For the 16th time in a 17-season span, Texas is heading to the Elite Eight.
But at Texas, being Elite is not the goal. These Longhorns are chasing the volleyball program's first national championship since 2012, and there's still work to do.
It takes six NCAA Tournament wins to earn a championship. On Thursday, Texas got halfway there. Logan Eggleston had 15 kills as the top-seeded Longhorns took down Marquette with a 25-14, 25-13, 19-25, 25-17 win at Gregory Gym. Texas (25-1) advances to play Ohio State (22-9) in the fourth round Saturday.
"Right now, the goal is to beat Ohio State," Eggleston said. "We're not going to look too far ahead even though we know what the main goal is at the end of the day, but it's one game at a time, one point at a time."
With Texas football players Bijan Robinson, Jordan Whittington and Roschon Johnson seated among an announced crowd of 4,491, the Longhorns appropriately jumped out to a 7-0 first-set lead that featured two aces from libero Zoe Fleck.
Texas received two other aces from Eggleston in the set, and the All-American outside hitter scored on six kills. The Longhorns led by as many as 13 points and never trailed. And they never trailed in the second set, either. But in the third, the Golden Eagles soared after taking an early five-point lead.
The first three points Texas scored in the fourth were recorded on two kills and an Eggleston block. Eggleston's 13th kill put the Longhorns up 7-3 and forced Marquette to call a timeout.
Eggleston wasn't done, though. She had kills that gave Texas 9-5 and 15-11 advantages. And her block that put UT up by four points sent the crowd into a frenzy. She also served an ace in the set.
"I always like to think that nobody really gets better under pressure, but it's who gets the least worse. Right? And Logan, she shows up," Fleck said. "It's like she does get better in high-pressure situations. Just being able to trust her with every contact regardless of what it is makes the rest of us feel safe to play our game and play present and just play one point at a time because we know we have Logan on our side."
But Eggleston wasn't a one-woman show in the final frame. Madisen Skinner had three kills and Keonilei Akana also served an ace. A kill by middle blocker Asjia O'Neal ended the match.
Bella Bergmark also had two kills and two blocks in that fourth set. A 6-foot-2 middle blocker who transferred to Texas from Cal, Bergmark came off the bench after receiving minimal playing time over the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
"I told them that we're going to need to rely on some people coming off the bench, and she did a phenomenal job," Texas coach Jerritt Elliott said. "She got a nice block there, a couple of big kills because at one point they were leaving her alone a little bit, so we saw that and went to her, and she did an excellent job."
Texas also received 11 kills from Skinner. Both she and Eggleston hit over .350. Saige Ka'aha'aina-Torres directed the offense with her 36 assists. Defensively, Texas recorded 15 blocks and held Marquette to a season-low .098 hitting percentage. Fleck, who transferred from UCLA, anchored the defense with 14 digs while also serving three of UT's 10 aces.
"She's been a huge game-changer to this team," Eggleston said. "I'm very, very, very thankful that she finally made it to Texas."
Before Thursday, UT had never played Marquette. Texas will have more familiarity with its Elite Eight opponent, though.
The Longhorns opened this season with 3-0 and 3-1 wins at Ohio State, though Elliott and Eggleston downplayed those August victories after Thursday's match. The Buckeyes, who beat Big Ten rival Minnesota in four sets in Thursday's first match, did as well this week.
"We're a completely different team from the first weekend now," Ohio State opposite hitter Emily Landot said. "I think our preseason schedule really treated us well because starting out with Texas with those two losses, I think from there we just learned and gained so much confidence from the rest of the preseason and then the Big Ten season."
