After losing a five-set heartbreaker Thursday, the Texas A&M women’s volleyball team bounced back with a win over Ole Miss Sunday afternoon at Reed Arena.
The Aggies (16-8, 8-5 SEC) had four players register double-digit kills in their 19-25, 25-16, 25-23, 25-18 victory over the Rebels (20-6, 6-6 SEC).
A&M rallied to win three straight sets after dropping the opener. The Aggies were led by junior outside hitter Angela Lowak, who had a team-best and season-high 16 kills.
“After the first set, we realized there were some adjustments we needed to make,” Lowak said. “I mentioned it before, especially on defense. There was a tremendous change on our blocking in the first set compared to the second set. When we played Missouri a few weeks ago, we did lose the first set in that one, but we were still calm and confident, not frazzled. We tried to keep that same mentality after the first-set loss.”
Freshman setter Stephanie Aiple registered 51 of her team’s 56 assists, which gives her 706 for the season, 83 percent of A&M’s 850.
“Stephanie [Aiple] did a nice job distributing the ball,” Lowak said. “She really gave us the opportunities we did have. That was nice.”
Aggie sophomore outside hitter Emily Hardesty had 10 kills and 13 digs on the day without committing an error. It was her third double-double of the year.
“I trust my defense a lot,” Hardesty said. “I know when I’m back there, I tend to do better. Don’t overthink, just react. Go with your instincts to where you think the ball is going to go, and trust what you can do. I have the same mindset with hitting. Especially today, I came in and wanted to trust myself with what I could do as a hitter, and I think I accomplished that.”
The win puts A&M in fifth place in the SEC. Still a young team, with just two seniors on the 17-person roster, head coach Laurie Corbelli was impressed with her team’s ability to fight back after losing the first set.
“Patience is such a big thing in volleyball,” Corbelli said. “Patience is so important that when you get impatient, that is when the errors start happening. That’s when you start to panic a little. I thought they showed great patience today. Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast. Even though we weren’t being slow but we were patient, and patience provided some smoothness, and the smoothness