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I’m a relative newcomer as a volleyball fan and really appreciate the insights of @Js1 and @SL Xpress  I still don’t understand it all but am gaining on it. 

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  • SL Xpress
    SL Xpress

    Uh, the other thing being when Binney enters the match Spears sits on the bench. That's even bigger to me than replacing Swindle, and I love both Swindle and Kahahawai.  I think there's something

  • That's going to be a new McCombs graduate diving all over the floor in a few hours.    

  • If Vandy finishes off Cal (leads 2-0), the challenge will end in an 8-8 tie Texas, Bama, MSST and OU all had 5 set wins today   

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1 hour ago, Js1 said:

16 kills is a bad day of the office for Stafford. 

Eh.  That's barely under her average for a 4 set match.  

  • Author
3 hours ago, Mittens said:

Eh.  That's barely under her average for a 4 set match.  

More her errors and hitting % were a bad day at the office. The adjustments made in set 4 to get her a smaller block worked out

Texas led 24-22, but now LSU has set point at 25-24. Texas lowers their level to their opponent. 

Edited by perfectchaos007

25-21 Texas in set 2. A late successful challenge by JE turned the set in our favor 

Edited by perfectchaos007

Finally playing Texas volleyball in set 3. Texas has served a couple of aces in this set.

16-9 Texas 

LSU is out of timeouts 

4 minutes ago, perfectchaos007 said:

LSU is out of timeouts 

This is the best post in this thread in awhile. Too many goddamn regular season stoppages in this sport. 

  • Author
17 minutes ago, perfectchaos007 said:

25-18 Texas in set 3. Sweeep!

Thanks for covering. Was out hiking 

3 minutes ago, Js1 said:

Thanks for covering. Was out hiking 

It was an ugly first two sets, particularly our hitting. Some passing issues to boot. 3rd set we looked much more in sync

  • Author

Wednesday

TCU @ ASU, 7pm, ESPNU
USC @ UCLA, 9pm, BTN

Friday
SMU @ UNC, 5pm, ACCN
Texas @ aggy, 6:30pm, SECN+ (boo)
Nebraska @ Wisconsin, 7pm, BTN

Saturday
USC @ Minnesota, 8pm, B1G+
Marquette @ Creighton, 7pm, FS1

Sunday
Kentucky @ Texas, 12pm, ESPN
Pitt @ UNC, 12pm, ACCN
Oregon @ Nebraska, 1pm, BTN
aggy @ Tennessee, 2pm, ESPN2
Indiana @ Penn State, 3pm, BTN

I’m having a bad feeling about this week. We’re up against 2 quality opponents and haven’t been playing our best recently. Hope my gut is wrong. 

  • Author

This is going to feel like the most NCAA type of weekend for our team - back to back second weekend quality opponents with 1 day in between

4 hours ago, TonyTexas said:

I’m having a bad feeling about this week. We’re up against 2 quality opponents and haven’t been playing our best recently. Hope my gut is wrong. 

I want to find out how good this team is. 

We saw they were better prepared than the tough early season schedule they faced...but not by a lot. Came back from 5 points down in the 5th set against both Stanford and Louisville, both quality Elite Eight type of teams. I think Louisville has the potential to make it to the Final Four, depending on their bracket and how they do in the regional finals. They won't be a regional host at this point, but they'll likely be seeded somewhere #7 through #10. 

Coming back from 5 points down late in a set is extremely difficult in volleyball. 

At the same time, Texas has weaknesses. Our serving isn't overly impressive (it's not bad, per se, but there are several servers in the rotation who do not put consistent pressure on the defense). Our middle production is practically nonexistent, especially when you compare it to past teams. But we're trying to get better. We're running the slide more right now than we did last year (that's where the middle blocker moves from her middle of the net position to run to the right and attack the ball at the right pin). We don't look particularly smooth with any of the middle blockers, but Ames is getting a fair amount of swings on the play.

Harvey and Swindle have a terrible connection, to the point where Swindle doesn't even set her all that much when she's on the floor. Which is a shame, because that's Harvey's strength right now. 

We have good to excellent pin hitters at all 3 positions. Stafford is a national player of the year candidate. Probably needs Pitt to not make the Final Four, or it's going to former teammate Babcock, but she might be second in line. Spears is a legitimate national freshman of the year, a force of nature at times out of the backrow. Very few players in the country regardless of classification are as intimidating with their back row attack as she is. Of course, we do take her off the court for the double sub, but that's been effective, too. 

I feel like Vander Wal is coming into her own, lately. 

We have a never say die back row defense, with Gary a living breathing Sportscenter highlight reel.

We're better with our tip coverage than I can remember. It's not 100%, but it's pretty good. Especially on resets where our hitter hits it softly off the opponent block to reset the possession. 

Everyone seems bought in, including players like Harvey and Bunton, who are having to alternate starting, and Kahahawai, who is playing part time her senior season. 

Swindle has had some rough sets in setting the ball, including those first two sets at LSU, but she came on in the 3rd set, and Binney produced the vast majority of her assists in the 2nd set, so it all worked out for the win. 

I don't know if we'll win either match this weekend, but both of them will be great tests. Let's find out what we have at this point in the season. I have a lot of belief in this team. I never feel like we're going to lose a set, no matter how far behind we are, and the team seems to feel the same way. At the same time, I always feel confident we're going to lose at least ONE set, or go extended points at some point, because that's how we do things this year.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Edited by SL Xpress

1 hour ago, Js1 said:

This is going to feel like the most NCAA type of weekend for our team - back to back second weekend quality opponents with 1 day in between

The way this week’s schedule and timing fell, did us no favors.

aggy plays at #16 Tennessee on Sunday after playing us.

1 minute ago, Cairn Horn88 said:

The way this week’s schedule and timing fell, did us no favors.

aggy plays at #16 Tennessee on Sunday after playing us.

I don't think it's bad for the team. It gives them a chance to figure out what their routine would look like for Thurs/Sat Fri/Sun regionals. I think it's good.

I think it's terrible for me as a fan. The two most anticipated matches of conference play are back to back. I would have preferred to spread them out a bit. 

ESPN just upgraded the match on Friday night to SECN, which is awesome! It was a minor irritation to me it was going to be streamed. 

  • Author
1 hour ago, Cairn Horn88 said:

The way this week’s schedule and timing fell, did us no favors.

It is what it is, no reason to cry about it now. 

The SEC Cari Spears of the Week award, given to the most outstanding freshman, was given to Cari Spears this week. Her fifth time this season. 

  • Author

Texas faces the other non-Texas award winners this week -

POW - Cassie O'Brien (S, Kentucky) and Brooklyn DeLeye (OH, Kentucky)
DPOW - Ifenna Cos-Okpolla (MB, aggy)
SOW - Cassie O'Brien (S, Kentucky)

Texas’ Cari Spears, a freshman outside hitter from Frisco, Texas, owned a .373 hitting percentage and averaged 4.79 points and 4.57 kills per set over two wins on the road for the Longhorns. Spears posted 16 kills on a .351 clip with nine digs and two blocks to her credit in the four-set victory at Ole Miss. She then hit .400 on 16 kills and added four digs and one block in the sweep at LSU to help Texas improve to 18-0 and 10-0 in conference play.

Edited by Js1

  • Author
2 minutes ago, Mittens said:

I want the W at aggy so damn bad...

Also need to even up the Lone Star Cup thingy.... aggy up 1-0 from soccer. 

  • Author

The SEC really backloaded the schedules - Texas has aggy, Kentucky, Florida, Auburn, South Carolina to finish. 4 of the 6 in the top half of the SEC

aggy has Texas, Tennessee, Florida, Auburn, Georgia.  All 5 opponents are in the top half of the conference

Kentucky got set up right - they only have Texas and Tennessee among the top half of the conference left, with Missouri, OU and arkansas the other 3. 

Edited by Js1

  • Author

Texas has to:

  • Get aggy out of system so Cos-Okpolla can't just destroy us offensively
  • Stay in system so that Swindle can spread it around and Cos-Okpolla can't just camp out on AVW/Stafford
  • Ensure Gary and Halter are both in the back row when Lednicky is in the front row - need all the help defensively we can get
  • Need to target their shorter blockers when they are in the front row - 5'10 setter Waak, 6'1 MB Perkins, 5'11 OH Stowers

We have played some fast offenses - our block is a little slow to deal with it, so our backrow defense has to be really good. 

Funny enough, we played like crap in CS and won 3-1 last year, with a much more experienced team - we got outblocked 14-5 and outdug 52-49 and we had 5 more hitting errors than aggy.  Also only hit .175 to their .185. 

If we can ugly the match up, I like our chances to win it solely due to our backrow defense and our ability to terminate slightly better than aggy (.278 hitting % in SEC play for aggy, .327 for Texas)

Edited by Js1

On 10/28/2025 at 9:15 AM, Js1 said:

Funny enough, we played like crap in CS and won 3-1 last year, with a much more experienced team - we got outblocked 14-5 and outdug 52-49 and we had 5 more hitting errors than aggy.  Also only hit .175 to their .185. 

If we can ugly the match up, I like our chances to win it solely due to our backrow defense and our ability to terminate slightly better than aggy (.278 hitting % in SEC play for aggy, .327 for Texas)

Wait, I thought we lost 3-2 in College Station last year?  

Oh heck just checked and we played them twice.  The loss was in Austin.

Why the heck did we play several teams twice last year, and not this year? 

  • Author
4 minutes ago, utee94 said:

Wait, I thought we lost 3-2 in College Station last year?  

Oh heck just checked and we played them twice.  The loss was in Austin.

Why the heck did we play several teams twice last year, and not this year? 

Vanderbilt didn’t play volleyball until this season  - play everyone once now + SEC VB tournament 

Edited by Js1

Really hope a bit more rest going into this weekend has us sharper than we've looked against a few pedestrian opponents lately. Halter and Gary will need to scramble like mad, especially tonight.

  • Author
2 hours ago, Gut Wagon said:

Really hope a bit more rest going into this weekend has us sharper than we've looked against a few pedestrian opponents lately. Halter and Gary will need to scramble like mad, especially tonight.

Rested AND this team has been more big-game mercenaries - they tend to play up to better competition. 

Sadly will be out tonight for WS Game 6 and Halloween, so can't do the pxp.  Fucking putting one of our biggest SEC matches on Halloween, so dumb. 

  • Author

And VolleyTalk, which usually hates the shit out of us, has about 60% picking Texas to win 

A&M doesn't have any big time wins. They have some good wins, and they've taken care of business. Other than it's A&M, I like this Aggie team, and I like Morrison as a head coach. He's bootstrapped a relationship with Houston Skyline (he hired their founder as an assistant) into building a good talent pipeline. And he has a reputation as a good coach. Served as the volunteer assistant at Texas for two years on the same staff as Sullivan and Tonya Johnson.

The Aggies are 17-3, with losses to SMU, TCU (when the Horned Frogs were playing better), and Kentucky. 

The Kentucky match, also at Reed Arena, was competitive. The Wildcats won 3-1, but the 4th set was extended points, 27-25. 

Their best wins were Minnesota in the first match of the season, before the Gophers suffered a bunch of season ending injuries. Utah, when the Utes were ranked (they may not get into the tournament now). Missouri, when the Tigers were ranked (they probably won't get into the tournament).

They face Tennessee on Sunday while we're playing Kentucky. Then they head to Gainesville a week from Wednesday to take on the Gators. A&M is in contention to host the first two rounds, but they need to win some of these matches. If they win out the rest of the way, including the SEC tournament, with only 3 losses they'd have a chance to be the regional host.

Tonight's match is going to say a lot about both squads. It will be a good test. 

  • Author
Just now, Cairn Horn88 said:

Halloween in College Station is going to be a really spooky place to be and play…..

They’re clowns 24/7/365 tho 

Playing defensively to this point. Aggy is predictably fired up, leads 17-14. 

Edited by Gut Wagon

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