SEC Home Opener Preview
Texas faces Mississippi State and Alabama in their first conference homestand of the 2026 campaign
As we enter the conference schedule portion of our preview series, the real world enters the final week of the World Cup. This week is also both the draft and the All-Star Game for Major League Baseball. To put it simply: we’re about to be in the peak of the offseason. We’ll be left with only mid-summer baseball well ahead of the playoff push on a daily basis and racing - be it F1 or NASCAR or IndyCar - occurring all-but-exclusively on the weekends.
There is the Volleyball Nations League, where the US women and head coach Erik Sullivan have improved dramatically since last year’s messy tournament, but that doesn’t have a ton of weeks left either. Texas has showed out well, however, with Exes Asjia O’Neal, Chiaka Ogbogu, Molly McCage, Logan Eggleston, and Saige Ka’aha’aina Torres all putting in solid rotations for Sully.
The good news is we’re roughly as far from the start of volleyball season as the start of volleyball season is from Texas’ SEC home opener. That’s somehow only the second match that Texas will host at the Greg despite coming a month and a half into the season. Let’s discuss what to expect out of Mississippi State and Alabama this fall, two teams who finished in the bottom half of the conference standings last season.
Note: Neither Mississippi State nor Alabama played enough RPI Top 50 opponents last season, so all the players listed fail to qualify for a national rank based on the pGIS scores. Didn’t want your eyes to start bleeding the fifteenth time you saw “N/A” show up in this article.
Mississippi State Bulldogs
Match Date: October 2, 2026
Match Location: Gregory Gymnasium - Austin, TX
2025 Record: 16-10 (6-9, SEC)
NCAA Tournament: Failed to qualify
Postseason Rank: Unranked
Result v Texas: L, 0-3 (14-25, 19-25, 15-25)
Last season was far from a banner year in Stark Vegas for the MSU volleyball squad as they fell well short of the NCAA tournament and got swept out of the first round of the SEC tournament. There were few positives to discuss for the Bulldogs, though they did manage a five-set road upset of the Florida Gators. Additionally, OH Lindsey Mangelson was named not only to the All-SEC Freshman Team but the All-SEC Second Team. Head coach Julie Darty Dennis and her staff are now tasked with finding ways to capitalize by building around their star underclassman.
Key Losses
OH Mele Corral-Blagojevich (pGIS 3.6)
Key Returners
OH Lindsey Mangelson (7.3 pGIS)
MB Gha’Naye Whitfield-Moss (5.0 pGIS)
S Cayley Hanson (4.8 pGIS)
OH Maria Bernardita Aguilar Toranza (3.7 pGIS)
L McKenna Yates (3.7 pGIS)
Key Additions
OH Sydnie Waller (1.9 pGIS) from Syracuse
Mississippi State was fortunate this offseason to only lose Mele Corral-Blagojevich from their squad, the #3 pin hitter on the team according to our pGIS rankings. Keeping their core rotation together will be huge as they look to take a step forward in 2026.
The aforementioned Mangelson leads an attack that also returns the team’s #2 pin hitter, #1 middle blocker, and setter from 2025. Returning the libero, McKenna Yates, as well as both of their defensive specialists Mary Neal and Avery Power also solidifies the back-row defense. That kind of roster turnover - or, more accurately, lack thereof - means that there are a lot of known quantities that can develop individually and as a coherent unit together. There’s a very legitimate reason for optimism in Starkville this fall.
The Syracuse transfer, Sydnie Waller, will push to start on the right pin and allow Noella Obi, the MB/OPP, to stick firmly in the middle where she put up solid blocking numbers in 2025. The incoming freshman class will provide much-needed depth to a quietly strengthening program.
In total, Mississippi State’s ceiling this year is finding their way into the national tournament as well as being able to make more noise in the SEC tournament. While jumping up to challenge for the conference title would be a surprise, this can still be a quality test for the Horns in their SEC home opener. Texas swept the Bulldogs in Starkville last fall; another sweep this year would be a significantly better feather in the team’s cap.
Alabama Crimson Tide
Match Date: October 4, 2026
Match Location: Gregory Gymnasium - Austin, TX
2025 Record: 14-13 (5-10, SEC)
NCAA Tournament: Failed to qualify
Postseason Rank: Unranked
Result v Texas: L, 1-3 (25-20, 16-25, 23-25, 18-25)
The Tide exposed the first crack in the Longhorns’ facade in 2025 in SEC play. Their taking the first set was the first dropped by Texas in conference play last fall and only the second set loss they had suffered against unranked opponents to that point in the season (occurring 14 matches into the year). By and large, Bama was non-competitive with any of the quality opponents on their schedule: of the five ranked opponents the Crimson Tide played, they managed to win only three total sets. They did manage to string together three wins in their final four matches of the regular season before a second-round loss to Florida in the SEC tournament ended their season.
Key Losses
OH Victoria Barrett (5.4 pGIS)
L Trinity Stanger (5.2 pGIS)
Key Returners
S Hannah Parant (5.1 pGIS)
OH Kayleigh Palmer (3.1 pGIS)
MB Ashby Daniel (3.1 pGIS)
MB Lily Gervase (3.0 pGIS)
Key Additions
OH Mya Allen (3.9 pGIS) from Saint Mary’s
L Dionii Fraga (4.7 pGIS) from Oklahoma
Alabama’s two biggest difference makers last season were grad transfers in the form of Victoria Barrett and Trinity Stanger. Even as the Tide’s critical components last season, their pGIS scores show that they were only solid players, not elite ones. Unfortunately for head coach Rashinda Reed, the financial support that many of the other (men’s) sports receive in Tuscaloosa hasn’t quite found its way to the volleyball program, so there are no overnight fixes in store for Bama. Any and all improvements in the program will need to be primarily home-grown.
The front row is in reasonably good shape with the return of both middle blockers, the #2 pin, and their quarterback in setter Hannah Parant. Even if what returns isn’t scary, known quantities will at least allow the team to build some consistency as a unit and focus many of their efforts on repairing the back line in the wake of Stanger’s graduation: no other back-row player on the roster last season delivered a pGIS higher than 0.4. To put that in perspective: Keonilei Akana turned in a 1.5 pGIS in 2022 behind both Zoe Fleck and Emma Halter against a much more difficult schedule than the Tide faced last season. The tl;dr? Alabama’s back row is in serious trouble.
Dionii Fraga was the focal point of the Sooners’ back-row defense last season but made the move to Tuscaloosa instead for 2026, a move we strongly support since it comes at the expense of OUsucks. Mya Allen should also provide a stable enough secondary pin hitter for the Crimson Tide to boot.
Alabama is destined to once again be among the bottom of the SEC in 2026. With this match occurring in a rocking Gregory Gym, expect gnashing of teeth from the Texas fanbase if the Tide manage to take a set off the Horns.
At first glance on the schedule, this week of matches seems like an afterthought. That feels doubly true in comparison to Texas’ out-of-conference schedule and the opponents they start with on the road to open SEC play. However, Mississippi State is a far better team than initial impressions will give it credit for. With that match following the big road matches in Knoxville and Lexington, the Bulldogs sit in a prime letdown spot. Texas’ ability to execute in the return to Gregory Gym will tell us a lot about the team’s mental fortitude right at the start of SEC play.