Lone Star Showdown
Nearing the end of the regular season for Texas volleyball
Fall is in the air!
Not literally, of course. Austin, TX will remain meteorologically in the 90+ temperature range for the foreseeable future (and hopefully not much more than that). Heat exhaustion and heat stroke remain firmly on the menu. However, preseason camp is in full swing (pun intended), the Longhorns participated in a team retreat, and we are one week away from some exhibition volleyball in Gregory Gym against Utah.
Fall camp began last week and brought with it the news that sophomore defensive specialist (DS) Reese Emerick is no longer listed on the roster with the Longhorns. Not a ton is known about why this happened, but speculation is that her scholarship may have been a fatality of the House settlement regarding scholarships and paying athletes. She didn’t enter the transfer portal nor has she posted on social media lately, so it’s a bit of a mystery as to what exactly went on behind the scenes to lead to this.
On the team retreat front, the Texas ladies made their way to Ketterman Ranch for some team bonding over the weekend including hanging out with exotic animals and getting some R&R done by the pool. Recruits and incoming transfers aplenty have long referenced the culture that Texas volleyball has built. The players and the official volleyball team’s social media channels shared several pictures and videos of the retreat to give fans a peek into the legwork that goes into that and see how much the team appreciates it.
Further, Texas shared that no less than six of the matches have already sold out this season! The match at Moody Center against Stanford sold out as did the matches at Gregory with Arizona State, Baylor, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and South Carolina. If you have tickets, just know that we here at Point Texas appreciate your loudness and contribution to the insane atmosphere that defines home matches in Austin, TX!
The final note is that your Texas Longhorns volleyball team was voted #5 in the AVCA preseason volleyball poll behind #1 Nebraska (gross), Penn State, Pittsburgh, and Louisville. A good launching point for a national title campaign, eh?
With that, we are now three weeks away from the first official match of the season against Creighton in Madison, WI! These are the dying days where Jerritt will truly find out what kind of team he’s got and who hits the floor as part of the starting lineup against the Blue Jays!
LSU Tigers
Match Date: October 26, 2025
Match Location: Maravich Assembly Center - Baton Rouge, LA
2024 Record: 15-12 (7-9, Southeastern)
NCAA Tournament: N/A
Postseason Rank: N/A
Result v Texas: L, 0-3 (20-25, 20-25, 15-25)
There should be little to fear for the Longhorns as they head to the capital city of Louisiana for the second year in a row. Texas swept the Tigers last September on the back of dominant service from Devin Kahahawai and Emma Halter. This was one of the high points of the 6-2 experiment in 2024, something the Tigers are unlikely to see out of Texas in this year’s iteration of the match-up. LSU should however be a much improved team this season, so the Horns likely will not simply run roughshod in the bayou.
Since their messy 2024 schedule wrapped up, LSU managed to keep a significant amount of last season’s most productive players in Baton Rouge, largely because the Tigers were an extremely young team last season. Outside hitters (OH) Jurnee Robinson and Lainee Pyles as well as middle blockers (MB) Angelina Lee and Jessica Jones are all back in the purple and gold after leading the Tigers in kills as underclassmen in 2024. Libero (L) Aly Kirkhoff similarly has stuck around for LSU following a freshman year that saw her lead the team in digs. Ella Hemmings played significant time last season as the primary DS and is also back. In terms of players who made a significant impact last year, LSU is looking to replace opposite hitter (OPP) Jade Demps and setter (S) Bailey Ortega.
To fill the gaps in the roster, the Tigers went to the portal and came back with junior S Lauren Brooker from UC San Diego and OH Nia Washington from Ole Miss. The Tigers also added a sizeable high school recruiting class. Based on head coach Tonya Johnson’s philosophy last year, the incoming freshmen will have ample opportunities to play and make an impact on the 2025 season.
In the preseason SEC coaches’ poll, LSU was voted to be in the middle of the pack this year with both Jurnee Robinson and Nia Washington voted to the preseason All-SEC Team. While they probably have one more year of growth to go before we see this team at its peak, I would expect the Tigers to be a good team this year. How quickly they are able to integrate their transfer setter into the offense will be the biggest indicator of the threat they pose in-conference this season. That said, this still feels like the type of match that Texas should take in four sets. I think LSU has the potential to surprise folks this year; let’s hope Texas isn’t one of the teams to get surprised.
Texas A&M Aggies
Match Date: October 31, 2025
Match Location: Reed Arena - College Station, TX
2024 Record: 21-8 (10-6, Southeastern)
NCAA Tournament: #6 Seed, Lost to #2 Wisconsin in the Sweet 16
Postseason Rank: #16
Result v Texas: L, 1-3 (16-25, 25-14, 23-25, 20-25), W, 3-2 (25-27, 25-14, 23-25, 25-21, 18-16)
Spending Halloween trapped with the cult in College Station sounds like a nightmare I once had. With that said, teams wearing burnt orange and white live rent-free in the heads of Aggies everywhere regardless of their consciousness level. If the Texas volleyball team really wants to leave the crowd in tears, they should take a page out of the football team’s book and not allow a single offensive point to the Aggies in their home facility. Regardless, this will be a very fun start to the 2025 Lone Star Showdown series between Texas and Texas A&M after the programs split their matches last season.
What makes the Aggies a legitimate SEC title threat (and arguably even beyond that) is the relative lack of attrition from a very good team in 2024. The biggest piece of the puzzle that A&M lost was defensive specialist Ellee Stinson who finished the season #2 on the team in digs, #4 in receptions, and #1 on the team in service aces. OPP Logan Lednicky starts her final year (THANK GOD) in maroon after turning in a campaign that saw her voted as a 2nd Team All-American as the Aggies’ leading scorer in 2024. She understandably starts the year as the lone OPP on the preseason All-SEC Team. Joining her on the preseason team is MB Ifenna Cos-Okpalla. Despite this, the Aggies will hardly be entirely dependent on those two for their offense to function. Emily Hellmuth and Morgan Perkins also contributed at least 200 kills in 2024 and will be back for head coach Jamie Morrison. At setter and libero, the Aggies also return upperclassmen in Maddie Waak and Ava Underwood, respectively. Tatum Thomas was third on the team in service aces and should see an expanded role with Stinson’s departure. Every single name of a returning player I mentioned in this paragraph is a senior; it’s do-or-die time in College Station.
As far as new faces for the Aggies, OH Kyndal Stowers will also be battling for playing time after a promising freshman year was cut short by injury while she was at Baylor. The new wave of freshmen likely will be waiting a year for their opportunity. With the level of experience on this team at every level, A&M is built to win right now. Freshman Addi Applegate will likely get the most opportunities of anyone in this Aggie recruiting class as the third DS.
This was a hard fought pair of matches last season. Unfortunately, the redesign of the SEC schedule to accommodate for the end-of-season conference tournament in Savannah, GA around Thanksgiving means that it has been cut to just one guaranteed match in 2025. With Texas starting the year at #5 in the preseason poll and A&M at #9, both programs have sky-high expectations and legitimate national title aspirations. While Kentucky or another program may prove to be the best in the SEC this year, this match-up between the Horns and Aggies will be by far the most anticipated and most meaningful of any on the conference slate for both this fall. It’ll be an emotional battle that both teams have the depth and experience to be ready for. This is a potential instant classic in what has been a traditionally lopsided series for the in-state rivalry.
Hook ‘em!