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Marquette Pushes No. 2 Texas to Five
Texas won 15-8 in the fifth after Marquette started eight players making college debuts. The Longhorns leave Milwaukee 1-1.
Marquette put eight players on the floor for the first time in their college careers on Monday night and took No. 2 Texas to five sets before losing 15-8.
Texas won 22-25, 25-19, 25-16, 23-25, 15-8 at Fiserv Forum, the first five-set match anybody has played this season. Marquette hit .104 for the night and outblocked the Longhorns 12 to 11.
The Longhorns arrived in Milwaukee ranked second in the country and left it 1-1. Arizona State beat them in four sets on Saturday, and Texas hit .065 doing it.
Eight Golden Eagles made their college debuts in this one. That roster turnover is why the .104 matters less than the 12 blocks, and the block was the only column Marquette won all night.
Texas Had No Film on Marquette
Tom Mendoza took the Marquette job in March 2025, out of South Carolina, after Ryan Theis left following eleven seasons. Texas had never seen a Marquette team that Mendoza had coached.
Jerritt Elliott, asked afterwards what his staff knew about the opponent, said this via Ben Steele of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
We know Tom because he came from the SEC (at South Carolina). He always does a really nice job. We had no scouting report on them. We had no film. We had no idea what systems they were running, so we were kind of thinking on our feet as the night went on.
Stafford Scored, Tyler Answered
Torrey Stafford led Texas with 19 kills and 22 points. Abby Vander Wal added 11 kills, Cari Spears seven, and the Longhorns served nine aces on their way to hitting .258.
Carson Tyler led Marquette with 18 kills by the school's own box score. Luanna Markus set for 35 assists and added 11 digs and six blocks, and Emi Juric dug 13 balls.
Tyler was asked what people outside the program had expected of Marquette, and answered at length via Steele.
A lot of people didn't really know what to expect from us. But within our team we knew that we all can rely on one another and every single person is held accountable in our gym. So I think there was a lot of confidence in the person next to us. That makes playing very easy because there's communication, there's relationships. We know we can go in and compete with anyone in the gym. We can compete with any team in the gym. And honestly we can beat any team that we play.
Mendoza was asked about her afterwards.
It's great when our best player is so beloved by our team. They want to play for her and she wants to play for them and it makes our life really easy. From a volleyball standpoint, she can affect the game in so many different ways. Service and defense. Blocking. It's fun to see her compete.
The attendance figure is the one to sit with. Fiserv Forum held 8,036 people for Texas on Saturday and 1,874 for Texas on Monday. The Saturday crowd watched a four-set loss and the Monday crowd watched five sets.
The coaches vote again on Monday, for the first time since 10 August. Marquette was receiving votes in the preseason poll without cracking the top 25, and Monday is when 63 of them decide whether a five-set loss at Fiserv Forum is worth anything.
