Texas A&M volleyball made its way to Desert Financial Arena in Tempe, Arizona on Friday to begin its NCAA Tournament play against the Colorado State Rams. Coach Jamie Morrison was surely hoping for a longer run than last season’s early first round exit, and the Aggies got just that, defeating the Rams, 3-1.
The Aggies and Rams have met nine times since 1978, with Colorado State leading the series 6-3. But that was until the Aggies defeated the Rams in the desert. This was the first tournament match the Aggies have won since 2019, when they advanced all the way to the Sweet 16.
“Our standards are certainly high,” junior middle blocker Ifenna Cos-Okpalla said. “Coming into this year, we were thinking, ‘We made it to the first round, and we can’t just do that this year.’ We’ve grown and improved as a team so much, so I knew that we were going to go further than we did last year.”
The Maroon and White got out to an early 5-1 lead with back-to-back kills from junior opposite hitter Logan Lednicky, who scored on her first four attacks in the first set. The Aggies played a phenomenal defensive game at the net with six total blocks. The first set concluded with back-to-back service aces from sophomore setter Margot Manning, securing the first set victory, 25-20.
The second set started off with back-and-forth action before the Rams ran away with the lead in the middle of the set. Both teams were tied at 13 before Colorado State outscored A&M 12-3 to claim a second set victory, 25-16.
Redshirt senior OPP Malaya Jones led the pack with six of the Rams’ 15 kills. The Rams shut down the Aggies’ offense with a stellar block by a pair of graduate students, outside hitter Kennedy Stanford and middle blocker Karina Leber.
The Green and Gold were ahead for the majority of the third set until the Maroon and White began to chip away, forcing the Rams to call a timeout after a three-point swing for the Aggies. Down by three, junior libero/defensive specialist Tatum Thomas entered the game with two back-to-back service aces, giving A&M the momentum.
The third set was a grind with 10 different ties and five separate set points before the Aggies took the set with a powerful kill by junior MB Morgan Perkins. Lednicky and Jones went back and forth for opposite side kills before Lednicky won the war, giving A&M the ball back before eventually winning the third set, 29-27.
“I thought we were finding different ways to win in different situations,” Morrison said. “I think the response in the third set was huge for us, I asked a lot of them during the timeout, and I thought they answered really well.”
Now up 2-1 on sets, the Aggies came out swinging, earning 19 separate kills for four different players, led by Lednicky with seven. The Aggies also had two service aces from Thomas and Manning, who combined for seven total aces throughout the entire match.
The Maroon and White ended the first round of the tournament with a kill from junior OH Emily Hellmuth, giving the Aggies the fourth set, 25-23. In just his second year in charge of A&M, Morrison has helped the Fightin’ Farmers advance to the second round for the first time since 2019.
“We talk a lot about the more you’re in uncomfortable situations the more comfortable you become in them,” Morrison said. “When we get in those moments we start to grind in there, we know what it feels like, and it shows.”
The Aggies will remain in Arizona for round two of the tournament against Arizona State on Saturday, Dec. 7, at 7 p.m.
“This is a different experience to last year,” junior libero and defensive specialist Ava Underwood said. “This time around, there’s more expectations and we have really high standards for ourselves. This year we’ve grown really close as a team and that’s been really fun, and we lean on each other a lot.”
