Texas A&M volleyball hit a cold spell against Florida to break the Gators three-game SEC losing streak. Despite sweeps against both Auburn last Wednesday and Ole Miss this past Sunday, the Aggies were not able to keep the streak alive as the Gators proved to be too much to handle.
The Aggies (9-6, 2-2 SEC) stumbled with a loss in Gainesville to Florida (10-4, 2-3) Friday evening to snap A&M’s 2-game winning-streak and allow the Gators to regain some of their balance after a tumultuous start to SEC play.
The beginning of the match started with a quick, 4-0 Gator rally in the opening set. The Gators continued to fight by taking a lead of 11-7, and the Gators’ Rhamat Alhassan helped carry Florida to a dominating first set.
The Aggies were able to combat the Gators in the second set. Despite starting strong, the Aggies fell to the Gators 25-23 in the set. Alhassan led into intermission with an impressive .789 hit percentage, and scored 16 kills totaling more than the top two scoring Aggies Jazzmin Babers and Kiara McGee combined.
A&M trailed the entire final set, but Babers excelled with 5 kills in the set, totaling 13 on the night. She also posted the second highest hitting percentage of the game behind Alhassan with .588. No Gator had a negative hitting percentage following the 25-18 set win, and 3-0 sweep in the match.
Coach Corbelli falls to 0-8, and the Aggies fall 0-11 against the Gators all-time. The Gators led in all individual stats, with the exception of attacks led by Babers for the Aggies. The Aggies fall to an even (2-20 in SEC competition, but the Aggies still hold a 9-6 record on the season.
Aggie volleyball returns to the court this Sunday in Columbia to face the South Carolina Gamecocks. The game will be broadcast on the SEC Network.