THE MATCHUP
The Longhorns and Wildcats are scheduled for a showdown of the ages in the 20th ever meeting between the two teams. Texas owns the 15-4 advantage over Kentucky and took the last meeting in a sweep in Lexington last season. The Longhorns have won five the last six matches dating back to 1994. Sunday’s match will be the 11th ranked match of the season and seventh against a top-10 opponent. It’s also the second time this season Texas will go back-to-back against opponents in the top-10. LEADING LONGHORNS
Texas leads the nation in kills per set (14.96) and assists per set (13.93). UT also ranks second in the NCAA with a .311 hitting percentage – first in the league. SEC HEAVY HITTERS
Texas leads the conference in the aforementioned categories, but the Wildcats also bring the heat, limiting its opponent’s to a conference low .160 hitting percentage. The Longhorns faced A&M, the second-best defense in the conference (.172) and recorded a .329 hitting percentage in the five-set thriller. Kentucky also leads the SEC in digs per set at 14.90 to Texas’s 14.10.
BATTLE OF THE LONGEST TENURED HEAD COACHES
The two longest tenured coaches in the SEC will share the court on Sunday with Jerritt Elliott leading the conference in his 27th year of coaching and 25th at Texas. On the other side of the net, Skinner enters his 21st season in his career and all at Kentucky. Coach Elliott ranks fifth among power four schools in active year to Skinner who is tied for 10th. Elliott boasts a 3-1 advantage against Skinner.
CURRENT RANKED WINS
The No. 2 ranked Longhorns own the toughest non-con schedule in the country and hold the toughest RPI. Texas’ nine ranked wins (No. 12 Creighton, No. 8 Wisconsin, No. 6 Stanford, No. 4 Louisville, No. 9 Arizona State, No. 9 TCU, No. 21 Baylor, No. 21 Missouri, and No. 17 Tennessee) is the most through 14 games in program history and surpassed the number of ranked wins last season (5).
RANKED SUCCESS
UT owns a 167-63 (.726) record against ranked opponents over the last 21 seasons (2004-24) and boasts a 76-15 (.835) home mark against ranked opponents at Gregory Gymnasium and the Frank Erwin Center (3-0) during that span. The Longhorns are now 1-0 against ranked opponents when playing at Moody Center in Austin, Texas. The Longhorns finished 5-3 last season against ranked opponents.
DOUBLE DOUBLE MACHINE
In 19 matches, Torrey Stafford has recorded nine double doubles in the Burnt Orange uniform. She totaled six during the entire 2024 season and only four her freshman season at Pitt. Ella Swindle is second on the team with five, while Emma Halter and Cari Spears each have one. To compare, Madisen Skinner led the Longhorns last season with eight total. Friday’s match against Texas A&M marked the third time this season the Longhorns recorded two in a single match – No. 9 Arizona State (Halter and Swindle) and No. 17 Tennessee (Spears and Swindle)
ALL-SEC LONGHORNS
Torrey Stafford and Emma Halter were both named to the Preseason All-SEC First Team, tied for the second-most selections with LSU and Texas A&M. Kentucky led the league with four selections. The Longhorns have earned 15 weekly awards after nine weeks of competition:
Emma Halter – Player & Defensive Player
Torrey Stafford – Player of the Week x2
– Offensive Player x3
Cari Spears – Freshman of the Week x5
– Player of the Week x2
Ella Swindle – Setter of the Week x3
Abby Vander Wal – Freshman of the Week
Texas is the lone team in the conference who’s earned at least one weekly SEC award every week highlighted by five-straight weeks with freshman of the week (Sept. 8 – Oct. 6) honors. Spears is the lone athlete in the conference this year with five individual weekly honors. There has only been seven freshmen since 2005 to have five or more honors and just four with more than five.
DOUBLE ‘S’ WATCH LIST
Torrey Stafford, a 2024 AVCA First Team All-American, was named to the 2025 AVCA National Player of the Year Watch List and remains on its updated season list. Stafford was an AVCA National Player of the Year Semifinalist in 2024. Freshman Cari Spears was added to the AVCA Player of the Year addition list after her breakout start to the season with the Horns.
ROAD HORNS
The Longhorns have won 58 of their last 61 road matches dating back to the 2019 season. Texas went on a 13-0 run on the road after two seasons in road conference matches in the SEC before suffering its first loss at Texas A&M (10/31). Before that, the last true road conference loss came against Kansas State (Big 12) on Nov. 8, 2023, marking 14-straight road conference wins for UT. Since the 2011 season Texas has produced a 133-24 (.847) record in true road matches, with only seven of those losses coming to unranked teams.
MILESTONES COLLECTED AND TO WATCH
Torrey Stafford recorded her 1000th career kill in the win against Arkansas and surpassed 600 career digs at Ole Miss. Cari Spears and Abby Vander Wal have reached 200 kills as freshmen and Ella Swindle surpassed 400 career digs against OU and needs 34 assists to reach the 2,000 career marker. Emma Halter now has 100 career aces and moved into No. 10 on the UT All-Time career digs list with 1,159. She also needs 27 aces to No. 10 on the UT list.
SPEARING THE COMPETITION
Freshman Cari Spears has recorded 240 kills, averages 3.48 per set and is hitting .314 in her first 19 collegiate starts – there are only nine freshmen in the NCAA with more kills per set. After A&M, Spears has now recorded double-digit kills in four consecutive matches and has 15 total matches with the feat. Only Torrey Stafford has more at 16 on the team. Spears has won the SEC Freshman of the Week five times, the SEC Player of the Week twice and was named the AVCA Player of the Week once.
TEXAS DRAW
In the second match of the season, Wisconsin hosted the Longhorns in front of 11,678 fans for a then-fifth highest attended match in Badger history. The fans followed UT when they traveled to Houston and broke Rice’s attendance record with 3,017 people. Later in the season, Georgia set its then-season high in attendance at 4,518. Last on the list, Mississippi State set their then-12th highest attended match with 962 fans. Texas continued to draw attention when they won at Ole Miss with the then-season high attendance total of 1,035. Baton Rouge was no different with Texas helping LSU set its third-largest attendance in Tiger history with 2,632 fans. Texas set the LSU attendance record in 2024 with 3,885. All eyes were on the Lone Star State in the Cotton Holdings Showdown when Reed Arena set a new attendance record at 9,801 fans.
ABBY VANDER WAL(L)
Freshman Abby Vander Wal has flourished in recents matches on both sides of the net. Since the home match against No. 17 Tennesse, Vander Wal has totaled 98 kills in the last seven matches. She’s recorded double digit kills in six of the last seven matches, including a career high 21 on the road at Ole Miss and hit over .400. Against one of the toughest defenses in the NCAA, Vander Wal recorded 19 kills and hit .389 at Texas A&M. She’s recorded double digit kills in 13 of 19 matches.
HAWAII TO THE FORTY
Since 2007, the Longhorns roster has seen eight student-athletes see the court by way of Hawaii to the Forty Acres: Sydney Yogi – 2008-2011, Sarah Palmer 2010-2013, Kat Brooks – 2012-2015, Jhenna Gabriel – 2018-2021, Saige Ka’aha’aina-Torres – 2021-22, Keonilei Akana – 2022-24, Devin Kahahawai – 2022-present and Rella Binney- 2024-present).
AVCA LOVE
Texas has now earned two AVCA Player of the Week awards this season – Torrey Stafford (9/9) and Cari Spears (9/23) – totaling to 14 all-time. The duo join the list of nine other Longhorns to ever be awarded the AVCA honor: Demetria Sance (1998), Jill Gremmel (1999), Michelle Moriaty (2006), Destine Hooker (2007), Ashley Engle (2009), Jullian Faucette (2010), Haley Eckerman – 2x (2012, 2013) Logan Eggleston – 3x (2021, 2022) and Skylar Fields (2021).
RANKINGS
Texas remains ranked No. 2 in the AVCA / Taraflex National Rankings after 10 weeks. The Longhorns began the 2025 season as the No. 5 ranked team in the AVCA Preseason Coaches’ Poll. The Longhorns have been ranked in both the top five in 19 of the past 21 seasons and the top 10 in 20 of the last 21 preseason rankings. Texas, who was picked second in the SEC Coaches’ Poll, is one of six SEC teams in the top-25 as Kentucky is ranked No. 3, Texas A&M stayed at No. 9 and Tennessee stayed at No. 16, while Florida moved back into the poll at No. 25.
HOME CROWD ADVANTAGE
The Longhorns extended their sell-out streak to 49-straight matches dating back to the 2022 season and rank fourth-nationally this season with an average attendance of 4,867 in nine matches. Texas ranked seventh last season with an average attendance of 4,393 in 14 home matches and sold out all 14 home matches. In the 2022 NCAA Regional Final against Ohio State, Texas set a Gregory Gym attendance record with a crowd of 5,344. Texas set a new attendance record when they hosted Stanford at Moody Center at 10,899.
SO FROSH
The Longhorns have seen three freshmen (Harvey, Spears, Vander Wal) break into the rotation in their debut season. Cari Spears has started all 19 matches for Texas on the rightside, while Taylor Harvey (MB) has started 13. Abby Vander Wal has entered competition as dynamic hitter on offense. Combined, they’ve totaled 49.2% of the Texas kills (508).
SUCCESS AT THE TOP
Texas has been the model of consistency for well over a decade now, being the only Division I volleyball program to have ended each of the last 19 seasons ranked in the top 10. The Longhorns have also finished in the top 5 in 15 of the last 18 seasons, including 11-straight years from 2008-18. Texas also has the nation’s longest active streak of NCAA Regional Semifinal (“Sweet 16”) appearances with 19-straight. Of the last 19 regional semifinal appearances, the Longhorns have advanced to 18 NCAA Regional Finals, 12 National Semifinals and eight National Championship matches.
NEW ERA ON THE FORTY
Texas Volleyball embarked on a new era in the SEC and came just short of winning the conference title in the program’s first season. The Longhorns have a long history of conference dominance with 29 all-time league championships, including 16 Big 12 titles and 13 Southwest Conference Championships. The Longhorns’ 2023 league title was a record seventh-straight Big 12 Championship, who won or shared 12 of the last 13 championships and 15 of the last 17. Texas departed the Big 12 Conference having won more league championships than any other program.
MIDDLE BLOCKER U
For more than two decades under head coach Jerritt Elliott, the Longhorns have had a legacy of All-American middle blockers starting with Leticia Armstrong (2003-08) and Brandy Magee (2003-07) before continuing on with Lauren Paolini (2005-08), Rachael Adams (2008-11), Khat Bell (2011-14), Molly McCage (2012-15), Chiaka Ogbogu (2013-17), Brionne Butler (2017-21) and Asjia O’Neal (2019-23). These nine All-American middle blockers earned a total of 25 All-America honors dating back to 2005. Sophomore Ayden Ames became the Longhorns’ first starting true freshman middle blocker since Chiaka Ogbogu in 2013. The Longhorns finished third nationally with 2.89 blocks per set last season, with double-digit blocks in 21 of the 32 matches last season.Taylor Harvey joins Ames as a true freshman starting as the middle blocker in 13 of the 19 matches. Nya Bunton has also started six matches this season. The three have totaled 124 of the teams blocks.
