State this weekend. The Gazelles will be facing #23 Long Beach State on Saturday night and #15 San Diego on Sunday evening.

Coming off last year's disappointing national semi-finals loss to Stanford after being up 2-0, the Gazelles are shooting for nothing less than a National Championship. Having lost only Lauren Paolini, middle blocker; Jerritt Elliott simply reloaded with the #1and #5 national recruits. 6'3" Bailey Webster is the highest rated recruit in last year's class and is expected to start. Sha'Dare McNeal is a 6'1" middle blocker who is pushing veterans Jennifer Doris and Rachael Adams for playing time. Rachael Adams was expected to take over Paolini's vacated spot. Ashley Engle, Destinee Hooker and Heather Kisner are this year's seniors.

This weekend Texas begins a challenging preseason schedule with their trip to Long Beach. They are 0-3 versus Long Beach and 0-1 versus San Diego. They followup the West Coast trip with a trip to the volleyball hotbed of Honolulu, Hawaii where they will face another group of ranked teams: host Hawaii, California and St. Louis.

Preview

Texas Volleyball on Facebook

Volleyball's Quest for The Final Four Continues...

TempestHorn — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 17:11:23 -0000

This weekend it's the regionals at Gregory Gym. Our Gazelles have their work cut out for them as they have two PAC-10 teams and a Big 12 foe waiting to end their dreams of a final four.

I'm reminded of Bum Phillips back in the days when the Oilers came close but couldn't make the Superbowl....we have been knocking on the door and this year it's time to kick the son of a bitch in! That's how I feel going into this weekend.

The schedule for this weekend is:

FRIDAY 4:30 - Oregon vs Iowa State

FRIDAY 6:30 ( or 30 minutes after 1st match) - Texas vs UCLA

SATURDAY 5:30 - Regional Final

I can't stress enough how important having a packed house is to the team. They play better and the environment is outstanding when the seats are full. They need your help to make the Final Four. So get there if it's at all possible.

Keys to Victory for Texas:

1. PASSING - Passing has been the achilles heel of Texas this year. If Texas passes well this weekend, we are Omaha-bound. If we don't we could easily see a result similar to the USC fiasco last year in Gainesville. Kocher needs to have all 3 options available to her so she can distribute the ball effectively. There are only two other teams, Penn State and Stanford, that have the offensive firepower of Texas. No one in our regional comes close. So if Texas passes well to allow Hooker, Engle, Pao, Faucette and the recently discovered power hitter Jen Doris to terminate; Texas wins.

2. Key Contributions from Emerging Players: Hooker, Engle and Pao have carried the load through most of the season. But another key will be how well Juliann Faucette emerges from her sophomore slump. Since the Nebraska game, Faucette has shown signs of returning to freshman form. She's been pounding the cover off the ball. We need her to play like Freshman Juliann this weekend. Jen Doris has been absolutely crushing the ball lately. Her hitting efficiency is rivaling Pao's. Having a 2nd middle blocker with the efficiency of Pao will be lethal. And since Jen is the 3rd option behind Engle & Hooker, if she does well the opposing team's blockers are going to have a devil of a time controlling our hitters.

I believe UCLA will prove to be the biggest challenge this weekend. UCLA has a veteran setter that will try to exploit one on one matchups with her hitters versus our blockers. They play very strong defense, so they can frustrate teams like Texas that want to terminate immediately and play in a fast rhythm. I expect this one to go 4 if not 5. If we sweep, it'll mean our passing is lights out. Expect both UCLA and Oregon to serve very aggressively.

In the regional final, I expect TV-HD (Ms. Hooker, if you're nasty) to absolutely take over. In front of a home crowd and on national TV, I expect her to dominate. Iowa State could pull off the upset Friday as they are defensively as strong as UCLA. They make teams work very hard to get points. I don't know much about Oregon other than the fact they have some foreign players and they are very streaky. They kind of sound like Kansas State.

Hope to see some BONers at Gregory this weekend.

Texas Volleyball's Quest for the Final Four

TempestHorn — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 14:10:55 -0000

It begins tonight at 6:30 at Gregory Gym against Lamar. If you can make it out, the Gazelles need our help.

Quotes from Texas Volleyball

Tonight against Lamar will probably be little more than a practice match. I expect Wichita State to dispatch Rice in the 4:30 game today. If that's the case, the Gazelles will draw a very tough 2nd round opponent, Wichita State. Wichita was 29-0 going into last weekend's conference tournament where they were upset. Single game tickets for this weekend went on sale today, 471-3333.

Next weekend is the regional at Gregory Gym. General admission tickets still available. Tickets for the regional

UT Volleyball Receives #3 Seed

TempestHorn — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 03:42:26 -0000

In a sport where playoffs actually determine a champion, UT Volleyball received the overall #3 seed and #1 seed in the Austin regional. The Gazelles will play in Austin this Friday and Saturday in 1st and 2nd round action. They host Lamar Friday night and will face the winner of Wichita State and Rice on Saturday.

The Austin Regional's seeded teams are #3 seed Texas, #10 seed UCLA, #11 seed Oregon and #6 seed Minnesota. Oregon is coached by former Texas coach Jim Moore.

This draw is pretty good for Texas. Although the Wichita State matchup in the 2nd round will be very, very tough. Wichita State was undefeated through last week and lost over the weekend.

The Bracket

Volley for the Cure Wednesday

TempestHorn — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 18:46:09 -0000

The Gregory Gazelles, also known as the UT women's volleyball team, will take on OU, also known as ousux, on Wednesday night at 6pm in a match billed as Volley for the Cure.

Volley for the Cure

This event is a great thing that NCAA women's athletics is doing for breast cancer awareness. Last February the women's hoops team had a Think Pink night when the Horns took down #8 Baylor. Now NCAA volleyball teams are getting into the act. Tickets are $3 if you buy in advance and you are suppose to wear pink.

This week marks the beginning of the 2nd round of Big 12 competition. The Gazelles have been through every Big 12 team once and stand at 9-1 with the sole blemish the loss to Nebraska in Lincoln. The script is falling in line with last year's where the plan is to sweep through the 2nd half of the season. To do so, the Gazelles have to take down Nebraska in Austin on November 19. They also will face the third, fourth & fifth place teams, in the Big 12 standings, on the road. They definitely have their work cut out for them.

The team is beginning to peak. So the undefeated run through the rest of the season is highly possible. Our libero concerns have been addressed in that Heather Kisner has locked down the role for the departed Alyson Jennings. Freshmen setter, Michelle Kocher, has done an admirable job setting for the 3rd ranked team in the country with a stable of the top veteran hitters in the country. She can still have nights where her sets are a bit off so that makes our road trips to K-State, Iowa State and Baylor a little bit scary. Juliann is still in a bit of a sophmore slump but she keeps swinging away and Elliott is now subbing her in the back row for Hawaiian defensive specialist, Sydney Yogi. Jen Doris came alive last week against Tech so we'll need more of that to further balance our offense. Ashley, Destinee & Pao continue to pound the cover off the ball.

It all begins this week with a homestand against our southern rivals: OU on Wednesday and A&M on Saturday. The aggie match has been moved to 5 pm to avoid conflict with the football broadcast. See you at Gregory! Wear pink on Wednesday and Orange on Saturday.

Volleyball vs Baylor Wednesday

TempestHorn — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 23:31:10 -0000

Saturday night while Texas was dismantling CU in Boulder, the Gregory Gazelles (aka Texas Volleyball) were dismantling Kansas State, 3-0. In so doing, they turned a 3 way tie (between UT, KSU & BU) for 2nd place in the Big 12 into just a tie between UT and BU. Wednesday night at Gregory Gym at 6:30pm, the Gazelles will look to move into sole possession of 2nd place when the Lady Bears come to town.

Everyone come out and support them in their quest for back-to-back Big 12 championships. If you bring 5 canned goods you can get a free pair of Crocs in the Cans for Crocs promotion. Additionally, you can use a web coupon for $4 general admission. In terms of value $4 is money well spent and I personally guarantee you will have a good time and get fired up for the upcoming weekend of football.

Bevo's Bargains for Wed Night

Also, a reminder that November is fast approaching. The Gazelles take on A&M on Saturday November 1 and the rematch with Nebraska is Wednesday November 19. Both of these matches sold out in advance last year, so get your tickets now!