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Does Texas Have a Hitting Problem?
Texas hit .065 against Arizona State and .152 against Nebraska, and swept nobody ranked above 18th in between. It plays No. 20 USC at home on Wednesday.
Texas is the No. 2 team in a poll that has not moved since 10 August and it has lost half the matches it has played.
The case that nothing is wrong is the schedule. Texas has played Arizona State, Marquette, No. 18 TCU and Nebraska in fifteen days, and it lost only to the two teams that August ballot ranked first and twelfth.
VolleyballMag's Nate Sheridan records Texas beating the No. 1 team in each of its last two such meetings, Nebraska in the 2023 championship match and Wisconsin in 2020.
Nothing in the ballot has moved to reflect any of this. The AVCA's own polls page still carries the 10 August preseason ranking and names no release date for the next Division I women's poll.
The case that something is wrong is the hitting. Arizona State held Texas to .065 in the season opener and Nebraska held it to .152 on Sunday, and Texas served no aces at all in the second of those.
Twenty-one attacking errors on 79 swings is the line from Sunday. Cari Spears was the only Texas player in double figures with 12 kills, and Rella Binney set 26 assists.
Nya Bunton hit a career-high 10 kills against No. 18 TCU on Saturday, per Texas, and three against Nebraska on Sunday. One night separates those two lines.
Four matches is not a season, but two hitting performances under .160 in four is a pattern in a way that one of them would not be.
This is not a schedule artefact. Texas has played two teams from the top twelve and hit under .160 against both, and a neutral floor does not move a hitting percentage.
USC comes to Gregory Gymnasium on Wednesday, and it will be the first time Texas has played at home this season. Anything under .200 in that match and the schedule stops being the explanation.
