No. 1 Volleyball preview: TCU - University of Texas Athletics (2024)

The Longhorns return to Gregory Gymnasium to host the TCU Horned Frogs.

No. 1 Texas Volleyball vs. TCU
Texas: 13-0 (4-0) | TCU: 7-7 (1-3)
Thursday, Oct. 14 – 7 p.m. CT | Friday, Oct. 15 – 7 p.m. CT
Gregory Gymnasium | Austin, Texas

THE MATCHUP
Texas leads the all-time series with TCU 20-1, including a 10-0 mark all-time in Austin. The Longhorns have won the last 10 matches, sweeping four-straight contests. Last season, Logan Eggleston and Skylar Fields put up big numbers in back-to-back sweeps of the Horned Frogs. Eggleston finished with 31 kills and a .517 hitting percentage, while Fields had 25 kills and a .489 hitting percentage.

RANKINGS
Texas remains as the No. 1 ranked team in the 2021 AVCA Poll for the seventh-consecutive week. Returning nearly the entire roster from the team that finished as the NCAA runner-up last season, Texas was picked first in the Preseason AVCA Coaches' Poll. The Longhorns are one of two Big 12 teams in the top-25 as Baylor sits at No. 11.

UNDEFEATED
With a 13-0 start to the season, the Longhorns are one of two remaining undefeated teams. Louisville is out to a 16-0 start and sits second in the AVCA poll. Pittsburgh started the season 15-0 before dropping its first match last weekend. Last season, the Longhorns started the season 20-0 before dropping their only regular season match.

HOME COURT ADVANTAGE
A large part of the Longhorns winning nine of the last 10 Big 12 Championships has come down to winning at home. Texas has won 53-straight home matches in Big 12 play, dating back to the 2014 season. During that streak, the Longhorns have had 40 sweeps and only dropped a total of 16 sets. Over the last 11 seasons, the Longhorns have gone 89-1 in home league matches. The Longhorns' only home Big 12 loss since 2010 came against Oklahoma on Oct. 25, 2014.

EFFICIENCY
Texas ranks third nationally with a .326 hitting percentage this season. Brionne Butler leads the Big 12, hitting .415, while Asjia O'Neal is hitting .394, Molly Phillips is at .370 and Skylar Fields is hitting .332. All four players rank in the top-10 in the Big 12. Last season, Texas hit .334 on the season to finish third in the nation. That mark was also the fourth-best in Longhorn history. The 2019 team led the nation with a .325 hitting percentage, which is the fifth-best in Texas history. The Longhorns hit over a .300 clip in each of the last six seasons from 2015-20, all ranking in the top-10 single season marks in program history.

ACE IN THE HOLE
The Longhorn service game has been lethal early this season, currently ranking third in the nation with 2.13 aces per set (96 aces in 45 sets). Melanie Parra leads the team with 26 aces and Logan Eggleston has 24. Nalani Iosia has 14 aces and Asjia O'Neal is fourth on the team with 13. In all, Texas has six players with seven or more aces so far this season.

ROAD WARRIORS
The Longhorns have been great on the road too, winning 16-straight road matches dating back to the 2019 season. Since the 2011 season Texas has produced a 97-18 (.843) record in true road matches, with only four of those losses coming to unranked teams. The Longhorns' last road loss was in five-sets at then-No. 3 Baylor in 2019.

WEEKLY AWARDS
Skylar Fields was named the AVCA National Player of the Week and the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week following the back-to-back sweeps of West Virginia. Fields finished with 31 kills and hit .537 over the two matches. Logan Eggleston and Skylar Fields were the back-to-back recipients of the Big 12 Conference Offensive Player of the Week award, Sept 7 and Sept. 14. Eggleston was awarded on Sept. 7 following wins over No. 10 Minnesota and No. 20 Stanford. She had 30 total kills (4.29 kills per set) and finished with 17 digs, six blocks and one service ace. Fields won the award after wins over Texas State, Arizona and Notre Dame in which she totaled 43 kills and a .380 hitting percentage.

CHAMPIONSHIP PEDIGREE
After clinching the 2020 Big 12 title, the Longhorns have now won 26 conference championships, including 13 Big 12 titles and 13 Southwest Conference Championships. The 2020 title was the fourth-straight Big 12 Championship for the Longhorns, who have won or shared nine of the last 10 league championships and 12 of the previous 14.

RANK AND FILE
UT owns a 127-55 (.696) record against ranked opponents over the last 18 seasons (2004-21) and boasts a 59-12 (.829) home mark against ranked opponents at Gregory Gymnasium (56-12) and the Frank Erwin Center (3-0) during that span. So far this season, Texas is 3-0 against ranked opponents with wins over San Diego, Minnesota and Stanford.