AUSTIN (KXAN) — Former University of Texas men’s tennis coach Michael Center will be sentenced Monday in the college admissions bribery scandal. Judge Richard Stearns will hand down Center’s prison sentence at 2 p.m. CT in a Boston courtroom. Sentencing guidelines recommend Center get between 15 months and 21 months in prison although he could […]

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Two bars on Rainey Street would need to go to make way for a new 53-story tower in the popular nightlife district, and Monday the city’s Historic Landmark Commission will meet to discuss whether to preserve one of them. Container Bar and Bungalow (90 and 92 Rainey Street, respectively) sit in the […]

The No. 5 Texas Longhorns returned to the 40 Acres Sunday afternoon following a disappointing turnout at the ITA Indoor Nationals. Led by the senior duo of No. 6 senior Christian Sigsgaard and No. 2 senior Yuya Ito, the Longhorns comfortably defended their home turf with a 6-1 win over Nebraska and a 4-3 win over UTSA to remain undefeated at home for the season.  “They’ve been really tremendous examples throughout the last couple of years, not just this year,” Texas head coach Bruce Berque said of Sigsgaard and Ito. “Anytime you have your best players doing things the right way, that really helps cause people naturally look up to the players that are the best.” A struggling 2-6 Nebraska Cornhusker team squared off against Texas for the first time in nine years. The Cornhuskers have only beat one team from the Lone Star State this season, with three of their six losses this season coming at the hands of Baylor, SMU and recently UTSA.  Nebraska looked to come out of the gates swinging at the start of the doubles matches with hopes of stealing a win against a Longhorn team that had just been upset by then-No. 13 Michigan. Nebraska’s fire was quickly snuffed out by the No. 13 duo of Ito and Sigsgaard, who played a pivotal role in capturing the doubles point with a 6-2 victory. With Ito and freshman Siem Woldeab in the lineup, the Longhorns would only lose one point in individual play.  #mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; width:100%;} /* Add your own Mailchimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block. We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. */ Want more content like this in your inbox? Sign up for Tailgating with Texas! “I felt like we got better as a team from today,” said Berque. “That was a goal we talked about these last few days.” The UTSA Roadrunners came to Austin hoping to pick up some experience against their first ranked opponent of the season. With two of their events being called off this season, the Roadrunners held a peculiar 2-3 record. Historically, the Roadrunners haven’t had much to look forward to, as the Longhorns are 25-0 against them since 1975. Texas handily defeated UTSA 6-1 when the teams clashed in Austin last year. With “The Eyes of Texas” playing across the street at UFCU Disch-Falk Field, the now 9–2 Longhorns kept the East Campus momentum alive with Texas quickly dispatching the Roadrunners in doubles, and Sigsgaard once again playing a pivotal role in the win. Sigsgaard kept his hot streak alive after the doubles and swiftly swept UTSA’s Sebastian Rodriguez to give Texas the 2-0 lead. Freshman Evin McDonald got his second career victory in his second career match to put the Longhorns up 4–0.  With the game already clinched for Texas, the Roadrunners saved face with three straight points against a rusty Longhorn bench of freshman Jacob Bullard, sophomore Nevin Arimilli and redshirt freshman Cleeve Harper.  “It’s a conscious effort, a lot of positive reinforcement for each other,” Berque said. “I think they did a really good job today.” The No. 5 Texas Longhorns will look to use this doubleheader victory to gain momentum heading into a top-10 match against No. 8 Stanford this Friday in Austin.

Texas entered the Texas Invitational Tournament at Red & Charline McCombs Field at 11–0. To start the weekend, the Longhorns continued to look like one of the nation’s elite teams. Blowout wins over Lipscomb and North Dakota State on Friday kept one of the best starts in program history alive. But something was different about Saturday night at McCombs Field. In the weekend’s second matchup with Lipscomb, Texas got out to a rare slow start, falling behind 3-0 in the first.  That deficit didn’t last long, however, as Texas rallied behind sophomore pitcher Shealyn O’Leary and began picking runs from everywhere in the lineup. With three runs in the second, two in the third and three more in the fourth, Texas quickly found themselves up 8-3 and on track for its third consecutive run-rule win of the Invitational. But something seemed to change around the fifth inning. The Longhorns committed some uncharacteristic errors and conceded two runs. While they picked up some insurance runs in the bottom half of the inning, the momentum began to shift. Junior pitcher Ariana Adams entered the circle and quickly conceded four runs in the sixth. With the cushion cut down to just a two-run lead, Adams was pulled out of the game, and O’Leary re-entered the circle. Texas had committed a season high five errors to that point, and O’Leary quickly let in two more runs. Once down by six, Lipscomb had tied it. #mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; width:100%;} /* Add your own Mailchimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block. We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. */ Want more content like this in your inbox? Sign up for Tailgating with Texas! The energy in the stadium immediately shifted when a meeting was called, and senior pitcher Miranda Elish jogged onto the field. It was as if upon seeing the number 40, fans and players alike knew momentum was due to shift again. “I just tell myself to relax,” Elish said. “I can’t make the situation any bigger than it is … and try and hit it past one of my girls because they’re some of the best defenders.” Elish began pitching in the sixth inning of a tied game with just one out. She wasted no time getting Texas out of the inning with back-to-back strikeouts to keep the game tied. “She’s one of the best players in the country for a reason,” Texas head coach Mike White said. “She goes out there and does her job. She’s on a mission.” Elish’s completed her mission against Lipscomb. In 1 1/3 innings pitched, Elish shut down the Bisons and earned the win in the walk-off 12-11 victory. Elish’s pitching prowess continued into the Duke game, but the same could not be said about the Texas bats. The Texas star pitched all seven innings — eight-plus consecutive innings pitched — and managed to hold the Blue Devils to only one run. But on the crowded Saturday night, it wasn’t enough to keep the Horns’ wining streak alive.  Duke managed to hand Texas its first loss of the season, as Texas was shut out for the first time all year in a 1-0 loss. “We hit really hard balls right to them,” Elish said after the game. “I don’t think there’s anything about (Duke) in particular that makes them hard to score runs off of them, I think if different balls drop the score would be a lot different. … It sucks to lose but it was going to come sooner or later.” The win streak may have ended, but with a 9-4 win over Weber State to end the weekend at 4–1 and to start the season with a 15–1 record, the next streak for the Longhorns may have just begun.