Questions for Torrey Stafford, 2026 Texas Longhorns

Texas volleyball starts its summer workouts Thursday, and head coach Jerritt Elliott has a few questions to answer before the season begins Aug. 22 against Arizona State at the AVCA First Serve event in Milwaukee.

Of course, Elliott usually finds solutions to any issues that arise. He enters his 26th season at Texas with a 635-125 record leading the Longhorns, three national championships, seven appearances in a championship match and 19 top-10 finishes in the past 20 years. Last season, Texas went 26-4 and reached a regional final before falling to Wisconsin on its home court.

Here are five questions Elliott will want to answer in preseason workouts.

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Fourth-year junior Nya Bunton returns as the most experienced middle blocker on the squad and sophomore Taylor Harvey flashed her potential at middle while earning freshman All-SEC recognition in 2025. But does Elliott have a third option at middle after starter Ayden Ames transferred out of the program and Texas didn’t sign anyone in the portal?

Addy Guido, a 6-foot-4 redshirt freshman from Georgetown, is an outside hitter by trade but has cross-trained at middle blocker. Austin High product Camille Presley, a 2027 middle blocker commit, reportedly reclassified to the 2026 class although Texas has yet to confirm that news. She could be a redshirt candidate based on her youth and relative inexperience.

Libero Emma Halter left Texas as one of the most beloved players in program history after helping the team win back-to-back titles in 2022 and 2023. Fortunately, Elliott has some veteran options when it comes to donning the libero jersey. Senior Ramsey Gary returns for a second season with the Longhorns and seems like a natural replacement considering she started 28 matches last season as a defensive specialist and ranked third on the team with 207 digs. But will senior Anja Kujundžić see an expanded role and slide into that open defensive specialist role, or will touted freshman Emma Cugino take over as a starter on the back row?

Senior Ella Swindle enters her fourth and perhaps final collegiate season as the unquestioned setter after starting all 29 of her matches played a year ago and averaging 8.93 assists per set. Junior Rella Binney excelled as the backup setter while appearing in 30 matches, but freshman Genevieve Harris arrives as the top-ranked setter of her class and enjoyed a stellar summer while playing with the U.S. under-21 national team. The rotation competition behind Swindle could be fierce in the summer.

The Longhorns boast arguably the best set of attackers in the nation with Torrey Stafford (516 kills, .360 attacking percentage), Cari Spears (358, .295) and Abby Vander Wal (280, .249). But 6-foot-3 Henley Anderson arrives from nearby Dripping Springs High School as the top recruit in the nation and looks too good to keep off the floor. Devin Kahahawai, last year’s No. 3 attacker, had just 161 swings a year ago. Expect a lot more than that from Anderson this season.

Based on the returning talent, no spot in the starting lineup seems up for grabs entering the season. Halter and Ames — the former didn’t technically start a match as the libero but rotated in after the first serve — are the only starters gone from last season, but the replacements for those two spots seem set.

Elliott has intriguing options at the outside hitter spot opposite Stafford, who returns as a six-rotation player and one of the preseason favorites for national player of the year honors. Will Spears still start ahead of Vander Wal, who shined for the U.S. under-21 team this summer at the NORCECA Women’s U21 Pan American Cup? Is Anderson a generational player who will force her way into as many swings as possible?

To borrow a phrase popular with Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian, this is a champagne problem for a team loaded at the pin.