SEC Volleyball Chaos as Three Ranked Teams Fall on Wild Sunday |
Oklahoma volleyball sweeps No. 9 Texas volleyball while Vanderbilt and Arkansas pull off upsets of their own |
Sunday flipped the SEC volleyball standings on their head, as three ranked teams walked off the floor beaten by opponents outside the Top 25.
The loudest blast came in Norman, where Oklahoma swept No. 9 Texas 25-23, 25-18, 30-28.
It was the Sooners' first home win over the Longhorns since 2011, landing one day after the OU football team toppled Texas in the Red River Rivalry.
Texas volleyball fought off several match points in a wild third set and even grabbed a 27-26 lead, but two late Longhorn errors handed the Sooners the final points.
Sophomore pin Alyssa Flack carried the attack with a career-high 19 kills, and Tekoa Barnes chipped in 14 more.
The sweep gives Oklahoma volleyball back-to-back ranked wins after a five-set thriller over Texas A&M on Wednesday. |
 Photo by Tom Fisk on Pexels. Stock image for illustration, not from the SEC volleyball matches in this article. Free to use under the Pexels License. |
Over in Nashville, Vanderbilt took down No. 5 Florida in four sets and ended the Gators' 11-match win streak.
The Commodores are now 13-2 in only their second season since reviving the program after a 45-year break.
Opposite Samantha Wunsch hammered 15 kills, while Kayla Dunlap hit a scorching .529 on 17 swings.
Florida, meanwhile, gave away 27 errors.
Then unranked Arkansas knocked off No. 12 Texas A&M, the defending national champions, in four sets.
Kyndal Stowers led the Razorbacks with 20 kills and 12 digs for another double-double.
The Aggies hit just .075 for the match, their worst number of the season.
For players and volleyball parents following along, the takeaway is simple: a ranking is a reputation, not a result.
Each upset hangs a loss to an unranked team on a contender's resume, the kind of blemish that can sting when NCAA tournament seeds get set in December.
Oklahoma now gets Kentucky and Tennessee at home next weekend, with a real chance to turn one wild Sunday into a statement month. |
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First home win over Texas since 2011. Let that sink in. This program is different now.
We fought back to 27-26 in that third set. That is not a team that quit. Give OU credit but this one stings differently.
Three ranked teams losing on the same Sunday to unranked opponents is wild. The SEC this year is genuinely unpredictable.
I was in the stands for the football game Saturday and came back Sunday for volleyball. What a weekend to be in Norman.
Tekoa Barnes gets overlooked in that box score but 14 kills on the road is a huge deal. Flack gets the headlines but Barnes was just as important.
Those two errors at the end of the third set are going to hurt for a while. Had match point and gave it away. Painful.
19 kills for Alyssa Flack in a match like that is absolutely insane. Career high and she showed up when it mattered most.
Oklahoma sweeping Texas the day after the football win? Best Red River weekend in years honestly.