Cocks and Dawgs
Texas takes on South Carolina and Georgia in late season matchups as the SEC calendar begins to wind down
Today is August 4th, meaning we are officially less than one week away from Texas volleyball beginning their fall exhibition schedule against the Minnesota Golden Gophers at Gregory Gym. While the matches won’t count for records or stats, they’ll represent the first real glimpse at the team this fall and the primary meaningful indicators for what we should expect out of the rotation. While there will still be some lineup experimentation – especially with the exhibitions likely playing all five sets regardless of if either team wins three first – most of what we see is what we will be getting when it does count.
Will we see the 6-2 offense after all? Or does Jerritt stick with the 5-1 and double sub we saw last year? Who is the primary DS? How does Texas juggle the absurd riches they have on the pins? How involved are the three freshmen? How involved are Camille Presley and Mackenzie Collins at middle blocker right off the bat? What is Addy Gaido’s primary position after all this cross-training in the offseason?
More difficult questions like if Texas is looking better at blocking or from the service line won’t be answered next week, though we will get our first glimpse. If things look better, then it’s likely just a small sample size that we’ll need more data about before we start celebrating. If things look rough though? The saxophones will start getting a bit louder…
By the time we get to late October, most of these questions will be answered in full. Texas will make the trip out to the Palmetto State to face off with the Gamecocks of store-brand USC before heading back home to the 512 for a match against Georgia towards the end of the month.
South Carolina Gamecocks
Match Date: October 25, 2026
Match Location: Carolina Volleyball Center - Columbia, SC
2025 Record: 10-16 (4-11, SEC)
NCAA Tournament: Failed to qualify
Postseason Rank: Unranked
Result v Texas: L, 1-3 (16-25, 21-25, 25-19, 21-25)
The ‘Cocks enter the end of the summer with some deservedly low expectations. The 2026 SEC preseason poll dropped last week, and South Carolina was voted to finish 14th in the conference standings by the end of the year. If those numbers sound familiar: they should. It’s exactly where the Gamecocks finished last season in a year to forget in Columbia. They also failed to put even a single name on the SEC awards lists last year, so SCar is not exactly some depth pieces away from making a leap out of the basement and contending even in the middle of the table.
Key Losses
L Victoria Harris (pGIS 6.0)
OH Alayna Johnson (pGIS 5.2)
OH Nia Hall (pGIS 3.9)
MB Emily Beeker (pGIS 3.9)
OH Victoria Hill (pGIS 2.8)
Key Returners
MB Ava Leahy (pGIS 2.5)
Key Additions
L Lilly Gillespie (pGIS 4.5, #25 at her position nationally) from Cincinnati
I know this kind of language shouldn’t be used until we’re looking at the Georgia Bulldogs, but woof. Whether it was via the transfer portal or due to graduation, the Gamecocks bled all of their best players from 2025 during the offseason; all of their Top 5 players per pGIS are now no longer in Columbia, including promising underclassman pin hitter Victoria Hill. Victoria Harris is in Dallas at SMU and Nia Hall headed to Rocky Top to play for Tennessee. So not only was South Carolina a bit of a mess last year, but they return almost none of the foundation of that team this fall.
Ava Leahy was the #6 player on the team according to pGIS as MB2 for Carolina and the only player on the team with a rating above 2.0 that kept the same uniform this season. Head coach Sarah Rumely Noble, in her first season at the helm of the program, will be scrambling to figure out who she can rely on with such heavy limitations on returning experienced talent in her locker room. Perhaps that comes from junior opposite Elise Marchal. Maybe sophomore MB Claire Payne takes a step forward with a different coaching staff.
Or maybe the unflashy names assembled on the positive side of the transfer portal will adapt well. OH Olivia Borgman makes the move from Athens, GA to join the Gamecocks for her sophomore season. Setter Kiana Dinn moved south from Pittsburgh as well. At least there’s a lot of solid promise in junior libero Lilly Gillespie to take over the vacant jersey that Victoria Harris left behind.
With no mid-week match to precede it, Texas should be running at full capacity for this one. There’s little reason to fear the squad the Gamecocks have assembled. Dropping a set would rightfully lead to gnashing of teeth – it did last year with a more “assembled” South Carolina program – but losing this would be nothing short of generationally disastrous. The Horns should roll through Columbia without issue.
Georgia Bulldogs
Match Date: October 28, 2026
Match Location: Gregory Gymnasium - Austin, TX
2025 Record: 16-10 (8-7, SEC)
NCAA Tournament: Failed to qualify
Postseason Rank: Unranked
Result v Texas: L, 0-3 (17-25, 21-25, 20-25)
The Dawgs were firmly in the second tier of SEC challengers last fall with a solid gap in quality drop-off behind the lead group of Kentucky, A&M, and Texas. They managed to beat a ranked Georgia Tech in a rivalry match before conference play began, but they otherwise beat who they were supposed to and lost to who they were supposed to. Their season did reach an anti-climactic end with an upset loss to the Commodores of Vanderbilt in the SEC Tournament after Georgia had beaten them in Nashville a month prior. Outside hitter Bianna Muoneke was the star of the show in Athens, ultimately finding herself named to the All-SEC First Team.
Key Losses
MB MK Patten (pGIS 5.1)
L Makena Lim (pGIS 4.8)
OH Estelle Haugen (pGIS 4.7)
OPP Adriana Rhoda (pGIS 2.1)
Key Returners
OH Bianna Muoneke (pGIS 8.0)
MB Kendall Kemp (pGIS 4.1)
MB Tori Harper (pGIS 2.3)
MB Emma Bryson (pGIS 2.2)
Key Additions
OH Alyssa Worden (pGIS 2.7) from Iowa
Georgia head coach Tom Black loses a significant chunk of production from the middle of his roster including middle blocker MK Patten to Vanderbilt and libero Makena Lim to Tulane. Both losses come as something of a surprise given the way the roster lays out. Patten was the best middle in Athens last season. Lim seemed poised to hold down the libero spot, though she may have had to work a bit harder to stave off a fully healthy Kate Yoshimoto who lost her entire 2025 season to injury following her transfer from Colorado State.
On the positive side, enough role players stay in Athens to allow the program to make the next step. Muoneke will obviously be the focal point of the Dawgs offense once again, but a pile of middles also bring experience to the roster with fifth-year seniors Kendall Kemp and Tori Harper. There should also be something of a youth movement on the pins with Dallas native sophomore Alex Richter poised to battle with freshman Taylor Bruce to take over for Rhoda on the right side.
Three freshmen are stacked at the pins looking to be that second OH behind Muoneke including her younger sister, Arianna. But Iowa transfer Alyssa Worden brings upperclassman energy and plenty of experience after two years of playing in Iowa City.
The Bulldogs bring experience down the middle, an elite outside hitter, and a whole lot of talented youth around them to the table this fall. That should be enough to keep them solidly in the middle of the field in the SEC and possibly even find their way into at least the early days of the Big Dance in December. With this match falling later in the calendar for Texas, Georgia’s youth movement will have either gone boom or bust. This is a team with enough talent on paper to challenge the Horns, but not so much that it’s unfair to give Texas strong odds to beat the Dawgs for the third time in three years in the Southeastern Conference.
I shared an “emergency article” last week for the first time ever. Calling it an “emergency” was probably a bit hyperbolic, but it was the first time that I’d put something out that wasn’t planned ahead of time. I’m hoping to continue doing that as small storylines pop up throughout the season rather than wait for the weekly recap article to address them.
If the exhibition matches against Minnesota and Rice end up getting televised, I’ll plan on writing about takeaways from those. If they don’t find their way onto TV or livestream, however, we’ll recap with some quick hitter notes as part of the appropriate preview article that follows them.
Speaking of which, we only have two more preview articles! Texas A&M and Mizzou are next on our list, and the final preview article will cover Texas’ final three opponents in Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, and LSU. Volleyball season is right around the corner now, folks. We’ll finally be free of the chains of speaking hypothetically!
Hook ‘em!