Texas Longhorns v. Nebraska Huskers NCAA Volleyball Championship
In Tampa, Florida, The NCAA, National Collegiate Athletic Association, Volleyball Tournament held 32 teams to compete against each other for the title of 2023 Women’s Volleyball National Champions.
The teams were divided into four regions: East, West, South, and Midwest. The tournament had colleges like Louisville, Nebraska, Texas, Penn State, Wisconsin, Florida State, and many more. These colleges had pretty good records but only the best of the best will win it every year.
In the finals, The Nebraska Huskers, ranked #1 with a record of 33-1, lost to #5, Wisconsin. The Nebraska Huskers versus the Texas Longhorns, who are ranked #4 with a record of 28-4 was an anticipated game leading up to the finals.
In the first set, there were back to back kills (to end the play) from Texas Junior Madisen Skinner and blocks from Nebraska Sophomore Bekka Allick. Nebraska started losing points by getting ACED, which means failed to start the play by receiving the serve, by Texas, having holes in the block, ultimately losing the first set 25-22 to Texas with a total amount of 11 kills from Texas to 9 kills from Nebraska.
The Huskers put up a good fight in the first set but at this point, the Longhorns were in control.
In the second set, Texas players Senior Bella Bergmark and Junior Jenna Wenaas put up a mean block that turned the score to 16-10 making Texas the first to pass fifteen. A few plays later, Nebraska’s Junior Lexi Rodriguez quickly dug and received the ball before it could hit the ground, which stopped Texas from scoring an immediate point and putting up a new chance for the Huskers to get a point, but then Freshman Harper Murray went up for a kill and ended up hitting the ball out which gave the Longhorns the set point of 25-10.
It was now the third and final set. The Longhorns could either take the trophy or the Huskers could quickly win this set to continue the game. In the last set, there were blocks, digs, and kills from both teams. The Longhorns and Huskers were in it to win it and were not going down without a fight. But now the score was 24-11 to Texas. It was match point and senior Asjia O’neal was up to serve.
The Huskers still had a chance to continue the play and keep the game going. Unfortunately, the ball came towards Nebraska Freshman Harper Murray and she set up her platform to pass the ball but ended up shanking it, a mispass that makes the ball completely unplayable, all the way into the stands which officially ended the game and named the Texas Longhorns the 2023 Women’s Volleyball National Champions for the 7th time in a row.
Works Cited
“Texas vs. Nebraska: 2023 NCAA volleyball championship highlights.” NCAA.com, 17 December 2023, https://www.ncaa.com/video/volleyball-women/2023-12-17/texas-vs-nebraska-2023-ncaa-volleyball-championship-highlights. Accessed 22 December 2023.
“2023 Division I Women’s Volleyball Official Bracket.” NCAA.com, https://www.ncaa.com/brackets/volleyball-women/d1/2023. Accessed 22 December 2023.
“2023 Volleyball Schedule.” University of Texas Athletics, https://texassports.com/sports/womens-volleyball/schedule/2023. Accessed 22 December 2023.
“Volleyball 2023 – University of Nebraska – Official Athletics Website.” Huskers.com, https://huskers.com/sports/volleyball/schedule. Accessed 22 December 2023.
