Last week was the introduction.
This week, the SEC volleyball schedule starts looking like a proper conference season.
We’ve got six matches today, a Wednesday-night standalone game, and seven more Friday. Kentucky and Texas meet in a Top-10 showdown before most of us have even decided what we’re eating for lunch, Florida and Tennessee get another ranked matchup Friday night, and everybody else starts figuring out very quickly whether the first week of conference play was encouraging, concerning, or completely misleading.
So welcome back to This Week on the Court.
And we’re not wasting any time.
SUNDAY — SEPTEMBER 27
No. 7 Texas at No. 3 Kentucky
12:00 PM CT — ESPN
THEIA’S GAME OF THE WEEK
If you’re going to watch one SEC volleyball match this week, you don’t need to wait until Friday.
Turn on ESPN today.
Texas heads into Lexington at 5-4, which looks fairly ordinary until you see who the Longhorns have actually been playing. Eight of their first nine opponents have been ranked, and this will already be their fifth Top-10 matchup of the season. They arrive after doing something rather impressive Friday night: falling behind No. 13 Tennessee two sets to none in Knoxville, then ripping off three straight to complete the reverse sweep in front of a Tennessee-record crowd of 9,226. Torrey Stafford went off for 28 kills, while Rella Binney finished with 54 assists and 14 digs.
And now Texas gets Kentucky.
Lovely.
Kentucky is 9-2, has won three straight, and opened SEC play by beating Vanderbilt in four sets. Brooklyn DeLeye and Morgan Gaerte each had 21 kills in that one, while Kassie O’Brien handed out 54 assists as the Wildcats hit .444. Kentucky has also won its last two meetings with Texas, including a five-set comeback in last year’s SEC Tournament championship.
That’s enough history to make this one interesting before you even get to the rankings.
No. 3 against No. 7.
Both 1-0 in conference play.
ESPN.
Noon.
Put it on the big television.
Why watch: Because this already feels like one of those matches we’ll be talking about again when November arrives.
LSU at Mississippi State
2:00 PM CT — SEC Network+
LSU already has one SEC win after surviving Alabama in five sets Wednesday night, including a ridiculous 15-3 fifth set. The Tigers got 22 kills and 12 digs from Jurnee Robinson and snapped Alabama’s six-match winning streak in the process.
Mississippi State gets its conference opener at home, and after watching the Bulldogs become unexpectedly entertaining in football, I’m apparently prepared to see what else Starkville has going on this fall.
Why watch: LSU already proved it can survive a long, ugly SEC match. Now we see whether that carries on the road.
No. 8 Florida at Oklahoma
2:00 PM CT — SEC Network+
Florida handled Jacksonville in straight sets Wednesday and enters conference play ranked No. 8. Oklahoma gets the privilege of beginning its SEC schedule by welcoming a Top-10 team to Norman.
That’s one hell of a welcome package.
Why watch: Florida has looked like one of the league’s serious contenders, and now we get the first SEC data point.
Vanderbilt at Missouri
2:00 PM CT — SEC Network+
Vanderbilt’s unbeaten start ended against Kentucky, but I wouldn’t dismiss the Commodores because of a loss to the No. 3 team in the country.
Missouri, meanwhile, spent Wednesday night being swept by No. 1 Nebraska. So both teams arrive wanting a considerably more enjoyable Sunday afternoon.
Why watch: This feels like the kind of match that tells us more about the SEC middle than another Top-10 showcase will.
Ole Miss at Alabama
2:00 PM CT — SEC Network
Alabama came painfully close to opening SEC play with a win before LSU buried the Tide in the fifth set. Now Alabama gets another home opportunity against an Ole Miss team that has beaten the Crimson Tide seven straight times and hasn’t lost in Tuscaloosa since 2019.
Ole Miss is 6-5 but has been noticeably better late in matches, while Alabama enters at 8-2 with Laney Hennessee leading the attack and Hannah Parant already piling up service aces.
There’s also something appealing about a match where one program has quietly owned the series for several years and the other gets a chance to finally end it at home.
Why watch: Alabama needs to answer Wednesday’s loss, and Ole Miss has apparently decided the Tide belongs to them.
South Carolina at No. 16 Texas A&M
2:30 PM CT — SEC Network+
Texas A&M closed nonconference play by sweeping Rice and now begins SEC action at Reed Arena. South Carolina already has a conference match under its belt after losing a five-set fight at Georgia.
The Aggies are ranked No. 16 and remain the defending national champions, so South Carolina doesn’t exactly get an easy opportunity to bounce back.
Why watch: First SEC match of the year for A&M, and South Carolina already showed at Georgia that it isn’t going away quietly.
WEDNESDAY — SEPTEMBER 30
Vanderbilt at LSU
6:00 PM CT — SEC Network
One match on national television.
I like it.
LSU gets the midweek home spotlight after opening conference play with that five-set win over Alabama, while Vanderbilt gets another chance to show that the Kentucky loss wasn’t the beginning of a slide.
This is also the sort of standalone Wednesday match that is perfect for the column. Nothing else is competing with it. If you’re in the mood for SEC volleyball, this is your game.
Why watch: Because it’s Wednesday night and the SEC was kind enough to give us exactly one option.
FRIDAY — OCTOBER 2
Friday is where the schedule gets crowded again.
Seven conference matches, and several of them could easily turn into something worth keeping on the second screen.
Oklahoma at South Carolina
5:00 PM CT — SEC Network
Both teams will have already played Sunday, so by Friday we’ll have a much better idea what this matchup actually means.
South Carolina gets to come home after opening league play with road matches against Georgia and Texas A&M. Oklahoma goes from hosting Florida to visiting Columbia.
Somebody’s going to be very happy to see an opponent without a number beside its name.
Kentucky at Auburn
6:00 PM CT — SEC Network+
Auburn’s SEC opener was about as dramatic as possible, with the Tigers coming back from two sets down to beat Arkansas in five Friday night. Kentucky is obviously a different level of problem.
And Kentucky could arrive either riding high after beating Texas or slightly irritated after losing a Top-10 match.
Neither possibility sounds particularly pleasant for Auburn.
The Tigers do get Neville Arena, though, and conference road matches have a funny way of refusing to behave.
Why watch: Kentucky is elite. Auburn already showed it can survive chaos.
No. 13 Tennessee at No. 8 Florida
6:00 PM CT — SEC Network+
This might be the best Friday match of the week.
Tennessee has to recover from a brutal loss to Texas in which the Lady Vols won the first two sets and still walked away empty-handed. Florida should enter after opening SEC play at Oklahoma.
Both are ranked.
Both have serious ambitions.
And if Tennessee learned anything from Friday’s collapse, we’ll probably find out very quickly in Gainesville.
Why watch: Two ranked SEC teams, and Tennessee has something to prove after letting Texas escape Knoxville.
Missouri at Ole Miss
6:00 PM CT — SEC Network+
Missouri gets another road test after facing Vanderbilt on Sunday, while Ole Miss comes home after opening conference play at Alabama.
Neither team is carrying a ranking, but this is exactly the category of match that starts deciding who spends October climbing the standings and who starts chasing everybody else.
Why watch: Early SEC positioning. These are the wins that become important later.
Arkansas at Georgia
6:00 PM CT — SEC Network+
Georgia opened conference play by surviving South Carolina in five sets and comes into this one at home. Arkansas, meanwhile, has to respond after blowing a two-set lead against Auburn and losing its SEC opener in five.
That makes this one more interesting than the names alone might suggest.
Arkansas could very easily have entered Friday 1-0.
Instead, the Razorbacks already have a little pressure on them.
Why watch: Georgia has already survived one five-set SEC fight. Arkansas would probably prefer not to make a habit of them.
Alabama at No. 16 Texas A&M
6:30 PM CT — SEC Network+
This one depends heavily on what happens today.
Alabama could enter College Station having bounced back against Ole Miss, or it could be staring at an 0-2 SEC start. Texas A&M will have gotten its first conference match against South Carolina.
Either way, a Friday night road trip to the defending national champions isn’t exactly where you go looking for relaxation.
Why watch: Alabama’s early SEC schedule is giving us a very quick idea of where the Tide actually belongs.
Mississippi State at No. 7 Texas
6:30 PM CT — SEC Network+
Texas’ schedule remains ridiculous.
After Tennessee and Kentucky in the span of three days, the Longhorns finally get to go home, where Mississippi State will be waiting.
Obviously, how Texas looks by Friday depends heavily on what happens in Lexington today. But even after starting only 5-4, the Longhorns have spent almost the entire season fighting ranked opponents. That record needs context.
Eventually, all of those battles should either harden Texas into something dangerous or wear them out completely.
I’m leaning toward the former.
Why watch: Texas gets its first chance in a while to stop living exclusively in Top-10 hell.
We learned quite a bit last week, but this is the week where conference play actually starts giving us patterns.
Texas-Kentucky could tell us a lot about the top of the SEC. Kentucky already has the ranking, the recent wins and the two-game streak over Texas. Texas has spent September playing what appears to be every good volleyball team in America. Somebody is coming out of Sunday with a very useful win.
I’m watching Alabama closely. The Tide were one set away from beginning SEC play with a road win at LSU before getting flattened 15-3 in the fifth. Now they’ve got Ole Miss today and Texas A&M Friday. That is enough volleyball to tell us something.
Florida’s week could be sneaky important. Oklahoma on the road followed by Tennessee at home isn’t the most brutal stretch on the schedule, but it gives the Gators two very different SEC tests.
And don’t write off Vanderbilt yet. Losing to Kentucky isn’t evidence that a good start was fraudulent. Missouri today and LSU Wednesday should give us a better read.
THIS WEEK’S WATCH LIST
Sunday, September 27
No. 7 Texas at No. 3 Kentucky — 12 PM CT — ESPN
LSU at Mississippi State — 2 PM CT — SEC Network+
No. 8 Florida at Oklahoma — 2 PM CT — SEC Network+
Vanderbilt at Missouri — 2 PM CT — SEC Network+
Ole Miss at Alabama — 2 PM CT — SEC Network
South Carolina at No. 16 Texas A&M — 2:30 PM CT — SEC Network+
Wednesday, September 30
Vanderbilt at LSU — 6 PM CT — SEC Network
Friday, October 2
Oklahoma at South Carolina — 5 PM CT — SEC Network
Kentucky at Auburn — 6 PM CT — SEC Network+
Tennessee at Florida — 6 PM CT — SEC Network+
Missouri at Ole Miss — 6 PM CT — SEC Network+
Arkansas at Georgia — 6 PM CT — SEC Network+
Alabama at Texas A&M — 6:30 PM CT — SEC Network+
Mississippi State at Texas — 6:30 PM CT — SEC Network+
And that’s the week.
Fourteen SEC matches in six days, another Top-10 fight, multiple ranked showdowns, and enough Friday-night volleyball to make choosing one television increasingly inconvenient.
Which is exactly the sort of problem we want.
See you on the court.
