No. 12 Texas held the lead in set four 23-21 with a chance to upset No. 7 Florida at home on Sunday. Two-point leads had defined the game thus far, as both teams rarely relented a big lead. Texas was coming off a gymnasium-shaking third set victory, filled with runs for both teams on the court and crowd eruptions in the stands, which looked to swing the game in Texas’ favor.
Instead, Florida knocked down four straight points, taking set four 25-23. Texas never fully regained momentum, falling to miscommunications in set five as Florida never relented. The Gators avoided the upset, taking set five 15-11 and handing the Longhorns a 3-2 heartbreaker in Austin.
“We had opportunities,” head coach Jerritt Elliott said. “We just shot ourselves in the foot at the very end, but that was the challenging part.”
Texas dropped its first home loss this season with the close game. The Gregory Gymnasium home crowd was a steady presence throughout the season, with Texas now boasting a 5-1 home record. The fans were especially present in set three, where Texas went on a 5-0 scoring run to take a 23-20 lead in a set they would win 26-24.
“The crowd was fantastic,” Elliott said. “We needed that tonight.”
Florida entered the game following a win against No. 19 Texas A&M, looking to keep momentum going to continue pushing up the rankings. Instead, the home crowd at Gregory Gymnasium roared as Texas pushed the Gators to force five sets.
Texas fought miscues all game. Little things, like junior setter Rella Binney and sophomore outside hitter Cari Spears colliding and causing a dropped ball, added up in a game in which Texas was already battling a dominant front line from Florida.
“It’s hard because you don’t want to wallow in it because you have to bounce back really quickly,” senior outside hitter Torrey Stafford said. “We had to just bounce back and be like, ‘Okay, next point.’”
Eventually, the mistakes did cost Texas. Three of Florida’s first five points in the fifth set came from errors by Texas. The Longhorns committed three service errors in the final set, one each from Stafford, freshman setter Genevieve Harris and freshman defensive specialist Emma Cugino. Texas’ service errors have hurt the team all season long, and work to put the Longhorns out of reach in a close game.
Sophomore outside hitter Cari Spears had her first game with double-digit kills since Texas’ win over Alabama on Oct. 4. The Longhorns will go as far as Stafford and Spears can take them offensively, so Spears coming back and shaking off whatever was troubling her could be big going forward.
Despite the resurgence of Spears, the offense fell short when it mattered. Stafford and freshman outside hitter Henley Anderson both hit below .200 on the game with six errors each. Anderson’s most costly error came at the end of set four, ending Texas’ chances of a four-set victory.
Texas does not have a weekday game coming up and will take on South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina next Sunday, Oct. 25, at noon.
