The No. 5 Texas Longhorns women’s volleyball is set to open the 2025 season with the Opening Spike Classic at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wisconsin. The Longhorns have two games in the weekend classic with the first match is set f0r Friday against No. 12 Creighton and the second match facing No. 8 Wisconsin on Saturday.
With Texas volleyball media day just wrapping up, Longhorns head coach Jerritt Elliott spoke briefly about the Opening Spike Classic and the upcoming season, which features a preseason
top-10 ranking for the 19th consecutive season.
“I try to schedule tough because I think that playing the best coaches and teams you learn a lot about your team to be able to study the matches and get the freshman comfortable playing in those great moments,” Elliott said.
“Communication, developing, and learning while adding incrementally as the season progresses is key with freshmen. We do have a lot of experience in certain positions and everyone’s ready to get their ears wet with big-time matches.”
After winning back-to-back national championships in 2022 and 2023, Texas fell short of a conference championship in its first season in the SEC after winning seven straight Big 12 titles and 12 out of the last 13, disappointment that continued in the NCAA Tournament with a 3-1 State College Regional loss to Creighton, the season-opening opponent for Texas.
The signs of fracturing were apparent during a regular season that included four losses at Gregory Gym before the postseason failure ended the Madisen Skinner era on the Forty Acres and marked significant roster turnover — a full half of the Longhorns roster is making its debut in burnt orange and white on Friday, a group that includes five freshmen and three transfers.
Among the notable returning Longhorns for the 2025 season are senior libero Emma Halter, who looks to hold down the backline while junior setter Ella Swindle is the distributor with a new focus beside sophomore middle blocker Ayden Ames and redshirt sophomore middle blocker Nya Bunton.
The transfer portal additions are junior liberos Ramsey Gary from Indiana and Anja Kujundzic from VCU, both seeking to help hold the back line down, and the junior All-American outside hitter Torrey Stafford, a Pitt transfer who brings elite power to the Texas attack after finishing second on the Panthers squad in points (457.5) and kills (400) while leading all Power Four outside hitters with a .358 hitting percentage.
Longhorn freshmen expected to make an impact in the 2025 season are middle blocker Taylor Harvey, the No. 1-ranked middle blocker in the 2025 class, outside hitter Cari Spears, a native Texan and AVCA High School and Texas Gatorade Player of the Year, and AVCA High School 1st Team All-American outside hitter Abby Vander Wal, who was the Illinois Gatorade Player of the Year.
Creighton has already opened its 2025 season with a loss to Penn State in Lincoln, Nebraska because of a .167 hitting percentage as senior outside hitter Ava Martin recorded 19 kills and senior sitter Annalea Maeder recorded 34 assists.
Senior middle blocker Carter Booth returns for Wisconsin after recording 182 kills in the 2024 season and will receive service from sophomore setter Charlie Fuerbringer, who had 1,270 assists last year.
First serve on Friday against Creighton is at 8:30 p.m. Central followed by a 1 p.m. Central start against Wisconsin on Saturday. Both games will stream on the Big Ten Network.
