Texas sweeps Minnesota

It has been 21 years since the Texas women's volleyball program won a national title.

Sometimes in sports, more than two decades without a title can seem like ages.

"I wasn't even born," Texas junior hitter Julian Faucette said.

With a 3-0 sweep of Minnesota in the NCAA women's semifinals Thursday, the Longhorns (29-1) put themselves in position to end that drought by advancing to Saturday's title match, its first championship appearance since 1995. Texas will meet No. 1 and two-time defending champion Penn State.

"(Winning a national title) has been the goal since I was a freshman," Texas senior setter and opposite hitter Ashley Engle said. "We feel like we're at our peak right now."

Texas won 25-19, 25-20, 25-15, using its height at the net to its advantage over the Golden Gophers, posting a .400 attack percentage while limiting Minnesota to .160.

"In order to compete with Texas, we had to serve a little better than we did," Minnesota coach Mike Hebert said. "We had to serve a little bit tougher and play a little bit better defense. I thought we were often confident in all three of those areas, but there were too many moments when we didn't do it well enough and they have the athletes to take advantage of any mistake and they did."

Senior hitter and Big 12 Player of the Year Destinee Hooker led Texas with 17 kills while Engle added 10 kills and a team-high 25 assists. Hailey Cowles led Minnesota with 12 kills.

"Your whole season is based on the Final Four and this last stretch of it," said Faucette, who finished with 10 kills. "It's such a great feeling to feel that all of that work has paid off."

"We're going to the national championship for the first time since 1995 and it's a blessing, it really is," Hooker said.

Last season, Texas advanced to the Final Four and led Stanford by two sets in the semifinals before losing the next three. In Game 3 on Thursday, Minnesota (28-9) jumped out to an 8-3 lead. The deficit had some of the Texas players and coaches thinking dejÀ vu, which could have affected their play.

"In Game 3, we got fidgety for the first time in a long time," Texas coach Jerritt Elliot said.

Nevertheless, the Longhorns rallied behind Hooker and junior utility Jennifer Doris (seven kills), outscoring Minnesota 22-7 down the stretch to advance.