Texas.
And not the Longhorns.
Although you can start there, since defending-champion Texas is ranked No. 1 in the AVCA preseason poll before an NCAA season that begins Wednesday.
Rather, the state of Texas looms large, with four teams in that top 25 and another getting votes, others not ranked but picked to win their respective conferences, and key players from the state of Texas sprinkled throughout the land.
When the last ball hit the floor in December, Texas swept Louisville for the NCAA title. It was the first title for Texas in 12 years and, in the grand scheme of things, more of the same. Just 12 programs have won the title since the NCAA began holding women’s volleyball championships in 1982: Stanford (9 times), Penn State (7), Nebraska (5), UCLA (4), Texas (3) Hawai’i (3), Long Beach State (3), USC (3), Pacific (2), Kentucky (1), Wisconsin (1) and Washington (1).
Is there a team outside that list that could break through in an era that has seen two new teams win in the past few years with Kentucky in the COVID-delayed 2020 season in the spring of 2021 and Wisconsin just half a year later?
In the past decade, the only teams to even make the finals who haven’t won it all were Oregon in 2012, BYU in 2014 and Louisville last year.
Don’t…
