OMAHA, Neb. -- Amy Neal had a career-high 25 points and Texas broke open a close match in the fourth set to beat Minnesota in the NCAA volleyball semifinals Thursday night.
The third-seeded Longhorns (30-2) will play in the championship match Saturday night against No. 9 Kansas or No. 4 Nebraska.
The No. 2 Gophers (30-5) hung with Texas until the end. Neither team led by four points until the 156th rally of the match. There were 44 ties and 10 lead changes as Texas won 26-24, 27-25, 23-25, 25-21.
Neal, the Big 12 player of the year, took a career-high 67 swings from the left side and hit only .194 because Minnesota's Hannah Tapp and Molly Lohman set up an effective block against her.
Texas, in semifinals for the fourth straight time and seventh time in eight years, reached the championship match for the first time since it won the 2012 title. The Longhorns will take a 12-match winning streak into the final.
Paulina Cerame had 19 kills and Yasmeen Bedart-Ghani added 15 for Texas, and Cat McCoy had 20 digs.
The Longhorns scored three straight points to go up 18-15 in the fourth set, and a kill by Neal made it 23-18. Neal beat Tapp with a big hit to get to match point, and after Minnesota rallied for a couple points, Neal finished it with the last of her kills.
Big Ten player of the year Daly Santana led Minnesota with 21 kills, Tapp had 18 and Paige Tapp added 13. Minnesota, which came to Omaha hitting a tournament-best .368, hit .271 against the Longhorns.
Neal had six kills as the Longhorns went out to a 15-13 lead in the first set, but Santana kills tied it at 23 and 24. Texas won the set on a big Cerame's big swing and Kat Brooks' ace.
After Hannah Tapp's kill tied the second set at 25, the Longhorns won it when Chloe Collins' dumped Nicole Dalton's pass over the net and Minnesota's Sarah Wilhite's drove the ball long.
Minnesota trailed 20-18 in the third set before running off five straight points. After Neal pulled Texas to 24-23, Hannah Tapp finished the set with a floating kill into an open space in back to force a fourth set.
