In the first round of the 2025 NCAA Volleyball Tournament, the No. 3 Texas Longhorns (24-3) hosted and swept the Florida A&M Rattlers (14-17) on Friday at Gregory Gym to advance to the second round.
Senior libero Emma Halter broke the Texas three-set record with 25 digs while moving to No. 8 all-time in school history with 1,282 digs. At the net, sophomore middle blocker Ayden Ames set her career high with eight blocks as Texas notched a 42-15 advantage in kills, holding the Rattlers to a -.027 hitting
percentage, the lowest for a Longhorns opponent this season.
In the first set, Texas came out gunning on a 4-0 run with outside hitter Torrey Stafford snagging two back to back kills. The Rattlers where able to force some attacking errors to come back 7-4, but the high-powered Longhorn offense continued to attack to go on another 7-0 to make the set, 15-7. Texas’ defense forced four Florida A&M attacking errors with the aid of junior setter Ella Swindle, who handed out eight assists to close the opening set, 25-11.
In the second set, both teams came out swinging with the Rattlers keeping up forcing early Longhorns attacking errors to keep the set at 3-3. Shortly, Texas opened the floodgates with Stafford, true freshman Abby Vander Wal and senior Whitney Lauenstein leading and collecting 12 kills with a hit percentage of .545 and forcing nine Florida A&M errors to close the second set 25-8.
In the third and final set, Texas took an early 6-2 lead with true freshman Cari Spears recording two kills. The Rattlers showed their grit, but could not handle the Longhorns offense, which hit .345 while holding Florida A&M to a .080 hit percentage, closing the final set 25-14.
In the second round of the 2025 NCAA Volleyball Tournament, Texas will face defending champion Penn State on Saturday at at 6:30 p.m. central on ESPN+.
