25 minutes ago, SL Xpress said:

Vanderbilt, the Longhorns' next opponent, just beat A&M in 4 sets.

25-21 18-25 25-20 25-21.

Vanderbilt on their way to possibly being a subregional host in their 2nd year as a program. Unbelievable.

That is absolutely incredible. A second-year program already competing at this level in the SEC and potentially in the conversation to host an NCAA subregional? Vanderbilt volleyball is building something special. What an unbelievable turnaround in such a short time. Obviously, hosting isn't guaranteed and will depend on the final resume, selection and seeding, but they're absolutely putting themselves in the conversation. Texas has its hands full! 🤘

Edited Saturday at 03:38 AM1 day by HonkEm

Cari Spears Is really good at this volleyball thing…

Did they beat Vandy?

8 minutes ago, Califashorn75 said:

Did they beat Vandy?

They are up 2 sets to 1. About to start the 4th set.

Thanks. It's the one sport I can't watch. It gives me too much anxiety.

Going 5.

A double bye in the SEC Tournament on the line here…

Just when we thought this team had turned the corner Sigh

Can't miss your serves at critical juncture. Just tanks momentum.

6 minutes ago, mymy32 said:

Can't miss your serves at critical juncture. Just tanks momentum.

Vanderbilt missed plenty of serves, too. I don't think missing serves is the issue.

Vanderbilt puts all kinds of pressure on the opponent when the serves go in. That's something Texas simply doesn't do enough.

Announcers love going on and on and on about service errors. They need to spend more time talking about first ball side outs, when the serve is so ineffective the opponent scores on their first attack.

Texas has a rough time playing from behind. They're not effective enough from the service line to go on runs. So if they're not able to side out efficiently, they're in trouble.

Elliott is aware he needs better serving. It's the whole reason they went to that 5 top spin jump serve fiasco to start the season. But that didn't work, then Vander Wal went out for the season (who wasn't doing well at keeping her serves in the court, but when she did it was the most effective serve on the team), Texas averaged 10 service errors a set, and finally Elliott had to abandon it. But Plan B is having a ton of servers who can't put pressure on the opponent. That's the reality.

Another problem is our middles. I love Bunton and Harvey. I really do. But they're not at the level we've had in the past. They're plenty athletic enough. They're just not elite like what we're used to. Vanderbilt's middles took over the match in sets 4 and 5. How does that happen? They're not even that great.

I'm glad they're playing a lot better than they were early in the year. OU is the only really bad loss on the season. But all those sweeps against South Carolina, Georgia, A&M, and Missouri were against teams who weren't playing nearly as well as Vanderbilt just did. Texas isn't a good enough team to rise to the occasion. They're just not that great of a team this year.

I still hold out hope for a subregional host.

Edited 5 hours ago5 hr by SL Xpress

There better be some staff cahnges cause its pathethic that vandy is getting more development out of the players than texas

Vandy in year 2 of a program I believe.

We’ve been spoiled as fans with Texas being elite for so long, it was bound to come to an end. I just thought it would be when Elliot retired.

Nebraska got lucky in that DBK is an alumni, Cook’s retiring timing, and that’s basically her dream job after showing she was an elite coach at Louisville.

I don’t think any of Texas’ program alumni are at her level so even if Elliot were to retire I don’t know where cdc would turn to. Sullivan maybe but he said he didn’t want to be head coach when he was at Texas. Maybe they steal Morris from A&M.

1 hour ago, SL Xpress said:

Vanderbilt missed plenty of serves, too. I don't think missing serves is the issue.

I disagree. it'san issue.

34 minutes ago, mymy32 said:

I disagree. it'san issue.

In the four sweeps against South Carolina, Georgia, A&M, and Missouri, Texas averaged 2.41 service errors per set.

Against Vanderbilt they averaged...wait for it...2.6 service errors per set.

In the deciding 5th set they had 1 service error, while Vanderbilt had 2.

Texas had 3 service errors in the 2nd set and again in the 3rd - two sets they completely dominated.

Vanderbilt had 4 service errors in the opening set - where they obliterated Texas - and 4 more service errors in the 4th set, which they won, to force the match to 5 sets.

There's not the correlation between service errors and losing the match you're looking for. I'm not saying they're good to have. I'm saying not being able to put pressure on a good team is even worse. Texas doesn't have a service error problem. They have an inability to put pressure on the receiving team problem.

49 minutes ago, HookemTexas said:

Vandy in year 2 of a program I believe.

We’ve been spoiled as fans with Texas being elite for so long, it was bound to come to an end. I just thought it would be when Elliot retired.

Nebraska got lucky in that DBK is an alumni, Cook’s retiring timing, and that’s basically her dream job after showing she was an elite coach at Louisville.

I don’t think any of Texas’ program alumni are at her level so even if Elliot were to retire I don’t know where cdc would turn to. Sullivan maybe but he said he didn’t want to be head coach when he was at Texas. Maybe they steal Morris from A&M.

Texas is still recruiting at an elite level. I don't agree this is the end. We were a #1 seed/regional host just last year, losing in the Elite Eight round.

Honestly, the schedule was too difficult for all the changes Elliott decided to enact. Here are 6 of the 8 losses:

#9 Arizona State

#1 Nebraska

#3 Louisville

$5 SMU

$6 Kentucky

#4 Florida

6 losses to literally top 10 teams. And they do have wins over #7 Wisconsin and #10 Tennessee.

They shouldn't have lost to OU, but the loss to Vanderbilt is to a good team. An excellent serving team.

We have to figure out how to be a better serving team. Our middle blocking is no longer elite. I like both Bunton and Harvey, but they're a step down from what Elliott has put out there for basically his entire career. And there's not another one coming in the next two recruiting classes, so I don't know what's going to happen there. But Stafford, Anderson, and Spears are as good a pin trio as there is in the country. Vander Wal hopefully comes back strong from major knee surgery. Gary is a fantastic libero. Setting isn't elite, but then again, it's almost never been elite during Elliott's entire run.

But if you want to see a program going through an implosion, check out Stanford. They've won more national championships than anyone. It was only a few years ago they were back to back #1 seeds hosting regionals. They're not even ranked this year. They're having a hard time in the NIL/portal era (any sport earning NIL paydays are having difficulties competing for high school talent, and they only accept VERY limited transfers - non NIL sports are still doing great).

So, no sense watching this game later? 😄

1 hour ago, HonkEm said:

So, no sense watching this game later? 😄

You could just watch sets 2 and 3. Texas blasted Vanderbilt off the court in those two sets.

Practically the entire team hit over .300. Stafford, Spears, Anderson, Bunton, and Harvey. Only Gaido didn't. It's a disappointing loss, but the team didn't play badly. Vanderbilt just played better.

Oh, I should say Harris started the game but was pulled in favor of Swindle, so if you're a huge fan of Swindle there's that.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by SL Xpress

1 hour ago, SL Xpress said:

Texas is still recruiting at an elite level. I don't agree this is the end. We were a #1 seed/regional host just last year, losing in the Elite Eight round.

Honestly, the schedule was too difficult for all the changes Elliott decided to enact. Here are 6 of the 8 losses:

#9 Arizona State

#1 Nebraska

#3 Louisville

$5 SMU

$6 Kentucky

#4 Florida

6 losses to literally top 10 teams. And they do have wins over #7 Wisconsin and #10 Tennessee.

They shouldn't have lost to OU, but the loss to Vanderbilt is to a good team. An excellent serving team.

We have to figure out how to be a better serving team. Our middle blocking is no longer elite. I like both Bunton and Harvey, but they're a step down from what Elliott has put out there for basically his entire career. And there's not another one coming in the next two recruiting classes, so I don't know what's going to happen there. But Stafford, Anderson, and Spears are as good a pin trio as there is in the country. Vander Wal hopefully comes back strong from major knee surgery. Gary is a fantastic libero. Setting isn't elite, but then again, it's almost never been elite during Elliott's entire run.

But if you want to see a program going through an implosion, check out Stanford. They've won more national championships than anyone. It was only a few years ago they were back to back #1 seeds hosting regionals. They're not even ranked this year. They're having a hard time in the NIL/portal era (any sport earning NIL paydays are having difficulties competing for high school talent, and they only accept VERY limited transfers - non NIL sports are still doing great).

I don't think it's the end yet, but it's trending that way. Of course it depends on what we're defining as the trending down and the end. For me, the trending down is against the expectations that (again we've been spoiled) Texas is hosting until it gets to weekend where they have no choice but to travel, and really expect to be in the final four. While this is an absurdly high bar, it's one that Texas has achieved consistently.

I disagree with the comparison to Stanford due to your point on NIL - the Stanfords of the world won't decide to compete in NIL and that's their choice. Texas has the resources where NIL should not be a factor - they may not be the best a la Nebraska, but they'll certainly be in the top tier.

My personal expectation (whether realistic or not) is that Texas is a top 4 volleyball program year in and year out with Nebraska being the other one that has the same expectation. This might be because I started watching Texas volleyball when it was the Haley and Baily show and so have pretty much been spoiled with an elite program.