The “happiest” Longhorns, unbeaten and No. 1, are having a ball

If you’re happy and you know it, spike a ball … If you’re happy and you know it, dig a ball … 

OK, that might be a bit much, but watching Texas playing volleyball and talking to the Longhorns, you can see that they’re pretty happy.

And why not? The unbeaten No. 1 Longhorns are hitting on all cylinders as the most anticipated match of the Big 12 season takes place Saturday when Texas plays at No. 18 Baylor.

“I’m having so much fun,” UCLA transfer Zoe Fleck said. “I’ve never had this much fun playing volleyball before.”

Cal transfer Bella Bergmark had the happiest smile when she said the same thing.

Madisen Skinner, now a third-year player who starred at Kentucky when the Wildcats won the spring 2021 NCAA title, said simply, “I need a change of pace and something different and this is the place for me and this is the happiest I’ve ever been.”

The 6-foot-2 Skinner has led Texas in kills the past two matches. She had 15 kills against TCU a week ago Wednesday, nine in the first set, and hit .480. This Wednesday, in a sweep of Kansas State, she had 14 more kills. 

“It’s been awesome. Everyone here is great. We have the best support staff, these are some of my best friends, and the transition has been easier than I thought it would be. 

“Obviously I moved my whole life, but I’m closer to home, can see my whole family, so it’s been a great move.”

On the court, as well. While 2021 VolleyballMag.com national player of the year Logan Eggleston leads Texas in kills with 182 (4.55/set) and aces (22), Skinner, who has moved comfortably into the other outside-hitter slot, is next with 141 (3.71) and she’s hitting .317. Last season she led Kentucky with 389 kills and hit .282, a year after her old sister, Avery, transferred to Baylor after winning the NCAA title.

The Skinners are from the Houston suburb of Katy, Texas. Their father, Brian, was a star basketball player at Baylor before his 14-season NBA career.

Texas went into this season as the prohibitive favorite and then in the pre-conference season opened with back-to-back wins at Ohio, beat Minnesota, swept at Stanford and beat Houston. And in the Big 12, the Longhorns had to pull off a reverse sweep at Kansas, but have swept the rest of their conference matches.

Veteran Asjia O’Neal remains one of the nation’s best middles. She had 80 kills, is hitting .432, and leads with 43 blocks. While coach Jerritt Elliott said Bergmark would make an impact, the 6-2 middle is second in blocks with 30 and is hitting .339.

We wrote about the Longhorns before the season and they’ve done nothing to lower expectations.

Texas is getting solid setting from Saige Ka’aha’aina-Torres, tremendous right-side play from Molly Phillips, and an occasional jolt from outside Melanie Parra, who would probably start at outside for most teams. And don’t forget that Nebraska All-American middle Kayla Caffey has played only sparingly.

The speedy but diminutive Fleck played two seasons at UC Santa Barbara and the last two at UCLA, where she was the two-time Pac-12 libero of the year. She flies around the court with reckless abandon for her body, which she admitted, is a shade under 5-foot-5 and 120 pounds.

“The trajectory that my career has taken has taken me to this point and I’m absolutely loving it,” said the product of Granada Hills, California. 

Fleck played on a couple of USCB’s best teams and was on a pretty talented UCLA squad. It’s generally perceived that she’s the missing link for a program that has been so close since winning it all in 2012, often losing out because of ball-control deficiencies when it mattered.

“Well, we have 11 new players this year, not just me,” Fleck said. “I’m just part of this incredible team and incredible coaching staff and I’m so grateful every single day to be around what is definitely a special group of people. I hear it but I stay away from it.”

“It’s been amazing for us,” Eggleston said. “They are all phenomenal players and people and even better is how great teammates they are, how motivating they are, how much they push us all to get better every day. The addition of Zoe and Madisen and all our other transfers has made an astronomical difference this year. I’m very grateful to them.”

Fleck has 207 digs, averaging 4.7/set — “She’s a stud,” Eggleston said — and by all accounts is having her best season.

“That’s the goal. I started out as a walk-on at a mid-major and now I’m at the No. 1 school in the nation and so the goal is every day to come in and get better and I’m really enjoying it. And you play so much better when you have joy.”

Fleck said she prepares diligently, “I watch a lot of film on the team I’m playing and I look at what each hitter wants to do in different situations, like what their favorite shot is, what their second-favorite shot is, what they do out of system, what they do on a bad set so that before the hitter’s actually hitting the ball I usually know where the ball is going. Which is probably how I get 80 percent, maybe 90 percent of my digs.

“And the block, because it’s such a solid block, it gets funneled into different places in the defense or they get a good touch and it’s an easy dig. It makes my job so much easier.”

Eggleston: “She makes plays I’ve never seen before. I’m so grateful to be playing alongside her. Playing against her has to be rough because she’s relentless and doesn’t let anything drop.”

Fleck said off the court training at Texas is special.

“I used to think Texas was more physical than everybody else because of the way they recruited, but so much of it because of what we do in the weight room,” Fleck said. “We are lifting heavy all the time and you have to give so much credit to Donnie (Maib, the Texas director for athletic performance) and also the way we train. It makes us so big but also technical.”

Phillips, the 6-foot-5 junior from Mansfield, Texas, has seen it all unfold. As a freshman, she was part of the team that got stunned at home in the NCAA Tournament round of 16 by Louisville. The next spring, during the pandemic, Texas made it to the NCAA final against Kentucky when Skinner had 19 kills, hitting .455. Phillips had eight kills in that match, hit .333, and had three blocks. Last year, Texas lost in the round of eight to Nebraska in the regional final.

This team, of course, has a different roster, and we would be remiss not to point out the losses of leading blocker Brionna Butler to graduation and the transfer of second-leading hitting Skylar Fields to USC. 

Also gone is top assistant Tonya Johnson, now head coach at LSU. New to the staff is former Pepperdine men’s coach David Hunt.

“There’s so much buy-in with this group,” Phillips said. One through 18, everyone wants to be great and has really bought into the culture we have going on. It’s really fun and there are so many people — and not just the team but the support staff — that care so much. And you really do need that to be successful. It’s really hard to reach our end goal when you don’t have that.”

Of all the players, only Skinner has won a national title. And it’s been discussed.

“We had some conversations when we first got here,” Skinner said. “They were doing some reflection on this past season and the championship came up because they were so close.”

She smiled, and no wonder: Skinner noted that her roommates are Phillips and Eggleston.

“Logan and I talk about it here and there and I have my trophies in my room, so I remind her frequently. But the goal is to do it together.”

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Lee Feinswog

Lee Feinswog is the publisher and editor of VolleyballMag.com
Contact him at Lee@VolleyballMag.com