The No . 4 Texas Longhorns (18-2) travel to Gainesville to face the Florida Gators (13-8) on Friday with only three regular-season matches remaining before the SEC and NCAA Tournaments.
The Longhorns have
won 58 of their last 61 road matches dating back to the 2019 season, and since the 2011 season Texas has produced a 133-24 (.847) record in true road matches, with only seven of those losses coming to unranked teams. A determined Texas team looks to get back in the win column in SEC play as they travel to the Sunshine State for the 27th matchup in the all-time series, which Florida leads 15-11, although the Horns hold a two-game winning streak against the Gators and have won six of the last 10 matches overall.
After surviving nine matchups against ranked opponents, including five-set wins over No. 5 Stanford, No. 7 Louisville, and No. 19 Tennessee, head coach Jerritt Elliott’s team finally ran out of gas last week with consecutive losses, starting with a five-set loss to No. 6 Texas A&M in College Station on Friday prior to a sweep by No. 2 Kentucky at home, dropping Texas from No. 2 to No. 4 in the national rankings and from No. 1 to No. 2 in the RPI.
So, what happened last weekend?
The short version is that Texas got behind early, losing the first two sets against Texas A&M before recovering to send the match into a pivotal fifth season and never bouncing back at home against Kentucky. In College Station, the Aggies were more effective at the net, recording a 14-4 advantage in blocks as junior outside hitter Torrey Stafford and freshmen outside hitters Cari Spears and Abby Vander Wal combined for 18 attacking errors. So even though the Horns out-hit the Aggies, .329 to .310, it wasn’t enough because A&M’s outside hitter Kyndal Stowers recorded the two decisive kills to win the second set before an ace by Stowers and a kill by middle blocker Ifenna Cos-Okpala secured the fifth set.
Fueled by the partisan crowd at Reed Arena, the Aggies fought for the highest ranked home win in school history before Cos-Okpala’s career-high 15 kills, and a season-high 22 kills by Stowers — that’s how good A&M had to be to narrowly beat Texas.
In the sweep by the Wildcats, the Longhorns didn’t do enough offensively or defensively, hitting .248, and couldn’t slow down a Kentucky attack that recorded a .353 hitting percentage behind dominant performances from its star outside hitters, Eva Hudson and Brooklyn DeLeye. Hudson recorded a match-high 20 kills with only one hitting error on 42 swings for a .452 hitting percentage. DeLeye was equally efficient, hitting .417 thanks to 18 kills and only three errors on her 36 swings.
Unable to take advantage of the homecourt advantage at Gregory Gym, Texas allowed Kentucky to gain confidence in the first set when the Wildcats hit .571 with 16 kills and zero attacking errors. With the current Kentucky winning streak now at 16 games, that was all the Cats needed even when the Horns limited their attacking efficiency over the second two sets, both two-point wins by Kentucky. The Wildcats have now won all 10 true away matches this season.
Florida enters Friday with a 7-1 home record and 8-4 mark in conference play, good for fourth place behind Texas. Among SEC teams, the Gators rank fourth in kills per set with 13.94 and fifth in assists per set with 12.74, led by redshirt junior setter Alexis Stucky, who’s personally ranks fifth in the conference with 9.82 assists per set. Florida sits tenth in hitting percentage at.244, with Jaela Auguste leading the way with a .354 hitting percentage, ninth in the SEC. Defensively, the Gators rank fourth in SEC play in digs per set with 14.27 and ninth in opponent hitting percentage at .214.
First serve at Exatech Arena is at 6 p.m. Central on SEC Network.
