One Small Step
Previewing the first two opponents on Texas’ 2025 schedule
As I said in my article last week, we really needed Texas to announce their full volleyball schedule to keep us going through the offseason as far as content creation is concerned. Well, we found out someone in the program is a Point Texas reader because they hooked us up on Tuesday of this week to feed the fire. Thanks to whoever you are for doing that. You’re a legend. And you’re committed. Last week’s article was our worst as far as readership is concerned. My ego has chosen to take that as a sign that everyone was distracted with baseball regionals (big oof for how that went) rather than exhaustion with my prose. Y’all would tell me if it was that, right? Right?
In classic Jerritt fashion, Texas will be starting the year with an absolute murderer’s row of out-of-conference (OOC) foes and a smattering of in-state rivals…and Arizona State? Then we roll into the Super Easy Conference (SEC) slate. The challenges will come early and often for Texas volleyball, but scheduling with that kind of attitude is exactly why the Longhorns have been one of the dominant programs of the last 20+ years. Once again, Jerritt is confirmed to not be a coward.
Let’s briefly talk about the approach we’re going to take over the 12 weeks between today and Texas’ season opener up in America’s Dairyland (AKA the state of Wisconsin). Brittany and I will continue the vibes by alternating (today’s article notwithstanding) responsibilities each week. We’ll make our dumb jokes, reference some outdated information, and probably forget about entire impact players or transfers for each team. Bear with us. We’re learning. Regardless, the schedule works out pretty well to break this out across 11 Fridays. The OOC previews will be buttoned up just in time to launch fireworks and lose various fingers and other appendages in the process. The remaining fingers will slowly type out the SEC previews after 4th of July. Here’s what that’ll actually look like:
Today - Creighton and Wisconsin
6/13 - Rice and Stanford
6/20 - Louisville and Arizona State
6/27 - TCU and Baylor
7/4 - 4th of July Holiday
7/11 - Vanderbilt, Missouri, and Georgia
7/18 - Mississippi State and Tennessee
7/25 - Alabama and Arkansas
8/1 - Oklahoma and Ole Miss
8/8 - LSU and Texas A&M
8/15 - Kentucky and Florida
8/22 - Auburn and South Carolina
8/29 - Season opener for Texas
It seems like a lot at first glance, and it probably will feel like a lot in the moment, but we’re all going to look back and wonder how those 2.5 (ish?) months flew by so quickly. Hell, how is it already JUNE? I swear I was just carving my way down the mountain at Snowmass the other day during ski season.
Creighton Bluejays
Match Date: August 29, 2025
Match Location: Kohl Center - Madison, WI
2024 Record: 32-3 (18-0, Big East)
NCAA Tournament: #2 Seed, Lost to #1 Penn State in the Elite Eight
Postseason Rank: #6
Result v Texas: W, 3-1 (24-26, 25-19, 25-21, 25-20)
No rest for the weary, huh, Jerritt? Texas fans from last year certainly haven’t forgotten how the season ended in Omaha in 2024 at the hands of the Creighton Bluejays by way of the gentleman’s sweep. This will either be the start of a therapeutic revenge tour for Texas or will immediately re-open relatively fresh wounds. Hopefully it’ll prove to be the former. Especially because I don’t really feel like going through that emotional journey right off the bat this season.
The Bluejays were a very senior-heavy team in 2024. Of the eight players to play in more than 80 of the 117 sets Creighton played, five exhausted their eligibility last fall including their #1 pin hitter, middle blocker, setter, and libero. OH Ava Martin, MB Kiara Reinhardt, and DS Sydney Breissinger all return. Martin and Reinhardt still haunt my dreams as dominant figures from the NCAA tournament match with Texas where they contributed 15 and nine kills, respectively, while Reinhardt led the match in blocks with eight.
Creighton also added three transfers to their squad to fill in some of the holes with experienced players from Ohio State, Wisconsin, and Omaha. Martin and Reinhardt will undoubtedly be focal points for the Jays at the net. If the setting and libero play keep up, this will certainly be a team destined to make the tournament and make noise in it once again.
It’ll be a big challenge for the Horns, especially at the middle blocker position. Ayden Ames led Texas with only two blocks in the four-set match against Creighton last season. If her presence at the net as a blocker has improved from 2024, this will be a great opportunity to launch the breakout campaign. Texas won their season-opener last year, so let’s do that again. Please? For me.
Wisconsin Badgers
Match Date: August 31, 2025
Match Location: Kohl Center - Madison, WI
2024 Record: 26-7 (17-3, Big Ten)
NCAA Tournament: #2 Seed, Lost to #1 Nebraska in the Elite Eight
Postseason Rank: #7
Result v Texas: L, 1-3 (28-30, 25-23, 15-25, 11-25)
Texas opened the 2024 season with the Badgers in a “neutral” site in Milwaukee for the Women’s College Volleyball Showcase at Fiserv Forum, home of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks and the Greek Freak. This year’s entry into the Wisconsin/Texas volleyball history books will take place at the Kohl Center, the home of the Badgers’ basketball and hockey teams (volleyball’s usual home is at the Wisconsin Field House just a few blocks away). Texas should be no stranger to the Wisconsin home crowd at this point.
Superstar outside hitter Sarah Franklin is no longer in Madison, nor is the 6’9” middle blocker/opposite combo Anna Smrek. In total, nine Badgers played in at least 92 of their 120 sets in 2024. Five of those nine have graduated out of the program, while two more have transferred out to UCLA and Tennessee.
Side note: Did UCLA’s NIL collective really crack the wallet this year or what? Lola Schumacher played a ton of back row for the Badgers last year as a freshman and would be in line to see significant time there again. Instead, she heads to Westwood with former Texas MB Marianna Singletary. That’s at least two transfers from impact players at big time programs that would’ve been shoe-ins to play a lot at those same programs in 2025…
Wisconsin head coach and we-have-Jerritt-Elliott-at-home Kelly Sheffield will have his work cut out for him as he attempts to reload this Badgers program. UW collected an outside hitter from conference rival Ohio State, a middle blocker from Baylor, All-ACC outside hitter Grace Lopez from Miami (FL), and three-time All-American outside hitter Mimi Colyer from Oregon. How quickly the experienced transfers gel into a system being run by experienced sophomore setter Charlie Fuerbringer (did we lose an “e” somewhere at Ellis Island way back when?) will determine the Badgers’ ceiling in 2025.
Much like last year, this is an opportunity for Texas to jump on an elite opponent while they find their footing and start building the postseason resume early in the year. This presents a great opportunity for Torrey Stafford and Ella Swindle to get their chemistry going against a team that will be replacing so many big bodies at the net. Hitting lanes will be open to allow the Texas offense to get rolling. I’d love to leave Madison as glad(ison) as possible with a 2-0 record and head back to the Lone Star State.