AUSTIN, Texas \u2013 No. 8 Texas Volleyball rallied past Alabama, 25-23, 23-25, 25-21, 25-22, on Sunday afternoon at Gregory Gymnasium.<\/p>\n
Texas (7-5, 2-0 SEC) remained unbeaten at home this season, moving to 4-0 in Austin, while Alabama (8-4, 0-4) dropped its fourth consecutive match.<\/p>\n
Texas used a balanced offensive attack to secure the win, with three Longhorns reaching double figures in kills. Torrey Stafford<\/a> led the way with 18 kills, two service aces and two blocks, while Cari Spears<\/a> added 17 kills, eight digs, three blocks and an ace. Spears also reached 500 career kills with her second kill of the match.<\/p>\n Henley Anderson<\/a> recorded double-digit kills for the second consecutive match, finishing with 13 kills on 22 attacks while hitting .455. She also added three blocks and two digs.<\/p>\n Texas’ blocking helped the Longhorns withstand Alabama’s runs, with Taylor Harvey<\/a> and Mackenzie Collins<\/a> each recording a team-high six blocks, with the\u00a0total marking\u00a0a career-best for Collins. Rella Binney<\/a> finished with 40 assists, her fourth 40-assist performance of the season.<\/p>\n Alabama jumped out to a 12-5 lead in the opening set before Texas began to chip away. A block from Collins and Spears, followed by a Stafford kill and ace, pulled the Longhorns within two at 14-12. Texas then scored four straight points to take its first lead at 17-16. The Longhorns built a 21-18 advantage and held off a late Alabama push, with Stafford’s seventh kill of the set giving Texas a 25-23 win.<\/p>\n Alabama opened the second set with five consecutive points, but Texas responded with a 6-1 run to tie the score at 11-11. Consecutive kills from Spears and Anderson put the Longhorns ahead 14-12 before the teams traded leads down the stretch. Alabama took a 24-22 advantage, and although Spears kept Texas alive with a kill, the Crimson Tide answered to take the set, 25-23, and even the match.<\/p>\n Texas took control early in the third set, building a 6-3 lead before extending the advantage to 10-4. Alabama cut the deficit to 21-17 late in the set, but Texas answered with consecutive kills from Spears and Anderson. Spears’ fifth kill of the set gave the Longhorns set point at 24-20, and Binney and Collins teamed up for a block to close out the 25-21 win and put Texas ahead 2-1.<\/p>\n The Longhorns carried the momentum into the fourth set, racing to an 8-3 lead behind four early kills from Stafford. Alabama gradually erased the deficit and took a 20-17 lead following consecutive blocks. Texas responded with three straight points to tie the set at 20-20, including consecutive blocks from Anderson and Harvey. After the teams traded points, Binney and Harvey teamed up for another block to give Texas a 23-22 lead. An Alabama attack error gave the Longhorns match point, and Stafford finished with her 18th kill to secure the 25-22 win and the match victory.<\/p>\n Texas returns to the road next weekend for a pair of SEC matches. The Longhorns face Arkansas on Friday, Oct. 9, at 7 p.m. CT at Barnhill Arena before traveling to Oklahoma for a 2 p.m. CT match against the Sooners on Sunday, Oct. 11, at McCasland Field House. Both matches will stream live on SEC Network+.<\/p>\n Texas Volleyball is Presented by Huntington Bank<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2013 No. 8 Texas Volleyball rallied past Alabama, 25-23, 23-25, 25-21, 25-22, on Sunday afternoon at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-456471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}