After middling start to season, here's how Texas volleyball will adjust before SEC play

Texas volleyball coach Jerritt Elliott has never had 11 days off in a season before.

But then again, he’s probably never needed a break more than now.

After impressing in a 3-1 win over No. 6 Wisconsin Sunday at Moody Center, the No. 7 Longhorns (4-4) enter an extended break before starting SEC play Sept. 25 with a challenging road trip to No. 16 Tennessee.

That doesn’t mean much rest for Elliott and his players, however. The team had Monday off before returning to Gregory Gymnasium, where it can continue to adapt to the 5-1 rotation keyed by setter Rella Binney and tweak the attack.

“There’s so many things that we still can add to our team,” Elliott said. “It’s been really hard to add anything to our systems right now because we’ve just had basically one day in between matches. We’ve had about three and a half total practices.”

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Texas Longhorns setter Rella Binney (3) returns a serve during the volleyball match against Wisconsin at the Moody Center on Sunday, Sep. 13, 2026 in Austin. (Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman)

That lack of practice time comes from a travel-heavy road schedule. Elliott wanted to test his squad early, so he lined up a slate that included seven teams currently ranked in the American Volleyball Coaches Association poll. He also factored in several neutral-site events that created some NIL revenue for his players and program. In the first month of the season, the Longhorns faced No. 12 Arizona State in Milwaukee, Wisc., No. 13 TCU and No. 1 Nebraska in Las Vegas, No. 3 Louisville in Nashville and No. 5 SMU in Dallas.

That means Texas has played just twice in Austin, including Sunday’s win over Wisconsin. The travel and lack of practice time has taken a toll on a team that will enter SEC play without a winning record for the first time in Elliott’s 26 seasons as the Longhorns’ coach.

“It’s crazy, because it feels like we’ve already like gone through a whole season,” outside hitter Torrey Stafford said. “But we haven’t even started a conference yet. But I feel like we’re stacking days and building within our team.”

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Texas Longhorns setter Ella Swindle (1) and middle blocker Taylor Harvey (10) block a spike during the volleyball match against Wisconsin at the Moody Center on Sunday, Sep. 13, 2026 in Austin. (Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman)

Texas had to start a rebuild of sorts after losing starting outside hitter Abby Vander Wal to a season-ending knee injury Aug. 29 in a 3-0 win over TCU. Without the 6-foot-3 Vander Wal to anchor a 6-2 rotation led by setters Rella Binney and Genevieve Harris, Elliott switched to a 5-1 rotation that keeps Binney on the court for the majority of the rotations and brings in 6-3 veteran setter Ella Swindle for some spot duty in the frontcourt.

Binney, a junior from Hawaii in her first season as the starter, didn’t work on a 5-1 throughout the spring and summer. But Elliott says the team is starting to find its groove in the 5-1 rotation, as evident by its .250 hitting percentage against a towering Wisconsin front row, which was the Longhorns’ third-best attack rate of the season. Binney has back-to-back matches with a career-high in assists, including 44 against Wisconsin.

Elliott said the Longhorns will use the break to add “different wrinkles” to the offense, including more sets for middle blocker Taylor Harvey.

“Our coaching staff will really start meeting and start getting what the next building blocks are and what we can continue to grow,” he said. “We need to get Taylor more balls. She’s did a really nice job in the time that she was set and opening things up for us.”

According to Spears, more comfort in the 5-1 means less analytics and more swings. Adapting to a system takes time, but Texas showed against Wisconsin that time could be now.

“We just played free the whole match, and it really worked out for us,” Spears said. “We know how good we can be.”