The Texas Longhorns swept the top-seeded Nebraska Cornhuskers. The Longhorns earned their second consecutive national title, the program’s fourth NCAA title, and third under head coach Jerritt Elliott.
The most punishing factor for Nebraska was the Longhorn serve — Texas set a new NCAA championship record with 12 service aces, the last of which sealed its national title feat. Asjia O’Neal( Texas´ middle blocker) notched five of these aces, four in a row in the second set, a career-best for the senior.
Longhorn hitter Madisen Skinner was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Tournament. She knocked down a match-high 16 kills and five digs. Alongside her, setter Ella Swindle fired five kills on top of 21 assists, two aces, and seven digs.
Along with serve-receive trouble, the Huskers also committed enormous unforced errors, limiting their production to .013 hitting and a 20-19 kills-errors ratio. The last time that Nebraska lost a set by a 25-11 margin (or worse) was in November 2019 against Minnesota. Also, Nebraska was ranked number one in division one, seed one, for almost the entire season. So this was a surprising upset that would end the Longhorns season on a high note.
Putting aside the win, though, more history was made in the Amalie Arena (the arena which was finally played in). “With 19,727 fans in Amalie Arena this afternoon, the previous women’s volleyball indoor attendance record of 19,598 from the 2023 semifinals has been shattered yet again,” stated the NCAA website. This shows just how much the love of volleyball is growing in the United States, and I hope it will keep getting bigger!
