The last day of November ended with No. 3 Texas volleyball in one of the best positions of the NCAA Tournament — one of four No. 1 seeds, hosting the first two rounds of the nearly month-long series at home in Austin’s Gregory Gymnasium.

A week later, the Longhorns are riding that same high after two consecutive sweeps to open up NCAA play. With a 3-0 win over Florida A&M Friday and a 3-0 victory over defending national champions No. 25 Penn State, Texas will move on to the Sweet Sixteen in dominant fashion.

Friday’s game against Florida A&M saw a Texas team which played sets of 25-11, 25-8 and 25-14 to keep Florida A&M at a safe distance from the win. Texas’ offense, led by junior outside hitter Torey Stafford with 13 total kills, was unstoppable with a .425 hitting percentage.

The defense, however, is what set the Longhorns apart — especially through senior libero Emma Halter, who met a program record with 25 digs in a three-set match, the fourth Longhorn to ever do so. Halter now has 1,282 total career digs, putting her at No. 8 on the all-time Texas digs list.

With more blocks from sophomore middle blocker Ayden Ames, who had a career-high eight, and redshirt senior outside hitter Whitney Lauenstein with four, Texas held Florida A&M to a hitting percentage of -0.027 — .000 throughout the first set.

The streak continued the next night against Penn State, officially putting Texas at 25-3 on the season with another three sets of 25-16, 25-9 and 25-19.

Penn State’s self-inflicted wounds through hitting and serving errors contributed to the downfall, but with the continued efforts of Stafford, freshman outside hitters Abby Vander Waal and Cari Spears, the Longhorns’ hitting found the spotlight Saturday. Vander Waal and Spears had 10 and nine kills respectively throughout the three sets.

Stafford led the match with 21 kills, put together with five digs and three blocks. This is her fourth game this season with a recorded hitting percentage of over .500, as she ended the night hitting at .566.

With an encouragingly dominant start to the tournament, Texas looks to face No. 15 Indiana in the third, Sweet Sixteen round. The date and time of the match have not been set, but the 24-7 Hoosiers pose a threat to the Longhorns looking for redemption after last season’s season-ending, third-round exit to Creighton.