{"id":390707,"date":"2026-07-29T15:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T15:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/390707\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T15:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T15:44:09","slug":"volleyballs-stafford-spears-named-to-preseason-all-sec-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/390707\/","title":{"rendered":"Volleyball\u2019s Stafford, Spears named to Preseason All-SEC Team"},"content":{"rendered":"

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. \u2013 Texas Volleyball’s Torrey Stafford<\/a> and Cari Spears<\/a> were named to the 2026 Preseason All-SEC Team, the conference announced Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The Longhorns also were selected to finish second in the SEC Preseason Coaches’ Poll as voted on by the league’s head coaches. Texas received six first-place votes and 216 points, just two points behind Kentucky in the preseason poll, which earned nine first-place votes. Texas A&M received one first-place vote\u00a0and 191 points to finish third in the poll.<\/p>\n

Stafford enters her senior season after establishing herself among the nation’s premier players. The Torrance, Calif., native earned AVCA First Team All-America honors for the second consecutive season and was an AVCA National Player of the Year semifinalist after leading Texas with 516 kills, 33 service aces and 580.5 points in 2025.<\/p>\n

She averaged 4.69 kills per set while hitting .360 across 30 matches and added 52 total blocks, including a team-high 11 solo blocks. Stafford’s 4.69 kills per set rank ninth in program history for a single season, while her 32-kill performance in a road victory at Auburn is tied for the fifth-highest single-match total by a Longhorn. Stafford also was named the AVCA Southwest Region Player of the Year and earned AVCA All-Southwest Region honors.<\/p>\n

Spears is coming off one of the most decorated freshman seasons in program history. The Frisco native earned AVCA Third Team All-America honors after becoming the first Texas freshman to be named AVCA National Player of the Week. She claimed the honor after hitting .600 in sweep victories over No. 9 TCU and No. 21 Baylor, totaling 28 kills in six sets while matching her career high with 18 kills against the Bears.<\/p>\n

A five-time SEC Freshman of the Week and two-time SEC Player of the Week selection, Spears started all 30 matches and played in all 110 sets during her freshman campaign. She finished second on the team with 358 kills while averaging 3.25 kills per set and hitting .295. Spears also contributed 141 digs and 51 blocks, recording 23 double-digit kill performances on her way to AVCA Southwest Region Freshman of the Year and AVCA All-Southwest Region honors.<\/p>\n

Texas opens the 2026 season at the AVCA First Serve at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee. The Longhorns will face Arizona State on Saturday, Aug. 22, before taking on Marquette on Monday, Aug. 24.<\/p>\n

2026 SEC Volleyball Preseason Coaches’ Poll

\n(First-Place Votes in Parentheses)

\n1. Kentucky (9) \u2013 218

\n2. Texas (6) \u2013 216

\n3. Texas A&M (1) \u2013 191

\n4. Florida \u2013 187

\n5. Tennessee \u2013 166

\n6. Georgia \u2013 144

\n7. Auburn \u2013 142

\n8. LSU \u2013 116

\n9. Missouri \u2013 111

\n10. Oklahoma \u2013 95

\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Vanderbilt \u2013 95

\n12. Ole Miss \u2013 67

\n13. Mississippi State \u2013 65

\n14. South Carolina \u2013 45

\n15. Alabama \u2013 37

\n16. Arkansas \u2013 25<\/p>\n

2026 Volleyball Preseason All-SEC Team

\nLauren Dreves, Auburn, OH

\nJordyn Byrd, Florida, OH

\nAlec Rothe, Florida, MB

\nBianna Muoneke, Georgia, OH

\nLizzie Carr, Kentucky, MB

\nBrooklyn DeLeye, Kentucky, OH

\nMorgan Gaerte, Kentucky, OH

\nKassie O’Brien, Kentucky, S

\nMolly Tuozzo, Kentucky, L

\nJurnee Robinson, LSU, OH

\nLindsey Mangelson, Mississippi State, OH

\nCaroline Kerr, Tennessee, S

\nCari Spears<\/a>, Texas, OH

\nTorrey Stafford<\/a>, Texas, OH

\nKyndal Stowers, Texas A&M, OH<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BIRMINGHAM, Ala. \u2013 Texas Volleyball’s Torrey Stafford and Cari Spears were named to the 2026 Preseason All-SEC Team,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-390707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}