We are less than three weeks into the college volleyball season, and the Texas Longhorns have already lost three matches.
For reference, out of the Horns' 30 matches last season, they dropped just four.
Now, the very team that won two of the last four National Championships is seemingly flying toward a losing record before the brutality of SEC play even begins, and head coach Jerritt Elliott simply hasn't had any of the necessary answers so far.
Currently, Texas sits at 3-3 overall, just one defeat shy of their loss total from the entirety of last season and just two games away from the beginning of conference play.
In other words, Elliott needs to figure out what's wrong, and he needs to figure it out quickly.
The problem? The next two opponents on Texas's schedule aren't exactly teams Elliott can experiment against.
The Longhorns are set to take on the No. 8 SMU Mustangs and the No. 6 Wisconsin Badgers over the next four days, and Texas's rotation will have to be more rock-solid than it has been all season if the team wants to head into the rest of the season with any semblance of momentum.
Texas volleyball must play almost perfectly vs. SMU, Wisconsin
So far this season, the Mustangs have dropped just one game, and that was to the TCU Horned Frogs, whom the Longhorns actually defeated just over a week ago.
Beyond that one loss, though, SMU has been playing brilliant volleyball, and it will be a standard that the Horns will have to raise to when they travel to Dallas on Wednesday, Sept. 9.
SMU has held its opponents to just a 0.191 hitting rate, a category where Texas has already struggled throughout the first six games of the season. Not to mention that the Mustangs have committed fewer errors and produced more blocks than their opponents, while the Horns have struggled to find consistency at the net.
How to watch Texas volleyball vs. SMU Mustangs
- Date & Time: Wednesday, Sept. 9 at 8 p.m. CT
- Location: Moody Coliseum, Dallas, TX
- TV/Streaming: ACC Network, fuboTV
- Live stats: StatBroadcast
Then, just a few days later, Texas will host the Badgers at the Moody Center, and despite what the rankings might suggest, Wisconsin has experienced a start to the season extremely similar to that of the Horns.
The Badgers have long been one of the strongholds in women's college volleyball, and that is expected to continue this season, just like the expectations for the Horns. However, they have also had a rocky start to the year.
Wisconsin entered this week with a 3-3 record to its name, losing to Kentucky, Stanford, and Pitt, but defeating the Louisville Cardinals, one of the teams to have swept Texas so far.
How to watch Texas volleyball vs. Wisconsin Badgers
- Date & Time: Sunday, Sept. 13 at 2 p.m. CT
- Location: Moody Center, Austin, TX
- TV/Streaming: ESPN, fuboTV
- Live stats: StatBroadcast
Simply put, Elliott and the Longhorns didn't shy away from scheduling big-time opponents this season, but so far, it has led to a pretty mediocre start, at least in relation to what is expected of the Texas volleyball program.
However, with a coach like Elliott holding the reins and a roster as filled with talent as Texas has, it shouldn't be a surprise if this team turns things around in the blink of an eye.
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