A&M volleyball earned first place in the SEC conference with a win against Missouri Wednesday that extended the Aggies streak to seven.
The Aggies (16-6, 9-2 SEC) swept the Missouri Tigers (20-4, 8-3 SEC) in one of the most pivotal matches for A&M’s season. Both teams entered the match with a 8-2 record in the SEC in hopes of leaving in second place behind the Kentucky Wildcats.
Both teams opened with explosive starts, rallying back and forth and staying close in points. The Aggies and the Tigers remained neck-and-neck for the set’s entirety and forced a set point past regulation, but the Aggies pulled away in a thrilling 27-25 finish with a kill by sophomore outside hitter Ashlie Reasor. In total, there were 14 tie scores in the first set alone. Senior middle blocker Shelby Sullivan led A&M with 6 kills and sophomore libero Amy Nettles injected life into the team with 7 digs.
“Everyone’s out there working for every point,” sophomore outside hitter Kiara McGee said. “If something bad happens, we’re not down about it, we’re like, ‘Shake it off, we got this next point.’ I had no doubt we could get to first place at all, because our team is so strong and we just fight for everything and we’re earning everything.”
In the second set, a kill by McGee gave the Aggies a 21-19 lead. However, Missouri quickly returned to tie the score at 21 for the final time in the set, totaling 10 ties in the match. The Aggies pulled away with kills by McGee and another set-winning kill by Ashlie Reasor. Junior middle blocker Jazzmin Babers concluded the second set with 13 kills to lead the match.
“We decided to mix up our sets [in the second set],” Babers said. “We discussed it after I got blocked on the dash, we were like, ‘Alright, let’s make a change.’ So we decided to just have a different set … [Having McGee] means a lot, she is killing it on the outside and it definitely helps our whole team out. It’s great to go up and fly and kill it. She brings so much excitement to the team when she does get those big flights.”
The match continued in the third set with Missouri leading the majority of it, but A&M was able to tie the score with McGee’s momentum at 12 and lead for a point before relinquishing the lead to the Tigers once more. Errors Missouri allowed the Aggies to tie the score again at 20, and the Aggies finally pulled away with a bad set by Emily Thater. Texas A&M head coach Laurie Corbelli said it was fun to compete in high-stake situations in every set.
“I think the team wasn’t even nervous,” Corbelli said. “I think the team just wanted to get the next rally started and get focused on how they were going to win it. It was a really great feeling, I didn’t see nerves at all, maybe a few people at a few times. I wasn’t nervous, I was having a great time because the team was responding to all of the changes we needed to make.”
A&M volleyball returns to Reed Arena for another match Sunday at 1:30 p.m. The Aggies will host the Georgia Bulldogs to attempt to advance to eight-straight wins. The match will be broadcast on SEC Network +.
