{"id":89303,"date":"2025-12-16T00:54:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T00:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/89303\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T00:54:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T00:54:08","slug":"texas-volleyball-loses-middle-blocker-ayden-ames","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/89303\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas volleyball loses middle blocker Ayden Ames"},"content":{"rendered":"

Less than 24 hours after Texas volleyball’s <\/a>season ended with a\u00a0loss to Wisconsin <\/a>in the NCAA Tournament regional finals, middle blocker\u00a0Ayden Ames reportedly intends to enter the transfer portal.<\/p>\n

Ames becomes the first Longhorn to announce her intention to enter the portal, and she\u2019ll be just the second regular member of the rotation not returning next season. Libero Emma Halter<\/a>, the lone senior starter for a Texas team that went 26-4 this season, will next play for the\u00a0Indy Ignite of Major League Volleyball.<\/p>\n

Ames’ exit was first reported by\u00a0On3.<\/p>\n

A 6-foot-4 blue-chip recruit\u00a0from the Dallas suburb of Prosper who once competed for the under-19 U.S. national team, Ames became a regular part of the lineup over the past two seasons after flipping from Nebraska to join Texas late in the 2024 recruiting cycle.<\/p>\n

She enrolled in the spring of 2024 and immediately established herself as a key component of the Longhorns’ lineup. Texas coach Jerritt Elliott even called her \u201cthe most complete middle<\/a> I\u2019ve ever had as a freshman,\u201d a powerful statement from a coach who has worked with All-Americans such as Asjia O\u2019Neal, Molly McCage and Chiaka Ogbogu.<\/p>\n

As a freshman, Ames started all 27 games and 96 sets for the season and finished second on the team with 88 blocks and was fifth on team with 150 kills and 1.56 kills per set average.\u00a0She played in 29 of Texas’ 30 matches this season, but her numbers dipped slightly to 149 kills and 1.52 kills per set with a team-high 109 blocks.<\/p>\n

In Sunday\u2019s loss to Wisconsin, Elliott replaced Ames with freshman middle blocker Taylor Harvey after Texas dropped the first two sets. Ames didn\u2019t have a kill or a block against the Badgers.<\/p>\n

Pending any more portal exits for Texas, Harvey and redshirt sophomore Nya Bunton will enter the offseason as the only middle blockers on the Longhorns\u2019 roster. Both saw extensive action this season, with Bunton ranking second on the team with 61 blocks.<\/p>\n

Texas didn\u2019t sign any middle blockers in its touted 2026 recruiting class, which means the position will likely be a top portal target for Elliott and his staff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Less than 24 hours after Texas volleyball’s season ended with a\u00a0loss to Wisconsin in the NCAA Tournament regional…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2237,23774,33567,27,29,537,1074,28,3774],"class_list":["post-89303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-college-volleyball","tag-jerritt-elliott","tag-ncaa-volleyball-tournament","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-longhorns","tag-texas-longhorns-volleyball","tag-texas-news","tag-transfer-portal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89303","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=89303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}