Death, taxes, the graduation of beloved players, and the DOW Jones dropping 500+ points in a single day. All apparently inevitable events in the year of our Lord 2025. This time last year, we were in our bag, feeling good, and the world was full of promise. How naive we were.
We’re more than a year removed now from my writing about the 2024 Texas Longhorns. We were fresh off back-to-back national championships, Madisen Skinner was back for her senior season looking for another ring, and Jerritt had just loaded up the team with a batch of high profile transfers to fill the spots on the roster that could use some correction. There was no reason they couldn’t do it again, right?
WRONG.
It just never seemed to quite come together for Texas in 2024. The experiment with the 6-2 seemed to only undermine both Ella Swindle and Averi Carlson in their efforts to get the offense going. Replacing both Asjia O’Neal and Bella Bergmark with young and inexperienced players like Mari Singletary and Ayden Ames proved to be an unsteady task, even with both flashing their potential at various intervals. Back row defense from anyone not-named Emma Halter left a lot to be desired. Inexplicably, Jenna Wenaas was suddenly (and arguably inexplicably) the 6-rotation player, not Madi. And the icing on the cake was the team’s apparent shared allergy to fifth sets, only winning one five-set match in six opportunities.
At times, it felt like a comedy of errors, be it on behalf of the coaching staff, the players, or some combination of every factor imaginable. Twas a bit of a test of Murphy’s Law as the Horns found innovative and novel ways to lose sets and ultimately matches they shouldn’t. Unfortunately, the team’s season came to an end at the hands of the Creighton Blue Jays in the regional semifinal, only the second time since 2005 that the Longhorns’ season would end before the regional final.
This is probably a good time to remind you of what I said in my last article: I’m not qualified to tell you why. I’m not good at the sport and have never been formally coached. I’m not going to sit here and tell you how it should have been fixed. It would appear as though three-time national championship-winning head coach Jerritt Elliott is not calling me up after matches looking for me to provide feedback on the debrief. Stunning, I know. As a fan however, I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that it wasn’t a ton of fun. We were straight up not having a good time.
On that bright and optimistic note, it’s high time we review who we won’t be seeing on the floor at Gregory Gym in 2025.
Indeed.com
Also known as the group that has exhausted their eligibility and moved on to bigger and better things in a post-college world. Maybe that’s professional volleyball, or maybe that’s getting a real estate license and selling Austin area homes until the world finally enters into a post-apocalyptic state where we’re all wearing various gimp suits (not kink shaming) and driving souped-up hot rods along the Fury Road while screaming various references to Norse mythology as we crash in spectacular fashion. What were we talking about?
L/DS Keonilei Akana
MB Soah Franklin
OPP Reagan Rutherford
OH Madisen Skinner
OH Jenna Wenaas
Not to be defeatist, but that’s a lot of seniority, a lot of reps, and a lot of contributions that walked out the door, and they’ll be missed (mostly - sorry Jenna).
Kaylei Akana is the lone back row player in this group of graduates from the program. We’ll obviously always remember her for the lethal service ace that completed the sweep of Louisville to win the natty in 2022. Finally getting her shot as the primary defensive specialist last year (outside of the libero position, of course), she played in every match and all but one set. The team’s attempt at the 6-2 screwed with her deployment a little bit in the middle of last season, but she was a more than reliable little that was an absolute weapon at the service line.
Soah Franklin…hopefully enjoyed her year in Austin. Effectively a depth body after transferring in from Columbia, the Cali kid only got to see time in one set behind the logjam of youth in the middle blocker room in 2024. But hey! She graduated from an Ivy League school. I don’t think life after volleyball is going to be devoid of opportunity for Soah.
Kentucky transfer Reagan Rutherford definitely had a huge impact on the offense during her one year in burnt orange. For the first time in quite some time, the Longhorns had a potent attack option from the right side (no disrespect to fan favorite Molly Phillips). This gave opposing teams more to think about than simply selling out on shutting down Madi Skinner. She likely could’ve been even better utilized were it not for the rotation silliness of the 6-2, but she still ended up being Second Team All-SEC despite the hiccups.
At this point, what hasn’t been said about Madisen Skinner. She was an absolute freak in all of the most complimentary senses of the word. She did almost kill a poor little for the Razorbacks last season with one of her signature BICs, but I’ll argue that her most memorable moment of her Texas career was cranking kills over the top of Nebraska’s numerous triple blocks in Tampa for the 2023 national title. It’s always ring season when you’re Madi though as she departs with no fewer than three national championships to her name (and now a LOVB championship to boot!). I think I can also safely say that everyone is rooting for her recently-hard-launched relationship with Texas football alumnus and fan favorite WR Jordan Whittington. We’ll start wishfully penciling-in commitments for the 2045ish recruiting classes for both volleyball and football in the meantime. I’m certain Bevo XVII or XVIII is also looking forward to it.
Polarizing. That’s probably the word most of us can fairly associate with Jenna Wenaas. Sometimes electric, sometimes maddeningly crushing a ball directly into the opposing block, but somehow always on the floor. Truly one of the players of all time for Texas volleyball. If I may be so bold as to make a request after passive-aggressively insulting you for no reason other than my own weird vendettas and dumb fan feelings: please talk to Jake (Majors, center for the football team and boyfriend of Jenna Wenaas) about why he got grilled chicken when the Nashville hot chicken sandwich options after the Vanderbilt game were either mild or spicy. I lay awake at night just staring at my ceiling reliving that interaction, wondering where it all went wrong.
You’re Tacky, and I Hate You
Okay, that was dramatic. I don’t hate you. I’ll just miss what could have been if we stayed together.
Alas, this is the way of modern college athletics. The transfer portal giveth, and the transfer portal taketh away. And when Texas possesses one of the most talented gyms in the country, the transfer portal will be doing plenty of taking. Buckle up. You know that underclassman that you’ve been telling everyone is going to be the next face of Texas volleyball? Well, there’s like a 40% chance she won’t be here next year. Try not to get too attached.
OH rSo Jordyn Byrd - Florida
S Sr Averi Carlson - SMU
OH rSo Sydney Helmers - Notre Dame
L/DS rFr Brennan Ramierez - Abilene Christian
OPP rSo Auburn Tomkinson - Illinois
80% of this list may have received a response of “who?” upon reading, especially if you’re not a Texas volleyball sicko. Let’s just say there was plenty of excitement upon the commitments of Jordyn Byrd, Sydney Helmers, and Auburn Tomkinson. As a side effect of having the aforementioned stacked gym, we unfortunately cannot give everyone the playing time that they arguably are talented enough to deserve. The fact that four of the five transfers out of the program ended up at power conference schools without appearing in a single set in Austin is testament to that.
Side Note: Apologies are in order for any Texas basketball fans reading this article. I didn’t mean to hit you with a jump-scare reminder of Abilene Christian’s existence.
The big news here is, of course, the transfer of setter Averi Carlson. Once the 6-2 was mercifully abandoned, she was the first-team setter for the Longhorns. National title-winning setter Ella Swindle was relegated to the bench for spot duties. Certainly a controversial choice in the fanbase, and we may never know exactly how that all was received in the locker room. End result that we see is Averi Carlson, despite not being out of eligibility and being the apparent incumbent at the setter position, has taken her ball and gone to Dallas to play for the Mustangs instead. So if it’s not a playing time issue, the options become NIL or culture-fit related. I’ll shy away from baselessly speculating on culture issues, but we certainly know that SMU is not one to pinch pennies (shoutout to Eric Dickerson who is hopefully still driving that gold Trans Am from A&M only to attend SMU anyway).
In total, ten members of the 2024 Texas roster have departed Austin, accounting for 50% of the players on the team. A 20-strong roster like we saw in 2024 is unlikely to stay the norm in the modern climate of college athletics; there’s simply too many talented players to expect to run basically three-deep at every position without some level of attrition. At time of writing, there are 17 women listed on the roster for Texas in 2025. If you’re still doing the math on your fingers and toes, just know that it means Texas brought in seven transfers or recruits for the spring. We’ll go over each of those players (as well as one more recruit expected to join the team for the fall) in my next article! Hook ‘em!
Editor’s Note: Just before posting this article, middle blocker Marianna Singletary announced her intent to transfer as well. This will be covered in a future article. :(