Didn't Hear No Bell
Texas volleyball 2025 week 2 roundup!
Editor’s Note: Shortly after this article went live, the number one recruit in the class of 2027, Ireland Real, announced her commitment to Texas. She was in attendance at Sunday’s match against Stanford.
I sure do love being wrong. Another week saw Texas exceed expectations that Josh and I had set for them and the Longhorns are now sitting at a very nice 4-0, with three of the wins coming against AVCA preseason top-25 teams.
That’s not to say it was easy by any stretch. Set one against Rice resulted in Texas’ first dropped set of 2025 after sweeping both Creighton and Wisconsin the previous weekend, and the Stanford match… Well, there’s a lot to say about the match against the Cardinal on Sunday in front of a Longhorn volleyball record setting crowd of 10,899.
After two sets, it looked as if the Longhorns were on their way to another sweep of a top-25 opponent. In the first ever volleyball match in the Moody Center, the raucous crowd joined the players in putting on a spectacle on national television. The first set alone was a double-digit beatdown, with the Longhorns controlling from opening serve through a 25-15 win. Set two was closer, with the Cardinal able to muster a respectable 23 points, but Texas still felt in control overall. The crowd buzzed, burnt orange-and-white clad students bouncing and cheering just feet from the courtside. Players like Ayden Ames were playing with anger. Texas seemed unstoppable.
Unfortunately, Stanford found its blocking and were able to slow down Texas’ fast-paced offense in the third set. They also were able to find an exploit down the right line in the Longhorns’ defense. Texas could only manage to keep things close after but Stanford was able to take set three and grab the momentum. The wheels really began to fall off for Texas in the fourth set, the Longhorns’ offense all but disappearing as Stanford took that set 25-13.
The fifth set began to play out in an eerily similar way to many of the five-setters we saw last season with Texas. Stanford came out hot and racked up a 10-5 lead quickly. Many times in 2024, the Longhorns would start hot but not be able to close an opponent out – in individual sets as well as matches in general. Six matches went to five sets for Texas last season and the Longhorns only grabbed the ‘W’ in one: against Ole Miss at the end of the regular season. At one point, Texas strung together three consecutive losses that were all five set matches.
No doubt many Texas fans were feeling déjà vu at this point. As Josh and I were chatting during the match, we both began to feel a sense of dread that the first-ever match at Moody was going to end in a reverse sweep and destroy the budding confidence this team has been developing early in the season. Last year, I think the team would have rolled over at this point.
But this ain’t last year.
Texas took a timeout and Jerritt Elliott and the coaching staff must have had some kind of answer to keep this team’s head above water. Texas went on a seven to one run to take a 12-11 lead. Suddenly the crowd - which had gone fairly quiet after the scoring barrage by Stanford in the fourth and beginning-of-the-fifth sets - came alive and the atmosphere started to resemble what it was in the first two sets. Texas and Stanford would then trade off points, eventually culminating in three separate match points for Stanford before Texas took the late lead and closed out the match with an 18-16 set five victory.
We’ll break down some of the individual components that led to both the second-half collapse and the late comeback in our Red Lights/Yellow Lights/Green Lights sections below, but for now we have to take a minute to acknowledge just how important staving off the reverse sweep and finding a “won’t quit” mentality late was in this match. Sweeping big opponents is great – we love to see it, especially as fans - but there’s something even more substantial for the long-term growth of a team (especially one with so many young players) in overcoming adversity. And in finding that no matter how bad things may look, that this team can still fight its way back, these players got a lesson in what it takes to become a champion.
Red Lights
In case you missed Josh’s article last week, I’ll give a quick review on how these sections work. This one serves as a place for us to list things that we consider true pain points that could serve as an Achilles’ Heel for the team this season. This section should be read with the understanding that we’re sincerely frustrated by what items appear here. Ideally, this section will be devoid of conversation the vast majority of the time. And even when something does happen to appear here during an article, it will ideally find its way into the next section, “Yellow Lights”, by the next article.
And with that, it is time for our first red light of the season:
Texas’ Passing
Let’s breakdown some numbers here for some of our starters in the match versus Stanford (thanks to @AvidVolley on x.com):
Abby Vander Wal: 1.43 avg, 29% GP on 7 attempts
Emma Halter: 1.94 avg, 44% GP on 16 attempts
Torrey Stafford: 1.81 avg, 41% GP on 42 attempts
Ramsey Gary: 1.90 avg, 47% GP on 15 attempts
Ok, Brittany. Numbers. We’re not all staticians (neither am I). But what does it all mean, Basil?
The first number is the passing average, on a 0-3 scale. Think of the breakdown like this: 3.0 = perfect pass, setter has every option in the playbook; 2.0 = decent pass, but offense is more limited; 1.0 = ball isn’t where it should be, setter scrambling; <1.0 = basically a free ball or broken play. All of this comes down to what we call “playing in-system”, or within planned offensive counters.
“In-system” = the pass is good enough that the setter can choose any hitter - middles, outsides, right side, even back row. The defense doesn’t know where the ball is going. “Out-of-system” = the pass is off target. Now the setter (or even a non-setter) just has to shove the ball to the outside hitter so the play doesn’t collapse. It’s predictable, and the block loads up.
The second number is the Good Pass percentage: how often a player’s pass keeps the team playing in-system. So when Texas was averaging 1.8–1.9 with ~40% GP, it meant they were rarely in-system. Their setter basically had to just push high balls to the outside, letting Stanford’s big blockers camp out and take big swings away. This is the advantage that Stanford found in the third set and going forward.
That’s the best way I can break down a critical weakness that popped up in that Stanford match that is very exploitable if it continues. It’s difficult to generate an effective offense when an opponent’s serving has you playing out-of-system over 50% of the time.
Okay, but maybe Stanford is just really good at serving?
Possibly, but Texas also struggled with passing in that first set against Rice (the first set they lost this season). Luckily, in that match the team found its footing and managed to finish with an average of 2.29. Hopefully this red light is just a quick strobe flash that is the result of early-season rust.
But remember that Josh had concerns about our attack timing and setting last week, and Texas only managed a .236 hitting percentage in the match against Stanford - including a measly -0.063 in that miserable fourth set (no, that negative is not a typo). Poor serve-return passing plays into how effective the setter can be at…well, setting. So given the questions still lingering around our setting and attack timing, I think this warrants a red light at this time.
Yellow Lights
Areas where things can likely be improved, but nothing extremely concerning. As we said last week, these will often be nitpicky observations, or things that were concerning before (red lights) that we’re less concerned with now but keeping an eye on.
Step on Their Throats
Keeping this one here from Josh’s observations last week. This relates to Texas’ ability to close out, especially with big leads. This one came through most obviously when the Longhorns gave up a dominant two-set lead to almost be run out of Moody by Stanford. It’s one thing to not get the sweep by giving up a close third set, but to move completely backwards and have the abysmal fourth set they had demonstrated a concerning and ongoing trend that stretches back to last year.
This team needs to learn to not let opponents get back into matches, or else it can expect further cardiac-inducing five-setters in the future.
Service Line
It doesn’t help a poor service-return passing game to not have some dominance from the service line yourself. Stanford managed ten aces to Texas’ three. Texas managed to land six aces against Rice, but considering service errors per match rose to 9 against Rice and 8 against Stanford - usually an indication of the team getting more aggressive at the service line - not seeing that translate into more aces is a bit concerning.
I’m keeping this as a yellow light from last week. Texas doesn’t need a potent serve game to win matches given the power it has at the net and the defense on its back line (more on that in a bit!), but it would sure be a nice-to-have.
Green Lights
As stated last week: “This is truly where the good stuff is happening. What are we jazzed on? What has us drinking the proverbial Kool-aid? What things that this team does make us wanna run through a brick wall?”
Back Row Defense x1000
We were already stoked after the first two matches of the season with what Halter and Gary were showing in the back row, but after that wild fifth set against Stanford, we officially may be looking at one of the all-time best back row pairs to come through the Forty. Ever.
Any questions on how well Ramsey Gary would deal with surrendering the libero jersey after starting all 63 matches at that position in two years at Indiana and earning Second-Team All-Big 10 honors can be put to rest. It’s a bit astounding that Gary didn’t take SEC Defensive Player of the Week after Halter got it the week before for just how critical she was in that fifth-set comeback, but that may be because the SEC didn’t want to give all the accolades to Texas (aaaand more on that in a bit!).
Josh mentioned the similarities between this back court and the one helmed by Fleck and Halter in 2022, but what may be even more outstanding with this pair is their relative experience that they bring to the court. Both of these ladies could be wearing the libero jersey at essentially any school of their choice; instead they are playing here at Texas. Just check out this play below to see just how amazing they are at sharing that back line. Sheesh.
The Pins
May I present to you the SEC Overall and Offensive Player of the Week, and AVCA Player of the Week: at outside hitter, Torrey Stafford. And may I present to you your SEC Freshman of the Week: at opposite, Cari Spears. Stafford got 24 kills against Rice and 18 against Stanford, while Spears got 11 and 14 respectively.
That much firepower on both sides of the court is just…wipes sweat from brow… crazy. What I love the most about them both is that they stayed aggressive even when things weren’t going well and many players - especially freshmen in Cari’s case - might fall back to more conservative play. When Texas was able to turn around their passing game in the fifth against the Cardinal, Stafford became an unstoppable offensive force.
Just give these ladies a good set, and it is almost impossible to defend against them. Also, Stafford added 22 digs to her stats over these two matches as well. How do you compete with that?
Didn’t Hear No Bell
The namesake of this article is our final green light of the week. I’ve already touched on it some so I won’t go on too much about it here, but the pulling victory out of the jaws of defeat in that fifth set against Stanford is a testament to perhaps one of the biggest differences between this year’s and last year’s squads.
With their backs against the wall, Texas found a way to fight back and win. I just can’t imagine last year’s squad being able to do that, especially after dropping two sets in a row.
Winner’s don’t quit. This team didn’t quit. That is now the difference between 3-1 and 4-0, and that could be the difference between a deep playoff run or an early postseason exit.
Next Up
Two top-25 matches this week for Texas volleyball including the Showdown at the Net SEC and ACC Challenge tonight!
#4 Louisville Cardinals - 8 PM CT TONIGHT at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, TX (ESPN)
#9 Arizona Sun Devils - 2 PM CT on Sunday, 9/14 at Gregory Gymnasium in Austin, TX (ESPN2)
Read Josh’s preview of these two matches right here on Point Texas!