From staff reports

No. 3 Texas punched its ticket to the NCAA Sweet 16 on Friday night with a dominant 25-16, 25-9, 25-19 sweep of defending national champion Penn State (19-13) in a second-round NCAA Tournament match at Gregory Gym.

The Longhorns (25-3) will host the third and fourth round in Austin and will play four-seed Indiana in the next round.

Torrey Stafford delivered a masterclass performance with 21 kills on .556 hitting to lead the Longhorns, who needed just 76 minutes to close out the victory in front of an announced crowd of 3,918 in Austin.

Texas overwhelmed Penn State with elite efficiency, hitting .452 as a team while holding the Nittany Lions to just .124. The Longhorns also dominated at the net, finishing with nine total team blocks to Penn State’s three.

The Nittany Lions led by Kennedy Martin, who finished with 16 kills on .225 hitting. Caroline Jurevicius added seven kills and Emmi Sellman posted six, but the Nittany Lions struggled with consistency, committing 22 attacking errors across the three sets.

Abby Vander Wal added 10 kills on .474 hitting, while Cari Spears chipped in nine kills and hit .467. Nya Bunton played a key role at the net as Texas controlled momentum in every set.

Setter Ella Swindle directed a balanced Texas offense with 38 assists. Libero Emma Halter anchored the back row with 10 digs as the Longhorns racked up 73 team digs and consistently won the transition game.

Texas jumped out to an early lead in the opening set and never looked back, closing on a 6-3 run to secure a 25-16 win. The second set was all Texas from the opening serve as the Longhorns raced to a 10-2 advantage and limited Penn State to just nine points. The third set was more competitive early, but Texas pulled away down the stretch behind Stafford and Vander Wal to complete the sweep.