AUSTIN, Texas — The difference Friday night at Gregory Gymnasium was obvious.

It wore No. 21 in burnt orange and white.

Texas All-American Destinee Hooker dominated when it mattered most, leading the second-ranked Longhorns to a three-game victory over No. 8 Nebraska to sweep the season series from NU and widen its advantage atop the Big 12 volleyball standings.

The 6-foot-4 Hooker pounded 19 kills on .400 hitting. She directed Texas (18-0, 13-0 Big 12) to late surges in all three sets of its 25-22, 26-24, 25-19 victory as NU lost in Austin for the fourth time in five years.

“One of the things that our team has to understand is that we don’t have Destinee Hooker,” Nebraska coach John Cook said, “so we have to play great as a team — especially at the end of (sets) and especially on the road here. And Destinee can just take over.

“You do everything right, and she still gets kills. She’s a once-in-a-lifetime-type recruit, I think, for a college program.”

Nebraska (16-6, 8-4) lost twice in the same season to a conference foe for just the third time in school history. It hadn’t happened since 2003, when Kansas State swept a pair from NU.

Rewind to 1997 for the last time the Huskers dropped four league matches. They’ve never lost more.

Still, Cook said he was pleased with Nebraska’s energy and attention to the game plan Friday before a sellout crowd of 4,009.

He said he thought Texas would feel relieved after the performance and that the Huskers should be encouraged.

“As a coach, I have to keep in perspective where Texas is at as a team right now,” Cook said, “and where we’re at as a team.”

NU stayed even for much of the night. The Huskers tied the first two sets at 20-20 and earned a set point in the second. Two hitting errors by Tara Mueller and a slam from the back row by Hooker prevented the Longhorns’ first set defeat at home this year.

And in the third, Nebraska jumped to leads of 4-0 on strong serving by freshman Hannah Werth, 10-4 and 18-15 after a kill by Brooke Delano. Texas tied it at 18 on a Hooker kill. Another termination from the four-time NCAA high-jump champion put Texas on top for the first time and in position to sense victory.

With fellow senior Heather Kisner at the service line, Hooker produced four kills in the final five points to win it.

“If you noticed, as soon as it hit 20, it was like we hit a whole ’nother gear,” Texas setter Ashley Engle said. “And I think that was the key in order to be successful tonight.”

Hooker said the Longhorns never lost focus in the third, despite their lackluster play to start. They scored four straight to force a late Nebraska timeout and kept momentum after the rest.

“We were able to regroup,” Hooker said, “go back out there and dominate.”

Texas coach Jerritt Elliott said he told his team before the game that he hoped Nebraska would play its best volleyball of the season. That way, Elliott said, Texas would learn something about itself.

“That’s what we got tonight,” he said. “When we got into the crunch time, our team was a little more confident. We have more experience, and we got aggressive. They got a little bit tentative. That’s what the teams of Nebraska used to do to us in past years. We’re fortunate right now that we’ve got a very good team.”

The Huskers largely agreed.

“As a team, we’ve got to come out and play Nebraska volleyball,” NU junior Lindsey Licht said. “I know we have it in us. We’ve seen glimpses of it.”

Licht led the Huskers with 10 kills and hit .316. UT outhit the Huskers .326 to .168.

The Longhorns established a school record with their 27th straight home win. They lead Iowa State by two games in the loss column and Nebraska by four in the race for a Big 12 crown.

Texas shared the title with NU in each of the past two years and last won the championship outright in 1997.

“Another step,” Engle said, “toward our goal of winning the Big 12 — just us.”

Nebraska (16-6, 9-4 Big 12) 222419

At Texas (18-0, 13-0) 252625

NU (kills-aces-blocks): Anderson 5-0-0, Licht 10-0-1, Delano 3-0-2, Cooper 5-0-3, Mueller 7-2-0, Werth 7-2-2, Mancuso 0-2-0. Totals 37-6-8.

UT: Faucette 9-0-0, Adams 3-0-3, Doris 1-0-1, Engle 5-0-2, Yogi 0-1-0, Hooker 19-1-2, Arenas 0-1-0, McNeal 4-0-1, Webster 4-0-3. Totals 45-3-12.

Set assists: NU 32 (Anderson 22, Cooper 1, Mueller 5, Werth 1, Banwarth 3), UT 42 (Faucetter 4, Doris 1, Engle 32, McNeal 1, Kisner 4).

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