Texas Longhorns volleyball ready to face Texas A&M, start NCAA Tournament

The title defense for the Texas volleyball team starts with a rugged region and a renewed rivalry.

The fourth-ranked Longhorns (22-4) drew a No. 2 seed from the NCAA Tournament selection committee on Sunday, dashing any hopes of claiming one of the four No. 1 seeds. They’ll host the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament at Gregory Gymnasium later this week, beginning with a first-round matchup with Texas A&M Thursday at 6 p.m.

More: Texas Longhorns volleyball sweeps Texas Tech for fitting cap to Big 12 era

With a win over its once-and-future conference foe, Texas will face either Texas State or SMU. If the Longhorns can navigate those early rounds and reach a regional final, they could meet top-seeded Stanford, the nation’s No. 2 team who swept Texas earlier this season.

“We're super excited to have the opportunity to be in the NCAA Tournament and earn the seed that we have,” Texas coach Jerritt Elliott said. “I think it's a fair seed.”

Elliott’s team is essentially seeded seventh, since Stanford is the tournament’s No. 2 overall seed behind unbeaten and top-ranked Nebraska. Even though the team’s seed is lower than its ranking in the latest American Volleyball Coaches Association poll, Elliot said the seventh overall seed came as no surprise.

“The coaching staff has been talking and we kind of nerd out looking at all the RPIs,” Elliott said. “I thought we were actually going to be seven, so this is one of the few years that I actually got it right. But yeah, we felt like it was a good seed. We get some tough opponents. I think we got one of the tougher first-round opponents than most of the seeds, but so be it.”

Texas holds a 63-23 edge over Texas A&M (16-12) in a series that dates back to the Southwest Conference. The two programs will renew a conference rivalry next season when Texas joins the SEC.

Elliott, who took over the Texas program in 2001, said the match against Texas A&M will bring back some fond memories from his early days at Texas, when Mack Brown coached the football team back to national prominence while raising the profile of the entire athletic department..

“It takes me back to the Mack Brown days, he said. “That was a big part of our every-year routine, playing in so many big-time matches where the crowds are sold out. It’s what makes college athletics so enjoyable to be a part of a rivalry like that.

“What a great way to kind of kick off into the SEC. It’s a pre-SEC matchup that we'll have every year and kind of rekindle this rivalry. We’ll be ready. We’ll talk to our team about it and what it means and what it means for our alumni and the fanbase and make sure that they're in a good emotional state.”

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas Longhorns volleyball ready to face Texas A&M in NCAA Tournament