April 20, 2008

The Texas volleyball team had four separate teams play their way through different pools to claim the team title at the third annual Collegiate Beach Volleyball Championship, Sunday afternoon at Mariner's Point in San Diego.

Eight members of the team competed in the tournament with all four of Texas' teams appearing in the finals and the tandem of sophomore All-American Ashley Engle and junior Kiley Hall claiming the Flight A championship. The one day tournament is presented by CBS College Sports Network, the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) and the AVP.

"This was a great spring for our program and I was impressed with our growth, commitment and team chemistry," head coach Jerritt Elliott said. "We competed very well and everyone in our program received valuable experience while our three of our players were with USA Volleyball."

The Longhorns entered pool play as the No. 3 overall seed and playing in the blue pool with No. 2 seed Nebraska and No. 6 seed San Diego. Each school entered a pair in the A, B, C and D flights, with UT sending Engle and Hall to the A-flight, senior All-American Michelle Moriarty and freshman Chelsey Klein to the B-flight. The Longhorns also entered freshman Jennifer Doris and sophomore Heather Kisner in the C-flight and freshman Alexandra Lewis and freshman Elizabeth Graham in the D-flight.

Texas' A, B and C teams all posted a 2-0 record and finished atop their pools, while the D team finished second and played its way into the playoffs via a play-in match. The team of Engle and Hall and the pair of Moriarty and Klein swept their way through pool play, making Texas the only school with two teams to do so.

"Our team took a lot of pride in their beach game and it showed today," Elliott added. "I'm proud of them all."

After advancing through pool play Engle and Hall swept Nebraska's Jordan Larson and Kara Mueller in the semifinals before sweeping past USC's Taylor Carico and Jessica Gysin in the Flight A finals. Moriarty and Klein swept through pool play and swept Nebraska's Rachel Schwartz and Lindsey Licht in the semis before falling to San Diego's Jaimarie Sutherland and Jessica Nyrop in the Flight B finals.

Doris and Kisner took both of their pool play matches, knocked off Nebraska's Kori Cooper and Amanda Gates in the semifinals, but were upended by Kayleen Webster and Ali Troost in the three-game final. In the Flight D playoffs, Graham and Lewis advanced past Clemson in the play-in match before edging Wisconsin's Kim Kuzma and Morgan Salow in the semis and falling to NU's Kayla Banwarth, Brooke Delano and Jordan Wilberger in the final.

Points were awarded within each flight for qualifying for the semifinals (2 points in Flight A and 1 point in B,C,D), making the finals (4 points in Flight A and 2 points in B,C,D) and winning the flight (8 points in Flight A and 4 points in B,C,D).

Texas totaled 14 points to claim the championship, while San Diego tallied 11 points and finished second, Nebraska recorded eight points and placed third and USC registered four points and claimed fourth.

Teams from Clemson, Nebraska, San Diego, USC, Texas and Wisconsin competed in the one day event that will air on CBS College Sports on Sunday, May 25 (1 p.m. Central). AVP star Holly McPeak will team with play-by-play announcer Chris McGee to call the volleyball action.