No. 2 Texas opened the 2026 season the hard way, then finished with authority.
The Longhorns dropped the first set to Marquette on Monday night at Fiserv Forum, but they settled in, found their serving rhythm and closed out a 3-2 win in the AVCA First Serve finale. Texas won 22-25, 25-19, 25-16, 23-25, 15-8 to move to 1-1, while Marquette fell to 0-1. It was the first regular-season meeting between the programs and only the second matchup overall, with Texas winning both.
Torrey Stafford drove the attack with 19 kills and 12 digs for a double-double, hitting .341. Cari Spears added 17 kills, seven digs and four service aces to match her career high while hitting .371. Abby Vander Wal chipped in 14 kills, two aces and four blocks.
Rella Binney also turned in a double-double, finishing with a match-high 36 assists to match her career high and 11 digs. Ramsey Gary led all players with 16 digs, and Nya Bunton supplied a match-high seven blocks along with five kills.
Texas finished with 10 service aces, and the numbers tell the story of how the match swung. The Longhorns hit just .141 over the first two sets, then caught fire with a .343 mark in the third, .278 in the fourth and a blistering .529 in the fifth.
Marquette grabbed the opener 25-22 in a set that stayed tight early, with eight ties along the way. Texas drew level at 14-14 on a Vander Wal kill, but the Golden Eagles created separation late. Vander Wal and Taylor Harvey combined on a block to pull Texas within 21-19, though Marquette finished the set from there.
The second set belonged to Texas once it found its footing. Gary served up an ace to tie it at 17-17, Spears followed with a kill to make it 18-18, and Binney then delivered an ace that put the Longhorns ahead for good at 19-18. Texas widened the gap with a Spears-Bunton-Stafford block that made it 23-18, and Stafford put away the set with a kill for a 25-19 win.
From there, Texas started to look like Texas. The Longhorns turned an 8-8 tie in the third into a 17-12 lead, with Spears collecting two aces during the surge and Vander Wal and Stafford adding kills.
Texas kept stacking points, got a pair of blocks, and eventually built a 21-14 cushion. Harvey finished off two of the last six points with kills as the Longhorns rolled 25-16.
Marquette wasn’t done. The Golden Eagles forced a fifth set by taking the fourth, 25-23, after building a 15-11 lead.
Stafford sparked a Texas push with an ace, and the Longhorns answered with three straight kills to trim the margin to 18-17. Texas got within one again at 22-21 on a Harvey-Henley Anderson block, but Marquette answered with a kill and a block before a Texas service error ended the set.
The fifth set was all Longhorns. Texas jumped out 5-0 behind three straight Spears kills, with a Spears-Bunton block mixed in.
Stafford added two more kills in the early run, then pushed the lead to 10-6 with another finish. Anderson made it 12-7, and Vander Wal and Spears delivered the final three kills to seal the 15-8 clincher.
Texas is back in action Saturday, Aug. 29, when it travels to Las Vegas to face No. 18 TCU in the Players Era Volleyball Showcase at T-Mobile Arena.
First serve is set for 9 p.m. CT (7 p.m.
PT), and the match will air live on FS1.
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