Right when the Texas Longhorns started to look like their usual, dominant selves again, the team took a drastic step back.
The Horns headed to the Players Era Showcase with a 1-1 record to their name, but were coming off a five-set win over Marquette. The momentum continued, and No. 1 Texas blew past the No. 18 TCU Horned Frogs in straight sets.
Things were looking good again. It seemed as though head coach Jerritt Elliott had gotten things back on track and was ready to go on a winning streak.
That was, until the Longhorns had to face the No. 1 Nebraska Cornhuskers in just the fourth game of the season. Yes, the Huskers are the top team in the nation, but more frequently than not, the Horns can keep pace with all of the best teams. That truth didn't apply to Sunday's matchup.
Fresh off their straight-sets win, the Longhorns were swept by the Cornhuskers, never breaking the 20-point mark in a set.
In other words, the Players Era Showcase was one step forward, one step backward for the Texas volleyball program.
Texas volleyball has 4 non-conference games left to figure things out
In a match that ended in a 25-19, 25-19, 25-16 straight-set victory for Nebraska, the Horns looked as rocky and unsure of themselves as they did in the season opener, which they lost in four sets to the No. 12 Arizona State Sun Devils.
Texas committed 21 errors, to Nebraska's 14, and produced just 33 kills, to Nebraska's 38. While the Cornhuskers hit at nearly 30 percent, the Longhorns dipped well below 20 percent. In fact, the Horns were outplayed in almost every single stat column.
Stat | Texas | Nebraska |
|---|---|---|
Points | 37.0 | 55.5 |
Kills | 33 | 38 |
Aces | 0 | 7 |
Blocks | 4 | 10.5 |
Assists | 31 | 34 |
Digs | 22 | 20 |
The only area where Texas played "better" than Nebraska was when it came to digs that the two teams produced, with the Horns only earning two more digs than the Huskers.
This is far from the usual production levels that we see out of the Longhorns, the program that won two of the last four National Championships. Making matters worse, Elliott only has four non-conference games remaining to figure out what's going wrong before SEC play begins.
Unfortunately, Texas doesn't exactly have any "easy" non-conference opponents on the horizon, with all four games coming against top-25 teams.
- No. 20 USC Trojans - Wednesday, Sept. 2
- No. 7 Louisville Cardinals - Sunday, Sept. 6
- No. 11 SMU Mustangs - Wednesday, Sept. 9
- No. 6 Wisconsin Badgers - Sunday, Sept. 13
Then, the season will only get more difficult with four other teams in the SEC being ranked within the top 25 (the Horns are the highest-ranked program in the conference at No. 2 in the national polls).
Ranked SEC teams on Texas volleyball's schedule
Simply put, the Longhorns aren't going to catch a break to "find themselves" as the season progresses, so Elliott is going to have to push the team through this rough patch to be ready for SEC play, the subsequent conference tournament, and the NCAA Tournament to follow.
- No. 22 Tennessee Volunteers, Friday, Sept. 25
- No. 3 Kentucky Wildcats - Sunday, Sept. 27
- No. 17 Florida Gators - Sunday, Oct. 18
- No. 8 Texas A&M Aggies - Sunday, Nov. 1
No. 2 Texas is set to host No. 20 USC at Gregory Gym on Wednesday, Sept. 2, and the first home game of the season may be exactly what the Horns need right now.
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