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Austin captures inaugural League One Volleyball championship
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The above video is from an earlier story KXAN did on the LOVB Austin volleyball team
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Add another championship for a volleyball team that calls Austin home.
Former Texas Longhorns Logan Eggleston and Madisen Skinner led Austin to the first League One Volleyball championship in a sweep of Omaha on Sunday at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky.
Set scores were 25-19, 25-22, 25-23.
Eggleston, a 4-time All-American for the Longhorns and part of the 2022 national championship team, led the way for Austin with 17 kills and five blocks with a .469 hitting percentage. Madisen Skinner, also a 4-time All-American during her time at Kentucky and Texas and 3-time national champ, was named the LOVB finals MVP with 17 kills and four blocks with five digs in the championship match.
Skinner helped push Austin, the fifth seed in the LOVB playoffs, through two grueling 5-set wins to reach the title match, knocking off No. 4 Salt Lake and No. 1 Atlanta before dispatching No. 6 Omaha in the finals. Austin finished the LOVB regular season with a 5-11 record, but they got hot at the right time.
"It doesn't matter how you start; it's how you finish," Skinner said after the match. "We came out here and gave it everything we had and closed it out. I'm so proud to be part of this group and in this league."
Over three playoff matches, Skinner racked up 63 kills, six blocks and four service aces. Austin setter Carli Lloyd had 45 set assists to go with nine digs.
Austin's Chiaka Ogbogu, another former Longhorn, was named the LOVB middle blocker of the year.
This was the first year of the LOVB pro league that featured six teams representing Austin, Omaha, Madison, Atlanta, Houston and Salt Lake City.