Harvey Outshines The Sun Devils in Her Starting Debut

The Texas Longhorns simply will not stop rolling right now, as they pick up a dominant win at home against #9 Arizona State in the first match of the season at Gregory gym. The Sun Devils were without arguably their best player in OPP Noemie Glover, but the Horns left no doubt in a sweep for their 4th consecutive top-10 victory. Jerritt Elliott schedules tough in the non-conference every year, but he's really outdone himself this year and his team has done nothing but respond to that challenge.

Despite the impressive undefeated start, the offensive numbers have not yet jumped off the page as a big success. Part of this has to do with playing against several high-quality defenses on the schedule, but Longhorn fans may hope to hit better than .238 on the season. But against Arizona State, we saw a spark on the offensive side of the ball with a .382 hitting percentage. Cari Spears dazzled as the Horns returned a bit more to the D ball successfully. And we have to give some flowers to Taylor Harvey for providing a spark in her first ever start wearing the burnt orange, where she only got 11 swings but made the most of them with 8 kills.

Jerritt Elliott let Harvey know she was starting after practice the day before the match, and she was more excited than anything else. "I was excited to prove that I've been working hard and to myself that everything I've been working on has paid off," adding that she feels she has made a lot of improvements to her game since entering the Texas gym.

As a reminder, Harvey was the only freshman NOT on campus throughout the spring, so she has only been around this team for a short period of time. I asked her how she has built such a strong chemistry with setters Ella and Rella so quickly, and she says it all starts off the court. With how tight-knit the team is, it makes it that much easier to connect on the court. "We have that connection where we can talk it through, we work out the hard stuff and it's nothing personal... If something's off, I let her know, and then we just build that rhythm and we just build each other."

This will certainly be a match Harvey remembers for a long time, especially doing it in front of her home fans at Gregory gym. About the gameday atmosphere on the Horns' home court, she said "I've been here and I've watched it, but being in the center of it, you just get so much energy going." And something tells me this won't be the last time we see her in the Greg.