The Texas A&M volleyball team registered a 25-15, 25-17, 25-12 sweep over the Missouri Tigers at Reed Arena on Sunday in its last home game of the regular season.
Sydney Wilhelm, the only senior on the A&M squad (16-16, 7-10 SEC), celebrated Senior Day alongside athletic training graduate students Kelly Stoots and Nia LeBlanc.
“It was incredible,” Wilhelm said in regards to being the team’s only senior. “It’s been such a great opportunity. I’m sad to see it go so soon. I couldn’t have asked for a better team to share it with, a better night, a better game we played. It was amazing and everything was perfect today.”
A&M’s Stephanie Aiple reached 1,000 assists for the season, registering 37 in the contest. Alongside 10 digs, she registered her seventh double-double of the season, most on the team.
Outside of a 11-11 tie in the first set and a 1-1 tie in the third, A&M held an outright lead for the duration of the contest. A&M head coach Laurie Corbelli was pleased with the efforts of her squad as the regular season draws to a close.
“I’m really pleased with the execution today,” Corbelli said. “We’ve been really hounding the team with serve-receive. It’s so individual with technique and timing and discipline of the move. Some of the passes today were some of the best we’ve had in a long time. It allowed us to really distribute the ball. It makes it really hard to defend when you’ve got lots of hitters going. We didn’t make a lot of errors which is a great sign for us here at the end of the season.”
A&M outhit Missouri .349 to .103 in the contest, including a .359 to .075 clip in the final set. Jazzmin Babers, Angela Lowak and Emily Hardesty had 10 kills each in the contest.
A&M closes out the regular season with matches against Mississippi State and Ole Miss. A&M is 11-0 all-time against the two universities. The 64-team bracket for the NCAA tournament will be announced Sunday, with the Aggies areprojected to make the field.
“It’s going to be a great challenge,” Corbelli said. “I really like it, to tell you the truth. It’s going to command our best. Not only at Mississippi State, where we haven’t seen them at all this year, however, then we to go to Oxford and play Ole Miss, a team that’s very, very physical. They have been really dynamite at home. It’s going to require that our team give everything we did today and more. We have to get that going on the court. It’s great for us and challenging us to get us ready for postseason. I think my team will rise to the challenge, continue to improve and get ready for the playoffs.”