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Posted

I do not know all the intricacies of coach challenges in volleyball and don’t watch many games (daughter started youth vball a few years ago and we try to get to at least one UT game a season) but I was surprised how many challenges were successful. 

Posted
4 hours ago, TonyTexas said:

I’m a relatively new college volleyball aficionado and really didn’t realize what a force Florida volleyball has been in the past. 

They recently fell out of the top 25 for the first time since 1991. 1991!

Mary Wise is a legitimate legend, who just retired.

They've had some tough breaks the last couple of years. Two years ago they looked like a legitimate national championship contender - the year Texas mowed through 3 #1 seeds in a row to win it all - when they're starting stud true freshman setter tore her ACL really bad and was lost for the season. It's funny, because they lost their 1st team All American stud right side attacker to Nebraska in Merritt Beason. Little did any of us know they had true freshman Kennedy Martin waiting in the wings who makes Cari Spears look like a piker. 

Then Martin transfers to Penn State. 

Last year they had chemistry issues. Eventually Mary Wise called it quits. Without Martin they don't have a balanced attack. Theis did a really good job at Marquette before taking the Florida gig. He was a former assistant in Gainesville back in 2006-2008 before starting his head coaching career at Ohio. But I am not feeling him at Florida. 

Kentucky is a relatively new bully on the block for the SEC. Before current head coach Skinner got there, they were nothing. Before that, Florida ruled the roost.

There's a famous call/non call in the volleyball world. In the 2015 tournament match in the regional finals in Austin, Florida and Texas were battling in the 5th set. The score was 7-6 in favor of Texas, when Florida's OH hit a ball that landed within a couple of feet of the end line, but the official called it out. Texas would go on to win the 5th set in extended points, 17-15.

It was a pivotal moment in adding some kind of challenge system to allow obvious blown calls to be reversed, which eventually evolved to the system we have in place now.

They never did win a national championship under Wise, but she coached for 34 seasons, won 1068 games, made it to 8 Final Fours, and won a remarkable 25 SEC conference championships. 

As a comparison, Elliott has now won 675 matches in 26 years as a head coach. 

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Posted
26 minutes ago, RexWilson said:

I do not know all the intricacies of coach challenges in volleyball and don’t watch many games (daughter started youth vball a few years ago and we try to get to at least one UT game a season) but I was surprised how many challenges were successful. 

Watching the Florida-Kentucky match earlier, Kentucky head coach Craig Skinner finally lost his first challenge in conference play. He's now successfully challenged 8 out of 9 calls I believe, and 15 out of 19 on the season including non conference play. 

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Posted

That was one of our worst defense matches (OU hit .278, and it was north of .300 until the fourth set) and we still won in 4. And should have swept, if not for some questionable setting choices by Ella in set 3 (going to Cari instead of Stafford or the middles at the end) 

OU hit .481 in set 1 (and lost) and .313 in the only set they did win.  .043 in set 4

Texas +9 in kills, +10 in aces, -7.5 in blocks, +7 in digs, +4 in SE (aka, had 4 fewer than OU)

Stafford hit .417 (17-2-36) and AVW hit .400 (15-5-25)

Pedestrian match for Cari (13-7-26, .231)

Ames and Harvey were abysmal - 4-2-14 (.143) for Ames and 3-4-7 (-.143) for Harvey.  Thank god for Nya - 4-1-5 (.600)

Harvey needs to pick it up or Bunton is going to reclaim her starting role - she was really good in set 4, both blocking and hitting. 

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Posted

Back to back for our girl! Keeps the streak of Texas award winners going 

 

SEC Co-Setters of the Week 

Texas’ Ella Swindle, a junior from Columbia, Mo., helped the Longhorns hit .323 over two wins this past weekend to remain undefeated. In the sweep over Arkansas, Texas hit .340 for the match as Swindle posted 23 assists along with eight digs, one kill and one block. She then added 41 assists, six digs, four aces and one kill against Oklahoma.

 

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Posted

Halter - 2
Stafford - 5
Spears - 6
AVW - 1
Swindle - 3

The broadcast mentioned that prior to this week's awards, Texas had 16 and the next closest was Kentucky with like 5

So Ella makes it 17 for Texas and Kentucky picked up 2 this week (co-Defense and Freshman) for a total of 7

Texas SEC Awards:

Emma Halter –Overall and Defensive Player of the Week | 9/1/2025

Torrey Stafford – Overall and Offensive Player of the Week | 9/8/2025

Cari Spears – Freshman of the Week | 9/8/2025

Cari Spears – Overall and Freshman of the Week | 9/15/2025

Ella Swindle – Setter of the Week | 9/22/2025

Cari Spears – Overall and Freshman of the Week | 9/22/2025

Torrey Stafford – Co-Offensive Player of the Week | 9/29/2025

Abby Vander Wal – Co-Freshman of the Week | 9/29/2025  

Cari Spears – Co-Freshman of the Week | 10/6/2025

Torrey Stafford – Overall and Offensive Player of the Week | 10/13/2025

Ella Swindle – Setter of the Week | 10/13/25

Ella Swindle – Setter of the Week | 10/20/25

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Posted

Frede and Ehman were gassing up Shelton all fucking night.  It was kind of annoying. 

Sure, she had a good match (22-7-41, 4 blocks, 7 digs) but the whole "she committed to OU and stayed at OU solely to beat Texas" shit was dumb. 

2025 - L 1-3
2024 - W, 3-2 / L, 0-3
2023 - L, 0-3 / L, 0-3
2022 - L, 0-3 / L, 0-3

So congrats girl, you went 1-6 versus Texas in your career and won a whopping 4 sets in 7 matches. Your ass got swept 5 times. 

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Posted (edited)
9 hours ago, Cairn Horn88 said:

#2 Texas @  Ole Miss  Fri 7:00  SECN

#2 Texas @ LSU   Sun. SECN+

#9 aggy @  LSU  Fri 7:00. SECN+

#9 aggy @ Ole Miss  Sun. 2:00  SECN+

Other good matches

Wednesday
10 TCU @ 14 Kansas, 6pm, FS1
OU @ Florida, 6pm, SECN+

Thursday
17 BYU @ 19 Baylor, 7pm, ESPN+

Friday
20 Minnesota @ 22 Indiana, 5pm, BTN
3 Kentucky @ MSST, 6pm, SECN+
11 Purdue @ Illinois, 7pm
12 Wisconsin @ Washington, 9pm, BTN

Saturday
17 BYU @ 10 TCU, 1pm, ESPN+
Michigan State @ 1 Nebraska, 7:30pm, BTN

Sunday
20 Minnesota @ 11 Purdue, 12pm, B1G+
Auburn @ OU, 12pm, SECN
8 Louisville @ 21 UNC, 2pm, ESPN
16 Tennessee @ MSST, 4pm, SECN+

Edited by Js1
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Posted
1 hour ago, Js1 said:

Frede and Ehman were gassing up Shelton all fucking night.  It was kind of annoying. 

Sure, she had a good match (22-7-41, 4 blocks, 7 digs) but the whole "she committed to OU and stayed at OU solely to beat Texas" shit was dumb. 

2025 - L 1-3
2024 - W, 3-2 / L, 0-3
2023 - L, 0-3 / L, 0-3
2022 - L, 0-3 / L, 0-3

So congrats girl, you went 1-6 versus Texas in your career and won a whopping 4 sets in 7 matches. Your ass got swept 5 times. 

In her own way, she's nearly as annoying as Jayda Coleman was. And that was pretty annoying. Both great players, but the kind any opponent loved to see lose. 

Posted
6 minutes ago, Gut Wagon said:

In her own way, she's nearly as annoying as Jayda Coleman was. And that was pretty annoying. Both great players, but the kind any opponent loved to see lose. 

Jayda Coleman backed it up by destroying Texas for years and winning championships lol. Shelton may want to try to make the tourney for consecutive seasons. 

Posted
6 hours ago, Js1 said:

Jayda Coleman backed it up by destroying Texas for years and winning championships lol. Shelton may want to try to make the tourney for consecutive seasons. 

Coleman and Brito both were elite individual players and champions, but their over-the-top histrionics annoyed me to no end. Jennings I saw as a classier opponent, for what little it's worth. But no one really cares. 

How much Shelton really hates Texas I have no idea, but there must be something there for it to have come up in the broadcast. Did Elliott not recruit her? Did her parents or HS coach attend one of our rival schools? 

Posted
52 minutes ago, Gut Wagon said:

Coleman and Brito both were elite individual players and champions, but their over-the-top histrionics annoyed me to no end. Jennings I saw as a classier opponent, for what little it's worth. But no one really cares. 

How much Shelton really hates Texas I have no idea, but there must be something there for it to have come up in the broadcast. Did Elliott not recruit her? Did her parents or HS coach attend one of our rival schools? 

She's from Charlotte, NC.  Her bio says her mom ran track at Clemson and her dad ran track at Southern Illinois

She was the 80th ranked player in the class of 2022 and Devin was our only OH take that year (4th ranked player in Prep Dig)

Posted
On 10/21/2025 at 2:20 PM, Gut Wagon said:

Coleman and Brito both were elite individual players and champions, but their over-the-top histrionics annoyed me to no end. Jennings I saw as a classier opponent, for what little it's worth. But no one really cares. 

How much Shelton really hates Texas I have no idea, but there must be something there for it to have come up in the broadcast. Did Elliott not recruit her? Did her parents or HS coach attend one of our rival schools? 

In sports now, and even more so in ladies’ sports, how can you even tell what are over the top histrionics?

Posted
On 10/22/2025 at 7:51 PM, shadow_operative2.0 said:

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That sucks for our RPI, but Baylor helped by taking down BYU 

Posted
15 hours ago, Js1 said:

That sucks for our RPI, but Baylor helped by taking down BYU 

 

It feels like our seeding is pretty locked in at this point unless we lose a whole lot of matches. We're either going to be #1 or #2, and the only way we get #1 is to go undefeated, and maybe we don't get it even then. I'm fine with that. A #2 overall seed and hosting regionals would be an outstanding result, IMO. 

I would also like to win the SEC regular season. The tournament is not as important to me, other than we're playing in it, so might as well get a trophy out of it. 

First thing is next week. This week's matches against Ole Miss and LSU feels like the calm before the storm. 

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Posted
3 minutes ago, SL Xpress said:

This week's matches against Ole Miss and LSU feels like the calm before the storm

Yep, because next up is A&M, Kentucky, Florida, Auburn and that stretch is going to decide the conference

It's funny - it sounds scary, but is it any more difficult than Stanford, Louisville, ASU, TCU, Baylor stretch.  That was 4 top 10 teams in a row and a top 20 Baylor.

This is top 10, top 5, unranked, unranked, but it is scarier due to being 3/4 on the road.  But we should feel very prepared.

Posted

I don't get all that concerned about Auburn.

Florida plays up and down, but we're decidedly more talented. The Gators do not play up to their potential most matches.

A&M is in College Station. That environment is going to be insane. Plus they're good. Lednicky is outstanding. Their middle blocker is outstanding. They have some other nice parts. 

Kentucky is in Gregory. They're almost certainly going to be a regional host. I'm looking forward to that one, and feel like we can win, but that's a test for how we'll perform in the Elite Eight and beyond. Could easily face them two more times this season. 

We waxed TCU and Baylor so thoroughly. Probably our peak performances this season. 

Posted
11 minutes ago, TonyTexas said:

Assuming we host a regional, would that be at Moody or Gregory?

Almost certainly at Gregory. I guess I could be surprised. Billy Strings is scheduled for Dec 13, and regionals is held Dec 11-14. 

All regional hosts are required to install a taraflex court or they can't hold regionals. But I'm assuming they're going to rent a court for Gregory and just hold it there.

I could see future regionals being held at Moody, but probably not this year. I know the contract for Moody gives UT access to the building only so many times a year so they can host other events the rest of the year, but I don't know all the logistics around it. 

It seems like they'd have to organize something in advance, though, and there's definitely been no word on it. It was a big deal to host the Stanford match in there, and tickets sold out remarkably fast for that. 

There's also the issue of donors having their preferred seats. The selection for seats works differently at Moody, so there would be some upset volleyball fans to deal with. Not that it couldn't be worked around, but the more advance notice probably the better. 

Posted
35 minutes ago, TonyTexas said:

That will be a tough ticket. 

2022 was the last time we hosted a regional. Like Wolf Brand Chili used to tell us, that's too long.

But the matches then were crazy. The match against Ohio State in the Elite Eight was packed to the gills. It set the record for Gregory Gym at 5344. I feel confident there were some successful bribes to the fire marshals that day. 

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