Too much Texas.
The fourth-seeded Longhorns not only beat previously unbeaten and top-seeded Wisconsin in the NCAA Tournament national semifinals Thursday in Omaha, they swept 26-24, 25-19, 25-23.
And now Texas is back in the championship match for the third time since winning it all in 2012. The Longhorns will play second-seeded Kentucky, which beat Washington, in Saturday night’s NCAA championship match.
Texas of the Big 12, which lost only to Rice of Conference USA in five in March, improved to 27-1 as it smothered Wisconsin all match long.
“What a great match. I thought it was a war out there,” Texas coach Jerritt Elliott said. “Wisconsin’s defense was so good and it was what we expected.”
The Longhorns, who hit .301, had four players with 11 or more kills.
“We executed very well,” Elliott said.
Logan Eggleston led with 17 and had an assist, nine digs, and a block. Skylar Fields had 12 kills and two digs. Asjia O’Neal had 11 kills with no errors in 18 attacks to hit .611 and had four digs and three blocks. Brionne Butler had 11 kills with one error in 16 attacks and hit .625 to go with a dig and two blocks. Molly Phillips had four kills, four digs, and two blocks.
“I loved that we had a lot of people contributing,” Elliott said.
Setter Jhenna Gabriel had 42 assists, eight digs, and a block. Sydney Peterson had nine digs and two assists, Nalani Iosia had 12 digs, four assists, and two aces, and Morgan O’Brien had nine digs and two assists.
“I thought Texas was awfully good tonight,” Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield said.
Wisconsin, champion of the Big Ten, ended its season 18-1. The Badgers, who hadn’t lost a first set all season so much as a match, hit .220.
Devyn Robinson had 14 kills and hit .571 to go with four blocks. Dana Rettke was held to six kills as she hit .263 and had a dig and two blocks. Grace Loberg had six kills, an assist, nine digs, and a blocks, and Molly Haggerty had six kills but hit .000. She had an ace and 14 digs.
Sydney Hilley had two kills in six errorless attempts, 34 assists, an ace, and 14 digs. Lauren Barnes had 13 digs, an assist and an ace.
