December Madness

Senior All-American Ashley Engle (photo courtesy of UT Sports)

If members of the Texas Longhorns volleyball team have woken up in a cold sweat this week, that's understandable: It's probably hard to get last year's Final Four off their mind.

Up two games against Stanford, it looked like their ticket to the NCAA title game was all but punched. Then the Cardinal came back to take the next three, and the only ticket for the Horns was the one back to Austin.

Tonight in Tampa, they hope to erase that awful memory. And it really appears they could. Last year, their trip to the F4 was a refreshing surprise; this year, it was nearly a given. They rolled into the regionals in Omaha with only one blemish on their record. They knew facing down the Nebraska Cornhuskers in front of 10,000 rabid fans only a few miles from the NU campus would be tough, but they dispatched Big Red 3-1.

At 6pm Central Time on ESPN2, we'll see whether Minnesota will be the new Stanford, or if they'll just be a bump in the road to greater glory. If 28-1 UT – led by senior first-team All-Americans Ashley Engle and Destinee Hooker, and third-team junior Juliann Faucette – can get past the 28-8 Golden Gophers, then they'll advance to Saturday's final against either Hawai'i (31-2) or Penn State (36-0). Most likely, it will be the latter, which is currently on a 100-match winning streak.