Texas setter Ella Swindle made her decision. Now, Averi Carlson made hers.

The old saying is that if you have two quarterbacks, you don’t have any. Two setters proved to be too much for the Longhorns’ volleyball team, too.

Despite being bench during the season, Swindle announced earlier this month she was staying with the Longhorns for 2025. In turn, Carlson has put her name into the transfer portal, a Texas source told A to Z Sports. The 5-foot-11 junior will have one year of eligibility remaining. 

The 6-foot-3 Swindle led the Horns to the 2023 national championship as a freshman. But coach Jerritt Elliott added Carlson, a Baylor transfer, to the roster and opened all sorts of questions as to who would start.

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Every Division I coach in America would have coveted Carlson. She was one of the nation’s top recruits when she signed with Baylor and the 2022 Big 12 freshman of the year. Elliott’s job is to assemble the best roster possible for each season, regardless of winning back-to-back national titles. 

Carlson was the 2021 Gatorade Texas volleyball player of the year. Swindle was the 2021-22 Gatorade Missouri volleyball player of the year. Both were sensational high school players. 

Elliott tried to play both with a 6-2 offensive rotation, using two setters. That proved untenable as it kept Madison Skinner from hitting in the back row. After three straight midseason SEC losses, Elliott went back to a traditional 5-1 offensive rotation — something he’s used during most of his two-decades-plus tenure with UT.

Leaning on analytics, Elliott felt Carlson was more consistent than Swindle. The Horns started winning again down the stretch and earned first- and second-round hosting duties in the NCAA tournament.

“Coming in to a new school, it's intimidating,” Carlson told the Austin American-Statesman in December. “But the girls here are just so kind, and the trust that we have with each other is just so great. It’s just been a lot of fun getting to play with them and just becoming friends.”

Carlson finished the season with 787 assists, averaging 8.5 per set. Swindle finished with 265 assists, or 4.1 per set.

Overall, Texas was 20-7 and reached the NCAA regional semifinals for the 19th straight season, the longest streak in the nation. The back-to-back reigning national championship lost in the Sweet 16 round to Creighton 3-1.