The No. 16 A&M volleyball team heads to west Texas this weekend for the Borderland Invitational to wrap up their tournament season before digging into conference play.
A&M head coach Laurie Corbelli said the team is looking to find consistency on the court after finishing 1-2 at the Puerto Rico Classic last weekend.
“It’s kind of hard to leave the two cities we’ve been in with some five-set losses that we had every opportunity to win,” Corbelli said in Tuesday’s press conference. “I know the players are relatively disappointed in those and we’re looking for that clutch, impact player. Statistically, we have been better than our opponents in those matches and just haven’t been able to close.”
The Aggies (3-3) have dealt with peculiar playing conditions during their tournament season, which has caused the team to adjust from playing in an ordinary arena, Corbelli said.
“We’ve been in a gym that had a low ceiling at maybe 20 feet, so balls would hit the ceiling and it was out of play all of the sudden,” Corbelli said. “So we’ve been in a tiny little, smaller than high school gym and we’ve been in an arena that the ball could go up 100 feet in the air and you have to make really big adjustments in both conditions.”
Looking ahead, the Aggies will face Arizona to tip-off their weekend before playing true road matches against NMSU and UTEP. A season ago, A&M escaped with a five-set over New Mexico State at home. Corbelli said the talented NMSU squad is seeking to serve some revenge in A&M’s return trip.
“They’re incredibly athletic and maybe not huge, but they’re super fast,” Corbelli added. “We beat them here last year in five [sets] so they are looking forward to having us after playing Arizona at 11 a.m., playing New Mexico State then at 8:00 is one of the toughest days of our season.”
With SEC play starting in less than two weeks, Corbelli said she’s hopeful the Aggies can play well in the games between now and then to create momentum heading into their conference slate.
“We’re playing good, consistent volleyball until about 20 points and we’re kind of struggling to close,” Corbelli said. “Hopefully we’re going to learn that, this is one of our final weekends to really be challenged. We have a few more opportunities to really learn it, but the SEC is going to present those kinds of matches to us every week.”
