Texas volleyball head coach Jerritt Elliott is not typically one to tinker with his lineups.
For a majority of the season, the No. 4 Longhorns have consistently started a lineup made up of junior setter Ella Swindle, junior outside hitter Torrey Stafford, sophomore middle blocker Ayden Ames, freshman outside hitter Cari Spears, junior libero Ramsey Gary and senior libero Emma Halter.
For a lineup that propelled Texas to an 18–0 start, what would be the reason to change anything? Elliott’s team cruised through the first two months of the season and had passed virtually every test that had come its way.
Towards the end of the win streak, however, the performances began to be more lackluster.
“We’ve lost our rhythm in terms of how we’re playing the game right now,” Elliott said. “And as I told the team, that falls on me as a coach. … We’ve had really good play for a lot of the season, but right now, we’ve lost that a little bit. We’ve got to figure that out.”
Offensively, since the match against Missouri on Sept. 26, the Longhorns have had a hitting percentage of at least .350 only once against Georgia. In the four prior, they achieved that mark each time, three of which had been over .400.
Around this time Swindle suffered a lower leg injury that kept her out of the match against Vanderbilt on Sep. 24. Although she returned soon after, the setting as of recently has been slightly off compared to the start of the season, leading the outside hitters to be less forceful.
Swindle’s struggles resulted in sophomore setter Rella Binney seeing more action. She became the primary setter in the second set against then No. 3 Kentucky, which sparked the Longhorns’ comeback in the set before ultimately losing the match as a whole. In the previous match against Florida, she accumulated her second-highest assist count. This signals that her role as a setter may be increasing as the end of the season approaches.
Another development was the inclusion of redshirt senior outside hitter Whitney Lauenstein against Florida. After slowly ramping up to form from her leave in 2023, she finally got meaningful court time and impacted the third and fourth sets, totaling six kills on 11 swings with zero errors. Lauenstein’s play was key to closing out the match, and her inclusion will only add to an extremely strong outside hitter rotation for Texas.
Despite the offensive prowess, Texas has continued to struggle defensively. The Longhorns have been out-blocked in four of the last six matches — most notably losing in that department 13.5 to 6 in an Oct. 19 win against Oklahoma. The increased role of Ames has led to some success recently, particularly in the second set against Kentucky, but defensive net aggression is something that will have to improve from this squad.
Nonetheless, Texas is still in the running for the national title. To re-achieve the form his team had in September, Elliott prioritized getting back to basics and working on systematic play. The next two matches against Auburn and South Carolina will be crucial to finding a rhythm before the Southeastern Conference and NCAA tournaments.
