On to Omaha! Texas dispatches Ohio State to reach NCAA volleyball final four for 14th time

Logan Eggleston saved her best for last.

In four of her five seasons at Texas, she has called Gregory Gym her home. And in her home, Eggleston has accumulated 739 kills. That 739th kill was an exclamation mark for the Longhorns, who closed out a 25-18, 21-25, 25-13, 25-21 Elite Eight win over Ohio State on Saturday evening on an emphatic swing from Eggleston.

With the victory in front of a Gregory Gym-record crowd of 5,344, top-seeded Texas (26-1) advanced to this week's NCAA semifinals for the 14th time in school history. The Final Four will be held at the CHI Health Center in Omaha, Neb. Texas will face San Diego (31-1), which rallied to beat Stanford in five sets, at 6 p.m. Thursday.

“It's not a surprise to me that we're in this position,” Eggleston said. “I think that I've seen it every single day in the practice gym, but it's a priority. It's why we came to Texas.”

Nursing a 24-21 lead in the fourth set, Texas served for the victory. Ohio State returned the serve and got the ball to its standout opposite hitter, Emily Londot, but her attempt was stuffed at the net. The blocked ball bounced back to Ohio State's Mac Podraza, and that save was immediately returned to Texas.

That sequence put the Longhorns in position for a bump, set, spike and win.

To set up the winning sequence, libero Zoe Fleck bumped the ball right to Saige Ka'aha'aina-Torres, who then set the volleyball to her left. Eggleston went for the kill.

She fired off a ball that deflected off the hand of Londot and went out of bounds. As the ball landed, Eggleston spun and greeted her teammates as the Longhorns began to celebrate their regional championship.

“I can't even remember what happened at this point,” Eggleston said. “But my teammates put me in a really great position, and I was able to find a way to score.”

Even though Eggleston provided the perfect ending, the story of Saturday’s win was written in the third set. Texas rolled to a seven-point victory in the opening set, but Ohio State stormed back from a 19-14 deficit in the second session to tie the match.

During the five-minute intermission between the second and third sets, the Longhorns regrouped. They also leaned on veteran middle blocker Asjia O’Neal for a pep talk.

“Really, the conversation just was we need to keep our foot on the gas,” O’Neal said. “I remember when I said it can be 24-1 and they're not going to give up because everybody wants this so incredibly badly.”

Texas jumped out to an 8-2 lead in the third set. Eggleston registered four kills and Texas received two apiece from Madisen Skinner, Molly Phillips and O’Neal. Texas hit only .240 in the third set, but Ohio State had 11 attacking errors and just seven points on its 38 attempts.

For the final two points of the set, UT coach Jerritt Elliott pulled Ka’aha’aina-Torres in favor of freshman outside hitter Devin Kahahawai since the Texas rotation had its 6-foot setter at the net at that time. In her only action of the night, the 6-4 Kahahawai combined with 6-2 Bella Bergmark for blocks on consecutive plays.

“I don't know if in some of the years past we would have been able to come back from the second game kind of meltdown,” Elliott said. “The experience and the calmness that I see, there's no fear in them.”

Eggleston had a match-high 20 kills Saturday, but Texas also got an offensive boost from Skinner (13 kills), O’Neal (seven) and Ka’aha’aina-Torres (40 assists). Fleck’s 18 digs led the defense, which registered 16½ team blocks.

Meanwhile, Ohio State kept in the match with Londot’s 14 kills.

To start this season, Ohio State lost three straight matches. The first two of those were against Texas. The Buckeyes, though, rebounded and closed out the year with a 22-10 record and their first appearance in a regional final since 2004.

"After the first three losses of our season, we could have just stopped there and gone downhill but we chose to fight as a team," Londot said. "We got better every single day and I think it showed (in) just how far we got in the tournament. I think that work was really worth it."

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas bests Ohio State, advances to NCAA volleyball's final four