Texas volleyball ascendant once more

Driving the news: The Longhorns face 21st-ranked Missouri Friday night at Gregory Gym.

• The match is sold out — as are the five other regular-season home appearances remaining for Texas.
• Among those is the Nov. 2 showdown with the defending SEC champion, the University of Kentucky.

State of play: Texas has already beaten top-25 ranked squads seven times this season — and completed sweeps in five of them.

• A lot of that is due to aerial dominance: Freshman standout Cari Spears led the Longhorns with 18 kills in a win against Baylor a week ago.
• In a match Wednesday night, the Longhorns swept Vanderbilt behind junior Torrey Stafford, as she reached the 900 career kills milestone.

What they're saying: The tough early schedule will pay dividends for the team's cohesiveness, head coach Jerritt Elliott said at a press conference this week.

• "You challenge yourself to see what your team's made of and to see what stress levels they're going to have," Elliott said. "You want to see how you can push the buttons, if you need to scream at them, or do you need to be calm with them."

Flashback: Last season, Texas volleyball finished with a 20-7 overall record and was ranked ninth in the final NCAA rankings — not shabby, but not quite up to championship standards.

• The Longhorns' season concluded with an NCAA Regional Semifinal loss to Creighton, which was just the second time they failed to advance past the Sweet 16 in 19 seasons.
• Yes, but: Among its victories this season, the Longhorns began their campaign by sweeping then-No. 12 Creighton to get a bit of revenge.

The big picture: Texas volleyball last won a national championship in 2023, when they defeated the top-ranked University of Nebraska to claim their second consecutive title and their fifth overall national championship.

The intrigue: Nebraska is ranked No. 1 again.