The palpable buzz of Reed Arena made an early appearance and without better reason: the Texas-Texas A&M rivalry was officially revived when A&M volleyball hosted No. 8 Texas for its first conference game of the season.

In front of a historic crowd of 9,236 — the largest for both A&M volleyball history and for an NCAA regular season game in Texas — the record-breaking energy fell just short for the Aggies as the Longhorns remained undeterred and won the battle of attrition, 3-1.

The heightened stakes got the best of the Maroon and White in Set 1 as their aggressive hitting game plan backfired, with multiple hits going uncharacteristically beyond the backline.

“The first set, I think, is an anomaly,” coach Jamie Morrison said. “I thought we were really rushed. Our timeouts were mostly about taking a breath and slowing ourselves down and making sure we were taking our time on every single touch.”

The battle-tested Longhorns remained composed behind early kills by senior outside hitter Jenna Wenaas and capitalized on A&M’s attacking errors. Though junior middle blocker Ifenna Cos-Okpalla started a late Aggie run, Texas closed the first set, 25-16.

However, for Set 2, a revitalized A&M team came out the gates running. The blocking duo of junior opposite hitter Logan Lednicky and Cos-Okpalla shut down Wenaas, successfully blocking back-to-back attacks while getting kills of their own to give the Aggies an early 7-2 lead.

After taking more blows, coach Jerritt Elliot called his first timeout of the game. However, the break was unsuccessful, as the Aggies kept up the momentum and found themselves up 20-9 after Lednicky’s 10th kill finished off a long rally.

Parallel to the first set, it was the Aggies this time that warded off a comeback effort from redshirt senior OPP Reagan Rutherford to hold on to a 25-14 win.

After each team took a comfortable win, the battle of attrition began. Both teams traded preliminary punches in the third set and no one could pull ahead of the other as service errors and kills headlined an 11-11 score. Unfortunately for the Aggies, their Set 1 hitting errors made a prominent return — and unfortunately, it came three straight times.

In what was a neck-and-neck set, the Longhorns pounced on A&M’s hitting errors again and, along with a pair of kills from senior OH Madisen Skinner, were on the cusp of securing their second set win as they went up 18-13.

Then, the error bug finally struck Texas.

Service and attack errors afflicted the Longhorns, and after the trio of Lednicky, Cos-Okpalla and junior MB Morgan Perkins hosted a block party, the Aggies found themselves tied up once again, 22-22.

In crunch time, the experienced Longhorns showed their national championship colors as a pair of kills from Skinner and redshirt sophomore Marianna Singletary, along with the final self-inflicted A&M attacking error, closed out a tightly contested Set 3 of 25-23.

In do-or-die Set 4, the Aggies came out fighting with their backs against the wall. Much like the previous set, star hitters Lednicky and Skinner traded kills while Cos-Okpalla had her own duel with Texas junior OH Devin Kahahawai. However, A&M’s low-net service faltered at the end and like the previous sets, Texas took advantage and managed a breathable lead of 22-18.

In one final attempt to push the game to a fifth set, Lednicky picked up a timely kill and a block to bridge the gap to 22-20, but ultimately her efforts came up short as Texas won the final set 25-20 off a Kahahawai ace.

On those late-game errors, junior libero Ava Underwood said that the team needed to play cleaner overall.

“When it comes down to sets that were super close at the end, [we], of course, want to minimize some of those errors,” Underwood said. “Some of those serving errors as well; that’s another thing, we serve really low and flat to the net and hard. So errors are going to come, but I definitely think we could’ve cleaned it up a bit.”

Despite the close loss, Morrison commended the 12th Man for showing up in record-breaking numbers.

“It was an electric feeling,” Morrison said. “It was amazing. I’ve often wondered what it felt like to be on a football field and I imagine [tonight] was somewhere close. I don’t know if I could have enough gratitude to the 12th Man for showing up and showing out.”

After the long game, the Aggies have a short turnaround to rest and recover as they host Missouri on Sunday at 2 p.m. for their second SEC game.