Texas volleyball tested its ability to overcome adversity early during a Sunday afternoon game against the unranked Alabama Crimson Tide. Texas fell early in set one to a 12-5 run from Alabama, highlighted by four errors committed by the Longhorns.
Those shortcomings were reflected again at the beginning of the second set, during which Texas at one point went down 5-0, in part due to attack errors from outside hitters senior Torrey Stafford and sophomore Cari Spears.
Despite the early woes in the first two sets, the Longhorns were mostly able to dig themselves out of the holes they found themselves in. Texas pulled off a comeback to win the first set 25–23 and battled in the second set before eventually falling 23–25.
Texas returned to form as the No. 8 team in the nation in sets three and four, avoiding playing down to unranked competition and finally taking home a win in Gregory Gymnasium 3-1.
Texas’ turnaround came energized thanks to the pair of star outside hitters that have been holding up the Texas attack all season. Stafford and Spears combined for 35 kills against Alabama, including Spears’ 500th career kill for the Longhorns.
“(Stafford) took some nice swings at the end of the game,” head coach Jerritt Elliott said. “I thought that she got a lot more aggressive in that last set, the last half of that set. I was really proud of her for that, and that made a big difference for us.”
Texas remained without senior middle blocker Nya Bunton, who was seen sitting on the bench before the game in a knee brace. With Bunton out, Texas rotated in a pair of sophomore middle blockers, Taylor Harvey and Mackenzie Collins.
Harvey and Collins combined for twelve blocks against Alabama, with Collins recording six blocks in her second game for Texas. The pair’s efforts and ability to provide Bunton with an opportunity to rest during the weekend in Austin could prove key to Texas’ continued successes in conference play.
Texas and Elliott’s ideology with serving this season is to take the good with the bad, and against Alabama, there proved to be a lot of bad. Texas’ 16 service errors against Alabama tied its highest in a single game since it had 24 against Marquette on Aug. 24. Following Friday’s game against Mississippi State, Elliott made a note that Texas had to be better with serving, and this game appears to reinforce the idea, but no change seems imminent.
“We’ll find out in the long-term,” Elliott said Sunday. “We (need to come in) prepared to play at this level, and we didn’t do that today.”
Gregory Gymnasium remains a tough place for opponents to play. The home crowd made its presence felt with loud cheers throughout the game and a continued tenacity despite early struggles. With the win over Alabama, Texas pushes its home record to 4-0 on the year.
Texas has not lost a regular season home game since November 2025, in a loss to Kentucky. That loss was one of two Texas took in Austin all of the last season, and one of seven that Texas suffered in the past three regular seasons. Texas thrives at home — a good sign for a team with playoff aspirations with many home games left to play this season.
Texas hits the road to play Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas on Friday at 7 p.m.
