Point, set, match: How Akana's dream serve became reality for Texas' NCAA championship

OMAHA, Neb. — In the leadup to Saturday night's NCAA Volleyball Tournament championship match, Texas sophomore Keonilei Akana took a two-hour nap.

It wasn't just for the rest. Akana tried to use the downtime to manifest a way in which she could be involved with that night's national championship-winning point for Texas.

Baseball players have walk-off home runs. Basketball players get buzzer-beating shots. Football players can score the winning touchdown.

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For volleyball players, there's that prospect of ending a match with a kill. Akana, though, is a 5-foot-9 defensive specialist. She knew if she was going to contribute to that winning point, it would have to happen on the service line.

And then Akana's dream became a reality.

Her service ace closed out Texas' 25-22, 25-14, 26-24 sweep of Louisville at the CHI Health Center. The victory secured the fourth national championship in UT’s storied volleyball history.

“Having the opportunity for myself, I was really blessed to have that,” Akana said. “Being able to get an ace, also just being able to manifest it during the day and then being able to come here and do it, especially in Omaha, was a lot for me.”

Texas, which had won the first two sets, trailed 24-22 in the third, but after scoring a point to pull within 24-23, the team’s rotation pattern called for Akana to substitute for Molly Phillips and serve. Akana served for two straight points — a Louisville attacking error and a Logan Eggleston kill — and then returned to the service line for match point.

Positioned on the right side of the court, Akana held the ball in her left hand. With her right hand raised, she took five steps and fired off a jump serve. The ball rocketed in the direction of Louisville’s Claire Chaussee, but the Cardinals' All-American outside hitter couldn’t handle the shot. The volleyball caromed backward, and no Cardinal could track it down.

Point, set, match.

“I literally saw the serve coming out of my peripherals, going over the net; I was like, oh, that’s an ace,” UT middle blocker Asjia O’Neal said. “I turned around and collapsed to the ground.”

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Standing outside the UT locker room in a championship T-shirt soaked with water, Akana told reporters that her serve was placed exactly where she intended. And that she felt confident it was an ace by the time the ball even cleared the net.

Before the serve, Akana said there were "a lot of things going on in my head." She was able to calm herself down, take a deep breath and go through her routine. She also mentioned that the confidence UT coach Jerritt Elliott and volunteer assistant Jessica Brannan have in her was reassuring.

"I just really wanted the best for our team," she said. "So, of course, trying to serve aggressive, and it worked out for us."

It was Akana's 34th ace of the season. She had seven aces in Texas' first-round NCAA win over Fairleigh Dickinson. That tied the career-high mark she had set last year while playing for Nebraska against Texas.

In other words, Texas had no reason to doubt that Akana could end it with an ace. In fact, Elliott said he told senior Kayla Caffey just before the serve that ❝❛Keonilei has ice in her veins, and she's going to get an ace.❜ That's specifically what I said. I may have thrown some other word in there.

"But she's just been nails all the time. She's tough as nails. To serve that ball in this magnitude of a stage and to hit it the way she did, she hit it clean, which we always talk about; there was no spin and a ton of velocity on it and put a lot of pressure (on Louisville)."

It was the first time since 2014 that the NCAA championship match had ended on an ace. And it was also the perfect ending to Akana's first season in a Texas uniform.

She transferred in during the offseason after spending two years at Nebraska. She and fellow Huskers transfer Caffey played on last year's Nebraska team that fell to Wisconsin in the championship match.

"It honestly hasn't processed yet," Akana said. "I think I'm still going to wake up in the morning thinking that we have the championship game to play. I'm super excited and I'm super pumped, and I'm just excited to see what happens next with our team."

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Keonilei Akana serves up a title for Texas with her championship ace