Get Her to the Greg
Previewing opponents #5 and #6 on Texas' 2025 schedule
To this point in the season, the Longhorns will have already been tested several times. In their first four matches, Texas will see three teams from last season’s Elite Eight (Rice being the lone exception). This was apparently not satisfactory enough for Jerritt Elliott, as Texas will get to spend their fifth match of the season with the national runner-up Louisville Cardinals. The “easy” match of the two we’re discussing today is a team that was a three-seed in the tournament in Arizona State. ESPN’s volleyball ratings better be through the roof in the early part of the fall with this kind of absurd scheduling.
To make matters worse, it will take until the sixth match of the season against those Sun Devils before Texas will make their Gregory Gym debut. While the match at Moody should be a whole vibe for the team and the fans, it feels wrong to have to wait two weeks before they get to play in the best atmosphere in college volleyball (you losers in Lincoln can argue with the wall about it). This does reignite the internal turmoil I feel about the idea presented by CDC during his 2024 Town Hall event where he noted the desire to build a “mini-Moody” for the volleyball team. If we can keep the suffocating nature of Greg AND get the ladies a Taraflex floor, I’ll allow you to cook, but the location on campus is unmatched. My ideal situation is CDC finds a way to wrestle control of Gregory Gym away from Rec Sports at UT so it can get all the upgrades it needs while keeping its heart and location.
Enough about me though. How are you?
Let’s get into it.
Louisville Cardinals
Match Date: September 10, 2025
Match Location: Dickies Arena - Fort Worth, TX
2024 Record: 30-6 (17-3, Atlantic Coast)
NCAA Tournament: #1 Seed, Lost to #1 Penn State in the National Championship match
Postseason Rank: #2
Result v Texas: L, 0-3 (22-25, 14-25, 24-26) [2022]
The last time Texas and Louisville faced off was for the 2022 national title. Horns fans will of course be no stranger to that match as Kaylei Akana’s ace ended the decisive third set and gave Texas their first national title in a decade. Louisville’s phenomenal outside hitters from that team, Claire Chaussee and Anna DeBeer, are of course gone as are effectively all of the major players for Texas not named Emma Halter. It’s a full reset compared to the last time these teams faced.
The most significant change for the Cardinals is at the top of the program. With John Cook’s retirement as head coach of the Nebraska volleyball program after last season, the “N stands for Nowledge” crowd in Lincoln hired away Louisville leading lady Dani Kelly. Dan Meske, Kelly’s longtime associate head coach, has stepped into Kelly’s former role, offering continuity for the program in the wake of this monumental shift in the national landscape for volleyball. It will be interesting to watch if that pays off or goes the way of Michael Earley for the Texas A&M baseball team this past spring, and ends with Louisville not even making the national tournament (boom got em lol aggy).
The middle blocking tandem of Cara Cresse and Hannah Sherman are still wearing Cardinal red, as is setter Nayelis Cabello. As mentioned earlier, OH Anna DeBeer is gone, along with two other OHs in Charitie Luper and Sofia Maldonado Diaz; they made up the top three of kill leaders for Louisville in 2024. Libero Elena Scott has also graduated. The Cardinals’ ceiling this season is entirely dependent on how quickly the new outside hitters can get comfortable with Cabello and get the offense flowing.
The reliable and experienced middle block for the Cards will be another great test of the Longhorns’ offense. If Texas can manufacture some offense, be it from the pins or on the slide, it will be a heartening sign for the rest of the season. Being able to come out of this opening slate for Texas with a record better than 3-2 should immediately fire up the hype train for the burnt orange faithful.
Arizona State Sun Devils
Match Date: September 14, 2025
Match Location: Gregory Gymnasium - Austin, TX
2024 Record: 30-3 (17-1, Big 12)
NCAA Tournament: #3 Seed, Lost to #6 Texas A&M in Tempe regional final
Postseason Rank: #13
Result v Texas: L, 0-3 (19-25, 20-25, 22-25) [2014]
Very little can be gleaned from the last time Texas played Arizona State. If you thought a three year gap between matches against Louisville was bad, how does a decade+ drought against the Sun Devils sound? Frankly, my time would probably be better spent analyzing how last football season’s Peach Bowl impacts this match. I might start sweating it a little bit if Cam Skattebo has decided to use his volleyball eligibility. Or maybe I’ll feel fine until the 3rd set when the ref stops calling offensive pass interference so ASU can get back into the game…
It has been an unsteady last several years for the team from Tempe, AZ. Since they last played the Horns in the 2014 NCAA tournament, the Sun Devils have only returned to the postseason three times. The good news is that current head coach JJ Van Niel has only been in his current position for the last two seasons, and those are two of their three tournament berths since 2014 (the other being 2015). Van Niel has the program rolling again, winning the Big 12 in 2024 and winning at least 28 matches in both ‘23 and ‘24. The Sun Devils hadn’t even won 20 matches in a season since the aforementioned match-up with Texas. In fact, the 2024 team’s 30 wins fell only one short of the program record 31 dating back to 1982 (when they played in 47 matches as opposed to last season’s 33). One could easily make an argument that Van Niel is already the best coach in Arizona State volleyball history - his only competition is Mary Littlewood who led ASU to back-to-back AIAW Championships in Tempe in 1973 and 74.
Van Niel’s challenge in 2025 will be reconstructing what was a very experienced roster. Both of his top two outside hitters are gone, as are his primary two middle blockers. The Sun Devils are also looking to find someone to take over the setter role as well as at libero. Senior Bailey Miller figures to be the focal point of the offense; she was the #5 points-scorer for ASU last season. Sophomore setter Brynn Covell should also be stepping into a starting role this year in Tempe after appearing in 110 sets last year in a serving and defensive specialist capacity. Van Niel brought in middle blocker Colby Neal from Oregon through the portal to shore up play at the net as well alongside five more transfers from around the country.
Again, Texas finds itself in a good position with what figures to be a tougher opponent than the name recognition would indicate initially. This is very much a team that will be making noise in the postseason, be it winning the Big 12 again or making a deeper tournament run than they did last year when being upset at home by the Aggies. This is however a team that will need time to gel and find their chemistry as a squad. With the neck-crack matches they have before Texas, it’ll be interesting to see how quickly that all comes together for the Devils.