Super Easy Conference
Texas begins its 2025 conference schedule with sights firmly set on winning the SEC
Welcome back to Point Texas, dear readers. We hope you had a lovely holiday with friends and family, ideally once again watching Bill Pullman absolutely rip one of the most iconic speeches in cinema history as President Thomas J. Whitmore in the classic 1996 movie Independence Day as he motivates a ragtag band of military and civilian pilots to take the fight back to the aliens that have invaded Earth and destroyed most of our major landmarks. If you haven’t seen it, it is unironically a banger. It’s all of the best parts of 90s action movies. You’ve got Will Smith delivering some overly-quotable one-liners. You’ve got Jeff Goldblum just being himself. I don’t know that Randy Quaid was even acting in this movie playing his role as an alcoholic pilot single dad who claims he was abducted by aliens years earlier. Go ahead. Stop reading and watch it.
Oh, and you can skip the 2016 sequel because it was entirely unnecessary. They killed Will Smith’s character off-screen (A-Train from The Boys plays his son), one of the lesser Hemsworth brothers has a major role, and we have our standard issue Chinese stars since this was made during the heyday of Hollywood unabashedly chasing the Chinese box office. About the only saving grace is that it’s a rare non-horror entry in the Maika Monroe cinematic universe. CGI slopfest otherwise. Trust me.
Anyway, we’ll wait for you to watch Independence Day (1996).
What’d you think? Pretty sick, right? I wouldn’t lead you astray.
In more volleyball-centric news, the Southeastern Conference (SEC) released its preseason All-SEC team and poll last weekend. The team also did its media day, and the ladies have been absolutely blowing up their various social media channels with images and videos from the day. (Sidenote: Follow us on our brand-spanking-new Instagram: @pointtexasvolleyball).
Senior libero Emma Halter and Pitt transfer junior outside hitter Torrey Stafford both were voted onto the All-SEC team. Both are more than well-deserved inclusions on the list. I don’t know that I would say I expected anyone else to make the team, but I think I’d argue Ramsey Gary would be the next most-deserving if anyone was going to join Halter and Stafford. Obviously, Mari Singletary would have certainly made it if she hadn’t left Texas (still sad about it).
On the preseason poll side of things, the Longhorns were voted #2 in the league heading into the season. The Kentucky Wildcats, 2024 SEC champions, enter the year as the favorite to repeat. Given the narrow margin by which the Wildcats led the Horns on the poll, it would appear that the conference generally expects that last year will prove to be little more than a hiccup, rather than the start of a new backslide trend for Texas.
It’s almost like we had insider information and planned our schedule previews accordingly, seeing as how we’re starting to talk about the in-conference slate with today’s article. We don’t have that kind of sway yet. Maybe someday?
Vanderbilt Commodores
Match Date: September 24, 2025
Match Location: Gregory Gymnasium - Austin, TX
2024 Record: N/A (N/A, Southeastern)
NCAA Tournament: N/A
Result v Texas: N/A
This will be one of the quickest write-ups I’ll do about any opponent on Texas’ schedule.
Vandy hasn’t fielded a women’s volleyball team at this level since they participated in the inaugural SEC volleyball tournament in 1979. The program folded after that academic year. Not exactly a ton of history between the programs, nor do we even have returning players to stat-vomit a little bit about. The Commodores have spent the past three years investing in and building the program from the ground up, so it will be interesting to see where Vandy ends up in terms of competitiveness in-conference. The coaches don’t appear to think the ‘Dores will be a doormat as they were ranked #12 of 16 teams in the preseason poll ahead of Auburn, South Carolina, Mississippi State, and Alabama - all of whose programs very much existed before this year. In case it wasn’t already embarrassing enough to be associated with those four schools in the first place.
The SEC didn’t give Vandy any time to ease into the schedule, sending them directly to the most intimidating environment in the conference right off the bat. This should be a clean sweep for the Longhorns to open conference play. Neck crack game.
Missouri Tigers
Match Date: September 26, 2025
Match Location: Gregory Gymnasium - Austin, TX
2024 Record: 22-9 (11-5, Southeastern)
NCAA Tournament: #7 Seed, Lost to #3 Kentucky in the Sweet 16
Postseason Rank: #19
Result v Texas: W, 3-2 (21-25, 25-19, 17-25, 26-24, 15-10)
This was not a super fun time last year. The Tigers were the second in a series of three consecutive five-set losses at home at Gregory for Texas. On the front end, Texas dropped the home match against A&M. Two days after the loss to Mizzou, the Horns faltered again against the Sooners. A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor. Well, we should have a team full of skilled sailors (and fans) after that rash of Ls.
Head coach Dawn Sullivan has overseen a return to form for the Missouri volleyball program since she took the reins in 2023. Their 22-9 record last year was the Tigers’ best since longtime coach Wayne Kreklow’s final year in Columbia in 2018. The run to the Sweet 16 also marked their best postseason showing since the Tigers did the same in 2016 and 2017. Only once in their history has the University of Missouri advanced out of the Sweet 16, with a loss
in the Elite Eight in 2005. This year’s challenge comes in the form of replacing a lot of the netfront presence. Middle Colleen Finney, as well as pin hitters Jordan Iliff and Mychael Vernon have all moved on, representing three of the top four scorers and blockers for the Tigers in 2024.
On the flipside, Missouri crucially still has Marina Crownover setting. Crownover was the heart of the offense for the Tigers last year, accumulating more than 1100 assists. Crownover had transferred to Mizzou from Texas after being on the roster for both the 2022 and 2023 national title teams in Austin. Guess the rings on her finger didn’t slow down her setting any. Senior Maya Sands is also still rocking the libero jersey in Columbia after leading the team in digs in 2024. Sands was named to the preseason All-SEC team this season for her efforts. The Tigers also keep outside hitter Janet deMarrais in the boat for another round after racking up more than 300 kills in 2024. Middle blocker Regan Haith led the team in blocks last season and will also be back in black and gold in 2025.
Missouri represents a return to the Longhorns’ regularly-scheduled programming on the 2025 schedule as the eighth tournament team Texas will have played to this point in the year. With the return of our old friend Marina Crownover to run their offense and their libero still anchoring the defense, it’s easy to see why the Tigers won’t be looking at 2025 as a rebuilding year by any stretch of the imagination. SEC coaches also expect good things, ranking Mizzou #4 in the conference preseason poll. Hopefully by this point in the year, Texas will have re-established the home swagger that they lacked in stretches last fall, and that will be enough to help them secure the victory this September.
Georgia Bulldogs
Match Date: October 1, 2025
Match Location: Stegeman Coliseum - Athens, GA
2024 Record: 12-14 (6-10, Southeastern)
NCAA Tournament: N/A
Postseason Rank: N/A
Result v Texas: L, 1-3 (25-23, 19-25, 20-25, 18-25)
I’m not going to sit here and tell you this is the most convenient scheduling of all time, but I will say that Athens, GA and Gainesville, FL aren’t massively far apart from one another (~6 hours drive time). One could definitely attend the volleyball match Wednesday night and find their way to The Swamp in time for kickoff against the Gators on Saturday. Sprinkle in some Atlanta or Jacksonville time, and I could think of worse ways to spend half a week in the southeastern United States. Food for thought. That’s all.
Georgia was a bit of a messy team last year, to put it nicely. Outside of the surprise upset over the rival Florida Gators (preventing Florida from a shot at sharing the SEC title with Kentucky) and a five-set road win over Tennessee, the Bulldogs were generally among the worst teams in the conference in 2024. To complicate matters for the Dawgs is the loss of their top two scorers in middle blocker Sophie Fischer and second team All-SEC outside Erykah Lovett. Setter Clara Brower is also out of eligibility as is libero Bailey Cox. Times were already tough in Athens, and now they’ll be looking to replace critical players all over the floor this fall.
Georgia did reel in a pair of transfers to try to help with the situation, including opposite Adriana Rhoda from Middle Tennessee and libero Kate Yoshimoto from Colorado State (uncool, Dawgs). OH Bianna Muoneke figures to be the focal point of the Georgia offense in 2025 after being third on the team in kills last year. Additionally, middle blocker Ceci Gooch provides a familiar and reliable face at the net both on offense and defense. However, this will likely be another rough season for the Bulldogs. SEC coaches expect Georgia to finish in the bottom half of the conference again this fall.
After an uninspired home “gentleman’s sweep” of the Bulldogs in 2024, one can only hope that Texas is firing on all cylinders in Athens. This should be an opportunity to find a bit of a groove, but Georgia showed last year that they’re capable of jumping up and tagging good teams if they aren’t taken seriously. The real resistance in the conference schedule won’t come until late October, so Texas should be focused on finding their rhythm and stacking wins at this point in the year.