The No. 3 seed Texas Longhorns (22-2, 13-2) swept the No. 14 seed Ole Miss Rebels (14-15, 4-11) in Savannah on Sunday advance to the 2025 SEC Volleyball Semifinal, the 12th sweep of the season for head
coach Jerritt Elliott’s team.
In the first set, the Longhorns came out hot, attacking with junior outside hitter Torrey Stafford collecting 10 out of her 16 kills on the evening while junior setter Ella Swindle distributed 12 of her 28 assists. Texas went on 9-0 run in the opening set with aid of freshman outside hitter Cari Spears tagging five of her 11 kills. The Longhorns defense capitalized on the Rebel attacking errors throughout the opening set in a resounding 25-11 win.
In the second set, the Longhorns and Rebels came out swinging, countering each other’s attacks until Texas gained an edge with outside hitter Abby Vander Wal and middle blocker Taylor Harvey standing strong at the net to go up 6-3. A 5-0 run was aided by junior libero Ramsey Gary holding down the back line by delivering a service ace to put the Horns ahead 14-6. Texas kept a steady pace and put pressure on Oe Miss with sophomore middle blocker Ayden Ames landing three kills to close the second set, 25-17.
In the final set, the Longhorns shut the door on the Rebels, opening up with a 9-0 run taking advantage of attacks and attacking errors. Texas held the Ole Miss offense to a -0.114 attacking percentage in the final set with the help of two digs from senior libero Emma Halter while Stafford recorded four out of their eight digs on the night. The Longhorns trampled over the Rebels in the closing set, 25-8.
Texas will face No. 2 seed Texas A&M at the Enmarket Arena at 7:30 p.m. Central on Monday on SEC Network with the winner advancing to face the winner of No. 1 Kentucky/No. 4 Tennessee for the SEC Championship.
