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Louisville Sweeps Texas, Opens With 25-12
No. 9 Texas are 3-3 and have not won a set since Wednesday. Five of the six teams they have played this season were ranked on the day they met.
Texas are ranked ninth and have not won a set since Wednesday.
No. 6 Louisville swept them 3-0 (25-12, 28-26, 25-16) at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville on Sunday, and the opening set is the widest margin Texas have conceded this season.
Torrey Stafford had 14 kills and 10 digs, the only double-double on the Texas side of a match that lasted three sets. Cari Spears had 12 kills and Rella Binney 27 assists.
Louisville are 5-1 and Texas are 3-3, and one of those two rankings is about to move.
The question here three days ago was whether Texas had fixed a hitting problem. Sunday was their second sweep defeat since 30 August, and this one had a 25-12 in it.
Texas had beaten No. 15 USC 3-0 four days earlier, in the same Challenge Week that ended at Wrigley Field on Sunday night with one match unplayed, which is the same team taking a sweep in each direction inside five days.
Five of the six teams Texas have played were ranked on the day they met. They lost to No. 12 Arizona State, to No. 1 Nebraska and now to Louisville, and beat No. 18 TCU and No. 15 USC in between.
A 3-3 assembled entirely out of ranked opponents is a different object from a 3-3 assembled out of anybody.
Texas will fall in Monday's poll, because a poll counts results and theirs are three defeats by teams ranked twelfth, first and sixth. The record is the thin part of this team and the schedule is not.
They play at No. 8 SMU on Wednesday night in Dallas. Anything shorter than four sets and the schedule stops being the explanation.
