By LONNIE KING  |  © 2025, Big Daddy’s Texas Sports

As the 2025 high school volleyball season gets underway in the state, the gyms are packed and the talent pool is as deep as ever. From Dripping Springs to Cedar Park to Lake Travis, Texas continues to produce athletes who could start almost anywhere in the country.

But here’s the twist: many of the top players aren’t staying in Texas.  

Joy Udoye of Cedar Park (Stanford), Riley Malloy of Austin High (USC), and Chloe Kelly of Austin Westlake (Villanova) are among the big names committed to programs outside the Lone Star State.

Sarah Hickman of Houston Stratford (Stanford), Simone Heard of Plano East (Georgia Tech), Anna Flores of Keller (Cal), are also continuing their playing careers after high school outside the state’s borders.

Even Gentry Barker, a junior and former state tournament MVP who returns this school year to Lake Travis from Lucas Lovejoy, is committed to San Diego State.

On the one hand, those commitments are a testament to the wealth of talent in the state. But on the other, it raises a natural question: if Texas is such a volleyball hotbed, why are so many of its current brightest stars taking their talents elsewhere?

Roster Math: Too Many Stars, Too Few Spots

Volleyball rosters are small, generally offering 17 spots for student athletes. A powerhouse program might sign just four or five recruits in a given year. Texas, Baylor, A&M, Houston, Rice and TCU simply can’t absorb the dozens of Division I–ready players Texas produces annually. For many top prospects, staying in-state isn’t even an option.

SI.com: Texas high school volleyball players you should know entering the 2025 season

The Pull of Prestige

There’s also the allure of a national stage.

Nebraska sells out 15,000-seat arenas. Stanford and Wisconsin are Final Four fixtures. Louisville has become a national powerhouse. For players like Udoye or Malloy, the chance to compete at that level—featured on ESPN broadcasts with larger audiences—can be irresistible, even compared to strong programs at Texas and Baylor.

Chasing Fit and Opportunity

Recruiting in volleyball is highly positional. A setter or libero might love the idea of staying home, but if a school like Texas A&M just signed two players at that spot, they may be blocked for years.

Heading to the Pac-12, Big Ten, or Big East might mean stepping into a starting role as a freshman.

Beyond State Lines: A Broader Experience

Leaving home is also often about more than the sport. Families sometimes see value in athletes experiencing a different part of the country. Volleyball’s national club circuit makes this transition easier—by the time these girls graduate, they already have ties with coaches from coast to coast.

Texas Still Wins the Exchange

The irony?  It’s two-pronged.

First, NCAA volleyball programs within the state are still primarily loaded with home-grown talent.  A quick informal scan of rosters from just the NCAA Division 1 squads in Texas shows that the majority of schools have rosters with 60-75% of their players from high schools in the Lone Star state.

But, on top of that, Texas programs also recruit nationally. The Texas Longhorns have brought in stars from California, Illinois, and even overseas. Houston and Baylor also have current rosters that are composed primarily of out-of-state talent. 

So, while the state’s own players scatter to Stanford, USC, or Villanova, Texas schools are filling their rosters with out-of-state standouts. The talent pipeline flows both directions.

The Bottom Line

I was initially concerned when I noticed that the current crop of top talent in high school was headed outside of Texas.  But if, like me, you’re disturbed by the current trend, I think we can take comfort.

It isn’t a rejection of Texas collegiate volleyball. It’s proof of abundance.

Texas produces more elite players than its universities can possibly keep. And whether they stay home or leave for the coasts, these athletes are a reminder that Texas is the center of gravity in American high school volleyball.