Call Your Shot
Serving up some predictions for the season
After a long offseason, we’ve finally arrived at the opening serve for the Texas Longhorns 2025 volleyball regular season. At this point, you’ve endured our ramblings on roster moves, match previews, the Pan American tournament, why we personally hate dozens of other schools, and even updates on some pro players.
Yes, it’s been a long time coming. The volleyball offseason coincides with many major sports’ offseasons - and for most of us, without the prospect of long warm afternoons free from school to ride our bikes around the neighborhood, summer just doesn’t hit quite the same anymore and there’s no trade-off for the lack of good sports (Brittany finds the MLB regular season to be a slog, and Josh is a Rockies fan - so it hasn’t been a good summer for either of them).
So we are excited to be at this point. We’re going to guess that you are too. And to commemorate, we’re going out on a limb with some predictions for the upcoming season!
Who is in tonight’s starting line-up?
Josh: I’ll start with what should be obvious to just about everyone at this point. Ella Swindle at setter, Torrey Stafford as the six rotation outside hitter, and the tandem of Ayden Ames and Nya Bunton at middle blocker. From there, it gets to be a bit more intriguing. I still favor Emma Halter over Ramsey Gary to hold onto the black libero jersey, but I think Ramsey made that more of a competition than some of us Halter truthers would like to admit. All indications seem to be pointing towards Abby Vander Wal playing OH2, and I expect that to be the case from the jump tonight. My one difference from the Utah exhibition is that I am going to go out on a limb and say Devin Kahahawai starts at opposite. Cari Spears is clearly the future there, but I’m gonna predict Jerritt goes to the senior first just to ease into the season. I could still picture Cari playing a lot this weekend even if she isn’t on the floor for the first rotation tonight.
S - Ella Swindle
OH1 - Torrey Stafford
OH2 - Abby Vander Wal
MB1 - Ayden Ames
MB2 - Nya Bunton
OPP - Devin Kahahawai
L - Emma Halter
Brittany: Yea, this seems about right to me. I could see Taylor Harvey possibly getting some starts over Bunton in the future, and I agree that Spears probably moves into that starting OPP position once she gets some true collegiate sets under her belt and the game slows a bit for her. But this is a pretty solid starting lineup for where the roster stands today. Don’t overlook the rotations at libero though: I think Gary could give Halter a run for her money and will get at least a few starts this season. Here’s hoping that competition in the locker room raises the play of both Halter and Gary.
J: One bit of speculation I’ve seen for the Halter/Gary debate is that Halter could wear the libero jersey but play middle back. Traditionally, the libero plays left back, but there’s nothing that strictly requires that. You could see Gary play libero in the sense of the position but Halter wearing the jersey for it even if she’s physically not in the left back spot. That allows Jerritt to reward Halter for a strong, reliable career while allowing Gary to play the spot she’s most comfortable in. We’ve seen Emma be strong in the middle back during the 2022 national title run when she was playing alongside Zoe Fleck.
What are the results from this weekend’s matches against Creighton and Wisconsin?
B: I’m gonna be a bit of a realist (or pessimist?) here and call Texas going 1 and 1 this weekend, with both matches going to five sets. I think the vets on the squad have had Creighton on their radar since learning there’d be a rematch this year, but it will be a slugfest. Texas takes the match against the Bluejays but lags a bit late in the match against Wisconsin two days later, and the Badgers squeeze out the win. I think Texas takes the head-to-head against Wisconsin in most cases, but this is an early season 1-2 punch that the Longhorns just aren’t prepared to take. Yet. Growing pains, and a healthy dose of modesty. I don’t think pulling out of the weekend in Madison with a .500 record hurts the Horns at all really, and will give the team a bit of an edge when Stanford comes to Austin.
J: I think I’d definitely feel okay about coming out of Madison 1-1, but I’d feel more weird about dropping to Creighton and beating Wisconsin than I would vice versa. I think my heart wants the revenge against the Blue Jays more than I’m concerned about beating Wisconsin. My head already hurts just thinking about dropping a five-set match after last season’s pain with those long slugfests. At the very least, I know I’ll be fine as long as we don’t leave 0-2. That won’t be a five-alarm fire necessarily, but vibes will definitely be down if that’s how the season starts.
B: I’m a bit worried if we go 0-2 in Madison this weekend. Only breathing room we have after that is a match against Rice down in Houston, and suddenly Stanford is here in Moody. I don’t want to imagine how that shifts that atmosphere if we face the Cardinal sitting at 1-2. I also don’t think that is going to happen,
If not Texas, who wins the SEC in the regular season?
J: I’d love to continue mocking the Aggies, but after doing the preview for them this offseason, I think they’re a very legitimate threat not only in the SEC but also on a national level. It’s often in their nature to falter down the stretch even when they are otherwise real contenders, but I think Texas A&M has the talent and experience this year to overcome themselves. Logan Lednicky is my sleep paralysis demon.
B: A&M has some legit firepower this year, but I’m gonna go a bit wild and go with Florida as the potential dark horse candidate for taking the SEC this year. Florida really hit a good rhythm for the final month of the regular season last year, and they have a ton of returning talent from that run that should only play even better as a squad with another offseason under their belts. Outside hitter Jordyn Byrd transferred to the Gators from Texas to get closer to home and I think she’ll compliment their roster very well.
J: Man, Air Byrd looked phenomenal for spurts of the AVCA First Serve Showcase last weekend. I’m interested to see if that continues or if teams start to figure her and the Florida offense out as the season wears on. Kennedy Martin leaving Gainesville and heading to Penn State takes away from the potential threats that the Gators can provide this year, I think
What about the SEC tournament?
B: This one’s fun, because this year marks the return of the conference tournament in the SEC after signing a three-year contract to hold the event at Enmarket Arena in Savannah, Georgia. This is the first SEC tournament in 20 years (the event was mothballed after the 2005 season) and will be a really cool feather-in-the-cap for whichever school wins it. Conference tournaments in any sport are notoriously difficult to predict - especially this early on - as teams make roster decisions and other moves to save players for NCAA postseason play. But, assuming Texas is healthy at this point and if Spears has developed into the beast at OPP she is projected to be, I can see the Longhorns making a run here. It’s difficult to say if they won’t be more interested in looking ahead at the NCAA tournament, but with some luck in the seeding they may have a favorable path that won’t tax their stamina too much.
J: It’s an interesting dynamic to inject into the postseason again. Will the conference tournament play out like basketball where going on a run can build a lot of momentum for the big dance? Or will it play out like baseball where going deep in the conference tournament means your team isn’t as well-rested for the national tournament, and you endanger yourself in the early rounds. Jerritt’s teams are usually ready to go in tournament mindset, so I agree that I expect Texas to make a run if not win the whole thing. Making it to the championship match at a minimum is a fair expectation, and the SEC announcing that the top four seeds in the conference will get first- and second-round byes makes it so winning it all only takes three matches. That’s a much easier road than some of the other sports’ conference tournaments have.
B: The first- and second-round byes do open this up as a little more appetizing for a top seed to make a run despite having the NCAA tournament on the back end of this. I feel pretty confident in Texas making it into that upper echelon of the SEC, probably joined by Kentucky, Florida, and Texas A&M. The reasons for why we end up as the first or second seed versus the third or fourth or vice versa will likely factor in as to how good we feel about pushing for an SEC tourney championship at this point in the season.
How far does Texas go in the postseason?
J: I think the national championship is well within this team’s capabilities as it seemingly always is at Texas under Jerritt Elliott. I do need to see the offense find weapons outside of Torrey Stafford before I can start to feel any confidence that they’ll get it done though. The back row defense will be strong with Halter and Gary, but being able to produce points at the net without exclusively feeding Stafford will be critical to truly setting this team’s ceiling. Someone needs to step up at opposite, be it Devin Kahahawai, Cari Spears, Whitney Lauenstein, or anyone else, and we need Ayden Ames to become a threat in the middle with some consistency. If those two things can come together, everything gets much easier. For now, I’m going to say Texas makes it to the Elite Eight.
B: My biggest concern is with the middles as well. Ayden Ames shows a lot of promise, but the MB2 position needs to show some good development this season. I agree that feeding Stafford for every point is a losing strategy, regardless of how talented she is. We saw last year how detrimental it can be to not have a consistent scoring threat with Jenna Wenaas placed into the 6-rotation spot (yes, we are still down bad on last year’s rotations, particularly regarding Jenna). The big thing to keep in mind with the SEC tournament is that these concerns will either be answered by then or they won’t be, and either way that’s a pretty good litmus test for the NCAA tournament as well. If we have these position questions answered by the time we land in Savannah, then we could lose match one and I’d still feel really good about our chances at a national championship. The talent is there for Texas.
Which Texas players are selected as All-Americans?
B: Torrey Stafford to the first team. Give me Abby Vander Waal to the third team and in contention for Freshman of the Year. Depending on who ends up the primary libero between Halter/Gary, I think there is a chance the starter squeaks into the third team given that question is answered fairly early in the season.
J: I could see both making the AA teams for Gary and Halter, but I do think the Nebraska propaganda will be too strong for them to get the respect they deserve come end-of-season awards. AVW as a Freshman AA would be a huge boon for Texas and indicate a potent attack for the Longhorns. I’m going to say AA for AA (Ayden Ames) is on the table if she takes the step forward everyone is hoping for. I know that kinda undermines your concerns about the MB role in the previous question, Brittany.
B: It does and it doesn’t. I’d rather be proven wrong with my fears regarding inconsistent play at the MB position, and if AA plays at the level of All-American then go ahead and light the Tower because we are winning a natty.
Which freshman has the biggest impact for Texas this season?
J: This could go a couple different directions. If you’re talking about the best overall freshman in terms of production and reliability, give me Abby Vander Wal as OH2. What we saw early against Utah gave me a lot of confidence that we can stay aggressive from the left side with AVW when Stafford rotates into the backrow. If the question is who of the freshman end up being the most influential, I think it ends up being Cari Spears. Being able to create offense from the right side is one of the keys to Texas’ season, so Cari’s ability to be a terminator over there will dictate a lot of what Texas can accomplish.
B: Vander Wal takes my #1 spot as well - at least for the early season. I think Cari will really become a force towards the midpoint of the season. She has tons of weapons, she just needs more time at the collegiate level. For Abby, she certainly seems to have adapted to the speed and overall talent level pretty quickly. At one point in that scrimmage against Utah, she was hitting .571. That’s absurd! Yes, she did come back down to earth some as the match wore on, but that was also with a lot of playing around with formations and such by Elliott. Remember: Vander Wal was on the gold-winning U21 team at the Pan American games this summer, so she’s entering the year already in mid-season form.
What is Texas’ record this year?
B: For the regular season I’ve got Texas going 19-4. I already mentioned a loss to Wisconsin, and then I think Texas drops three between Stanford, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Kentucky, and Florida. It’s a numbers game really; Texas has a very solid out-of-conference schedule and the SEC has some top-tier teams this season. If they can limit losses in the SEC to two or less, then they are perfectly in contention for the regular season conference title. It’s going to be a slog at the top.
J: I’m going to simultaneously sip more Kool-aid and be slightly more doomer at the same time. I’m thinking 20-3. Early season home losses to Stanford seem to be rights of passage for Texas at this point, and I expect Lednicky and A&M will be a frightening proposition in College Station. If we come out of Madison 2-0 to start the year as we all hope, that means I’m going to have to pick one of those freak matches that Texas seems to be good for once per year where they lose on the road inexplicably to a team on paper that the Horns should dog walk. I think I gassed up LSU a bit in the write-ups this offseason, so I’ll circle that one in pencil if we are riding high after this weekend.
B: Josh has been high on A&M for a while now. I know this because it absolutely pains the crap out of him and he’s complained about it a few times (haha). The LSU take is interesting but might have some legs, we will have to see!