Thriving Texas plays Nebraska for NCAA title in “an iconic matchup”

By Joey Johnston for VolleyballMag.com

TAMPA — Normally, there’s tremendous pressure on a defending national champion. Nerves can be frayed. Expectations must be managed.

But the Texas Longhorns are loose, smiling and eager.

Who saw it coming?

Following Thursday night’s four-set victory against No. 3 Wisconsin in the NCAA Tournament’s national semifinals at Amalie Arena, the seventh-seeded Longhorns (27-4) will play for back-to-back national titles when they face top-seeded Nebraska Cornhuskers (33-1) in Sunday’s 3 p.m. Eastern finale on ABC-TV.

Texas coach Jerritt Elliott, with an extra off-day — this is the first time the national championship is not decided on Saturday — will have plenty of time to ponder the matchup with Nebraska.

Thursday night — actually Friday morning in -midnight interview — Elliott already began building up the Texas-Nebraska showdown.

“It’s an iconic matchup,’’ Elliott said. “It’s great for the sport. I think both social media and both fan bases will be pumping this up.

“There’s such a rich tradition of alumni, All-Americans, people who have won national championships on both sides. You know, it’s Lakers-Celtics. Regardless of how long these two programs have played each other, they’re going to be really fired up.

“This should be a lot of fun for all the fans involved across the country. People will be tuning in, I can guarantee that. With the popularity of our sport, we’re just hitting the tip of the iceberg. There’s so much more to come.”

We’ll stop short of painting Texas as a “Cinderella’’ team. Maybe it’s a better portrayal to say the Longhorns are a talented, seasoned team that weathered a series of potholes, along with a near-elimination moment in season.

The Longhorns were 5-3 in the early season, hardly the expected position for a preseason No. 1-ranked team. They pulled it together and earned a No. 2 regional seed, but weren’t widely picked to reach the national semifinals. And in the region semifinals, they faced a fourth-set match point against Tennessee.

After surviving, now they’re thriving. Texas has won nine in a row.

Against Wisconsin, with a front line featuring 6-foot-9 Anna Smrek and 6-7 Carter Booth, Texas used its speed, guile and athleticism to overcome that formidable wall. After the opening sets were split, Texas ran away in the third set, going on an 11-0 run to build a 15-3 advantage.

“Wisconsin is big and they’re going to put up a good wall,’’ Texas middle blocker Asjia O’Neal said. “But we just needed to trust ourselves. We didn’t want to let their size on the other side affect what we were doing.’’

O’Neal said setter Ella Swindle (46 assists) was masterful in engineering the Texas offense, continually positioning the Longhorns for advantageous one-on-one opportunities.

Outside hitter Madisen Skinner was masterful herself with 18 kills, nine digs, four block assists and a career-high six of the 11 service aces by Texas. O’Neal added 11 kills, while Jenna Wenaas and Molly Phillips each had 10.

“We scouted them pretty well and we kind of knew their weaknesses,’’ Skinner said. “We wanted to change up our depths, work on my pace, get a good toss and just trust myself on the serve. I just kept trusting myself and went with it. And it was great.’’

In the third set, O’Neal said toughness was the difference.

“They’re a good team and they’re not going to roll over and let us just beat them,’’ O’Neal said. “We had a really good next-play mentality. In the third, we just kept it on them and we were determined to be the team that was the most together for the whole entire match.’’

Meanwhile, libero Emma Halter acknowledged that she was in the “zone’’ as she came up with 19 digs.

“It was one of those moments for myself and the entire team,’’ Halter said. “We train so hard for these moments and this is the time to trust the training. I do think I was in the zone today.’’

Now Texas seeks to continue its pressure-free hot streak against a familiar foe from past final fours — and once a Big 12 Conference opponent — in Nebraska. Nebraska beat Texas for the 2015 national title. They last played in April 2021 when Texas beat the Huskers in the third round of the COVID spring NCAA Tournament.

“We had a really rough start to our season,’’ Elliott said. “We had injuries. We had illnesses. We played better in the mid-season with a really good game or two, then we’d have a hiccup. We just kept sticking with it.

“I think one of our super powers is our toughness, the way they play for each other, the way they want to extend their season. It has been such a joyful run right now.’’

Thriving Texas plays Nebraska for NCAA title in “an iconic matchup” Volleyballmag.com.