Road to the Tourney: Is Texas Volleyball on track to Host a Regional?

With less than a month left until selection Sunday (November 25) where 64 teams will learn whether they go or miss this year’s NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship tournament, a weekend of upsets may make Texas’ goal of being a regional site more likely.  Barring any upsets the likes of Kansas over the #8 Longhorns, the team should benefit from the unexpected losses of undefeated #4 Penn to #17 Purdue and #5 Pitt to unranked Duke this weekend.

Six conference games remain for Texas, four of which will be played on their home court. The odds are in their favor to win out given their dominance in the conference, however, these games are against opponents that have seemingly given them close calls and one huge upset this season: TCU and Kansas State each going five sets, and an upset from Kansas over the Longhorns in Lawrence.  The team’s three non-conference losses were to #2 Stanford (2) and #7 Wisconsin earlier in the season who they may very well face again.

The Longhorns seem to have gelled in recent matches sweeping the last three with a reduction in errors, but also increasing their offensive prowess across their roster of hitters and playing hard defense both at the net and back row.  If they play like they did yesterday in the first set against Oklahoma at Gregory Gym before a sold out crowd, their future looks bright and it may journey through their playing host as a regional site.

Texas Volleyball will take on TCU, a team they beat on the road in 5 sets earlier this month, on Halloween night.