Sooners Stun No. 2 Texas in Austin

Oklahoma

Texas

Set Scores
Team	1	2	3
Oklahoma (15-6, 6-2)	26	26	26
No. 2 Texas (15-1, 7-1)	24	24	24

Stat Comparison
Category	OU	UT
Kills	37	41
Pct.	.179	.230
Digs	50	44
Blocks	7.0	13.0

Inidivual Leaders
Category	OU	UT
Kills	Holst - 16	Eckerman - 10
Assists	Doyle - 30	Dalton - 17
Digs	Ward - 19	McCoy - 14
Blocks	Hazelwood - 5	McCage - 7

Player of the Match
Kierra Holst // Jr. // OH Holst notched double-digit kills for the 11th consecutive match with a match-high 16.

AUSTIN, Texas – The University of Oklahoma volleyball team pulled off an upset of No. 2 Texas on the road, Saturday evening, in straight sets. The sweep snapped a 34-match home win streak for the Longhorns, whose unblemished record turns to 15-1 overall and 7-1 in the Big 12. For the Sooners, they improved to 15-6 and 6-2.

Oklahoma earned its first win in Austin since 2008 and first win over the Longhorns since 2011. The Sooners have claimed just four wins against Texas all-time; each coming since the arrival of head coach Santiago Restrepo in Norman in 2004.

“The bottom line, is it was crunch time,” Restrepo assessed of his team's ability to rise to the occasion. “ We did very well in crunch time on the road, which has been our problem. Our inconsistencies have been trying to put matches away, but tonight we did. It was awesome to see.”

The sweep was the seventh of the season for Oklahoma and second in Big 12 play. The Sooner victory came by three identical scores of 26-24.

Oklahoma trailed early in each of the first two sets and steadily closed the gap, trailing by as much as 13-7 in the first and 9-5 in the second, to take each set. In the third, the Sooners led early, by as many as three, but the Longhorns took their first lead of the set, 14-13. From there, OU went on a 7-2 run to go up by four. Texas continued to fight back and staved off the decision on the Sooners' first match point. Oklahoma put the match away on a kill by redshirt-sophomore outside hitter Madison Ward (Lawton, Okla.).

However, it was junior outside hitter Kierra Holst (Coppell, Texas) that was junior setter Julia Doyle's (Plymouth, Minn.) number one option throughout the night. On 44 attempts, Holst knocked down a match-high 16 kills. She has reached double figures in 11 consecutive matches.

“We try to analyze every match and pick around,” Restrepo explained. “The one constant that we found out was that Kierra was playing at an extremely high level. We started Kierra at left-front because she has been so good for so long.”

Ward finished second on the Sooners with nine kills and totaled a match-high 19 digs, marking a new career-high. Doyle dished out 30 assists, picked up four digs and contributed two blocks, a kill and a service ace.

Oklahoma held two-time defending Big 12 Player of the Year Haley Eckerman in check with just 10 kills and a .194 attack rate. Cat McCoy led the Longhorns with 14 digs.

Most impressive for the Sooners was their ability to overcome 13 total blocks by Texas. Molly McCage led all players with seven, while Chiaka Ogbogu added six. For the match, the Longhorns outhit Oklahoma, .230-.179. The Sooners posted seven total blocks, led by five from freshman middle blocker Marion Hazelwood (Beach City, Texas).

Junior libero Taylor Migliazzo (Kansas City, Mo.) finished second on OU with 13 digs.

The Sooners return to action at home on Saturday, November 1 at 7:00 pm against West Virginia.

Notes:

Texas had won 22 straight set at home dating back to December 6, 2013 when it dropped the third set of a 3-1 win over Texas A&M in the NCAA Second Round.
Oklahoma ended Texas' 34-match home win streak. The Longhorns went undefeated at home in 2013 (13-0) with their last home loss to Illinois, 3-2, on September 14, 2012.
Holst has tallied double-digit kills in 11 straight matches.
Ward posted a career-high 19 digs, besting a 16-dig effort at No. 10 Florida on August 30.
Oklahoma is 2-3 against ranked opponents this season.
The win marked only the fourth for OU in the all-time series with Texas.

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Players Mentioned

Julia Doyle

Marion Hazelwood

Kierra Holst

Kierra Holst

Taylor Migliazzo

Madison Ward

Sponsors

University of Oklahoma Athletics