Golden: Texas' NCAA run provides a burnt-orange blueprint for future volleyball champions

OMAHA, Neb. — Take a bow, Texas Longhorns.

You are the center of the volleyball universe.

Not only have you become the latest program to dance in the winner’s circle, you also have provided the blueprint for other teams struggling to make that huge step from very good to great.

Louisville suffered the sweep Saturday night, but the Cardinals were no pushover. Try as they might, they were no match for a bigger, more talented, more seasoned Texas crew, which happily embraced the target on its back for 29 matches.

The Longhorns were the team to beat from the day they opened the season by delivering a pair of road beatdowns to eventual Elite Eight team Ohio State to the moment that Keonilei Akana struck the biggest ace of her life to bring home a third NCAA title.

After a decade of disappointments in the biggest of matches — three losses in the national championship match have come since 2015 — the Longhorns didn’t just burst through the door to become a team of legend. They kicked the son of a gun off its hinges.

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Head coach Jerritt Elliott has taken more gut shots over the past decade than he would care to remember, but there he stood Saturday night as delicious confetti rained down on the architect of one of the greatest seasons in the history of Texas athletics.

The Longhorns arrived in the Midwest fully expecting to have an extra carry-on item on the Sunday charter back home. Of the schools that punched tickets to the Final Four, Texas was the only blue blood. This was the first Final Four without a Big Ten or Pac-12 school in the field, so the Horns took the court knowing this was their championship to lose.

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There were plenty of Nebraskans in the sellout crowd of 16,952, and they were overwhelmingly pro-Louisville. The “Go, Big Red!” chants are normally reserved for sporting events in neighboring Lincoln, but on this night, they adopted the Cardinals and coach Dani Busboom Kelly, a Huskers alum who played on Nebraska's 2006 championship team.

Texas made its noise on the court and came through in boss fashion behind newly minted AVCA national player of the year Logan Eggleston, who was in no mood to let a championship slip through her carefully taped fingers on her final weekend of college ball. She blasted 19 kills and departs with a most outstanding player award to go with the final piece to her storied career: the big trophy.

Great players win individual awards, but great teams win championships. Texas just so happened to check both boxes. The Horns got contributions from everywhere, though Elliott did less substituting than in Thursday night's semifinal win over San Diego.

He stuck with his most experienced hands, and they were up to the task. Before the team arrived at the arena Saturday, Elliott told his wife, Andrea, that he was about to coach the most important match of his three decades in the profession, and to to his credit, he didn’t overcook the sauce.

“I honestly told my staff I’ve just got to stay out of the way this tournament and be relaxed and make sure that they feel that,” Elliott said. “Sometimes I’ve got to be the bus driver, but they were just kind of driving the bus, and I felt really good that I could just steer them and mold them to kind of what we needed to do to make sure that they were in a good mindset.”

The national title tastes so good and the celebration is even more gratifying when reflecting upon what it took to make it to the sport’s biggest party. The Longhorns are as good as their 28-1 record indicates, and the battle scars that were once at the center of their thoughts have given way to team immortality.

Winning isn’t easy, and even the most successful of champions don't get there without struggle. No blues singer ever wrote a single lyric without going through something to inspire the art. Shoot, the Horns could cut several albums, given the heartbreak they have endured since that last title in 2012.

Surely the painful memory of giving up a two-set lead at home to Louisville in the 2019 regional semifinals played in their minds when they saw the Cardinals opposite them in the Final Four bracket. And none of us will forget Eggleston’s spirited performance in the 2020 national championship loss to Kentucky, a match in which the Horns won the first set but then lost three straight, including a gut-wrenching fourth (25-22) as they couldn’t add to a 6-1 lead.

Texas didn't win it all by accident. The road to the title was an amalgamation of tough lessons that hardened the team's resolve and made it a wonderful model for others on campus to follow.

In his 22nd year at the helm, Elliott did it the right way. He was reminded during the 2021 season that team chemistry can be that important compass through tough times. That togetherness can forge an inner toughness that will reveal itself at crucial moments.

Were there chemistry problems last year? For sure, and the lessons from that experience played in his head when he began the process of adding pieces to an already tremendous nucleus of Eggleston, Asjia O’Neal, Saige Ka'aha'aina-Torres and Molly Phillips.

Senior transfer Zoe Fleck not only was an important addition because of her ability, but the former Pac-12 libero of the year also became a stabilizing influence on the back end and in the huddle.

“It’s so great to play with people I love who love to play volleyball,” Fleck said. “I can’t score points, but my job is to make people better and keep us together. Being the new kid on the floor was a challenge that I probably wouldn’t have been able to do when I was 18. I’ve grown so much.”

Elliott brought in a burgeoning superstar in opposite hitter Madisen Skinner from Kentucky. She was the perfect complement to Eggleston and fit in perfectly with her older teammates. Akana and Kayla Caffey, both Nebraska transfers, knew a thing or two about deep tournament runs, and freshman Emma Halter played like a 24-year-old Olympian.

Halter actually walked up to Elliott at Saturday’s walk-through and said two words: “Winners win.”

And they went out a few hours later and closed the show the way champions are supposed to close the show.

Elliott and staff hit a home run with this group. They were united toward a common goal, and the player leadership didn’t allow egos or disenchantment to get in the way of their date with destiny.

“Jerritt surrounded us with great people who wanted to be here and who are just great individuals and committed to the same goal,” said Eggleston, whose crowning individual and team achievements put her in the conversation as one of the greatest athletes in school history. "I give a lot of credit to him for surrounding us with the right people who are committed and love one another. I think when you have that, it’s hard to lose.”

Once good, the Horns are now great.

It's time to put away those blues records and crank up some vintage Queen for these queens of the court.

Congratulations, Longhorns.

You are the champions.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas volleyball provided the winning formula for others to follow