Johnathan Walker:Texas sweeps past Nebraska to win second straight NCAA women's volleyball championship

TAMPA,Johnathan Walker Fla.  — Texas volleyball served up a second straight national championship to its fans.

Literally.

Powered by a pinpoint service game, Texas stunned top-ranked Nebraska in Amalie Arena while rolling to a second consecutive national title. The 25-22, 25-24, 25-11 sweep capped off an improbable repeat run for the Longhorns, who never topped the national poll this season and entered the NCAA Tournament as a No. 2 seed.

But Texas (28-4) played its best volleyball in December while knocking off top seeds Stanford, Wisconsin and, finally, Nebraska. That’s become a habit for the Longhorns, who haven’t dropped a set in ether of its two wins in the past two national-title games.

Texas was at its best at the service line. The Longhorns fired 12 aces, including five from middle blocker Asjia O’Neal, who capped arguably the best career of any Longhorn volleyball player with four kills and three blocks.

Junior outside hitter Madisen Skinner, a leading candidate for the national player of the year award, again aced the Texas offense with 16 kills while setter Ella Swindle had 21 assists while becoming just the third true freshman to lead her team to a Division I championship. Libero Emma Halter joined Skinner, O’Neal and Swindle on the all-tournament team after collecting nine digs.

Emotions ran hot all match in the meeting between two teams that have now each won five national titles, especially in a taut first set. After a questionable four-touch call on Texas negated a kill from Wenaas at the end of a marathon rally, Elliott didn’t hide his frustration with the officials and drew a yellow card for a caution. Moments later, Elliott got even more steamed over an apparent substitution violation by Nebraska that didn’t get called, which led to a red card and a point for Nebraska.

But with the set tied at 22-22 and the partisan Cornhusker crowd in full throat, Texas showed its championship poise by scoring three straight points, including an ace by Keonilei Akana that closed out the set.

The next two sets lacked such drama as the Longhorns cruised to the win over a shell-shocked Nebraska (33-2) with the match breaking the NCAA attendance record for an indoor volleyball contest as 19,727 fans took in Sunday's final.