Volleyball game between the Texas Longhorns and Rice Owls at Gregory Gym in Austin, Texas on August 14, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)
Texas Volleyball needed a response after a difficult season opener, and the No. 2 Longhorns found one in a match that required all five sets. Texas defeated Marquette 22-25, 25-19, 25-16, 23-25, 15-8 at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, closing the AVCA First Serve with its first victory of the season.
Two days after struggling offensively against Arizona State, Texas again had to work through an uneven start. Marquette took the opening set 25-22 in a frame that included eight ties and several momentum swings. The Longhorns pulled even at 14-14 behind a kill from Abby Vander Wal, but the Golden Eagles answered with a five-point run that created the separation they needed. Texas cut the deficit to two at 21-19 after Vander Wal and Taylor Harvey combined for a block, but Marquette stayed in front and finished the set.
The second set looked as though it might follow a similar path. Marquette opened a 4-1 advantage, and neither team could create much distance through the middle of the frame. Texas finally began to take control with its serving and work at the net. A service ace from Ramsey Gary tied the score at 17-17, and Cari Spears followed with a kill to make it 18-18. Setter Rella Binney then delivered an ace for a 19-18 lead, putting Texas ahead for good.
From there, the Longhorns played their cleanest stretch of the match to that point. Spears, Nya Bunton and Torrey Stafford combined for a block that extended the lead to 23-18, and Stafford eventually ended the set with a kill. The 25-19 win evened the match and gave Texas a much-needed shift in momentum.
That carried directly into the third. The teams were tied at 8-8 before Texas began to pull away, using a 9-4 run to take a 17-12 lead. Spears was especially effective from the service line, recording two aces during the run, while Vander Wal and Stafford supplied points from the attack. Texas also created problems at the net, preventing Marquette from settling into the offensive rhythm it had shown earlier.
The Longhorns continued to widen the gap rather than allowing the Golden Eagles back into the set. Vander Wal added another kill and an ace, and Harvey provided two late kills as Texas finished off a 25-16 victory. The offensive improvement was significant. After hitting .105 in the opening set and .182 in the second, Texas hit .343 in the third with 15 kills and only three errors.
Marquette refused to let the match end in four. The Golden Eagles built a 15-11 lead in the fourth and maintained an advantage deep into the set. Texas trailed 18-14 before Stafford served an ace that helped start another push. Three consecutive Longhorn kills reduced the margin to 18-17, and a block by Harvey and Henley Anderson later brought Texas within a point at 22-21.
The Longhorns kept applying pressure and fought off multiple set points, but Marquette held together long enough to force a fifth. A Texas service error ended the frame at 25-23, sending the match to a deciding set after nearly four sets of back-and-forth volleyball. The fifth was far less complicated. Spears opened the set with three consecutive kills as Texas quickly took control. A block involving Spears and Bunton helped push the early advantage to 5-0, giving the Longhorns the kind of cushion they had rarely enjoyed during the rest of the night. Marquette managed to trim the margin, but Texas never allowed the set to become another extended fight.
Stafford added two kills during the early portion of the fifth, and another Stafford swing made it 10-6. Anderson followed with a kill for a 12-7 lead. Vander Wal and Spears then supplied the final points as Texas closed the set 15-8 and the match 3-2. The fifth set was also the Longhorns' best offensive performance of the night. Texas hit .529 with 11 kills and only two attack errors on 17 attempts, an emphatic finish for a team that had spent much of its opening weekend trying to find consistency on offense.
Stafford led Texas with 19 kills and 12 digs while hitting .341, giving the senior outside hitter a double-double. Spears was nearly as productive with 17 kills, seven digs and four service aces while hitting .371. Vander Wal added 14 kills, two aces and four blocks. Binney finished with 36 assists and 11 digs, matching her career high in assists and recording a double-double. Gary led the Longhorns with 16 digs, while Bunton was a major presence at the net with seven blocks and five kills.
Texas finished with 65 kills compared with 42 for Marquette and held a sizable advantage in hitting percentage, .258 to .104. Serving was another important difference. The Longhorns recorded 10 aces, while the Golden Eagles finished with three. Marquette did hold a narrow 12-11 advantage in blocks and matched Texas with 59 digs. For Marquette, Carson Tyler made an immediate impact in her debut with 18 kills, nine digs and an ace. Freshman setter Luanna Markus recorded 35 assists, 11 digs and six blocks in her first collegiate match, while Emi Juric led the Golden Eagles with 13 digs.
The match was the first regular-season meeting between the programs and only their second matchup overall. Their previous meeting came in the NCAA Tournament, with Texas also earning the victory. More importantly for the Longhorns, the five-set win provided an immediate response to the loss against Arizona State that opened the season. Texas had hit only .065 in that match and struggled to sustain offensive pressure. Against Marquette, the improvement was visible as the evening progressed. The Longhorns hit .141 across the first two sets, then climbed to .343 in the third, .278 in the fourth and .529 in the fifth.
That progression mattered as much as the final score. Texas still had stretches where the offense stalled and Marquette was able to turn small advantages into meaningful runs. The fourth set also showed that closing a match remained a work in progress. But when the match reached its deciding points, the Longhorns were at their sharpest. A 1-1 record was probably not how a team ranked No. 2 envisioned leaving its opening weekend, but the two matches provided very different lessons. The loss to Arizona State exposed problems that needed attention. The win over Marquette showed Texas could make adjustments within a match, respond after losing a set and play its best volleyball when there was no room left for another mistake.
University of Texas Volleyball
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