Texas A&M volleyball traveled to McCasland Field House in Norman, Oklahoma on Wednesday to close out its three-game road trip against Oklahoma. After losing three-straight conference matches, the Aggies redeemed themselves with a superior sweep against the Sooners.
A&M played an impressive offensive game with 42 total kills and a .444 hitting percentage. Junior middle blockers Ifenna Cos-Okpalla and Morgan Perkins had a perfect game with no attacking errors and both hit over .600. The Aggies only had six attacking errors throughout the match.
“It felt great,” coach Jamie Morrison said. “The SEC is a grind and it’s a battlefield. It’s hard to stay true to your principals and I thought we did a really good job of that in this match, and I’m happy that showed with a win.”
The Aggies were in control throughout the first set, allowing the Sooners to take an early lead only once. The Maroon and White had a tremendous blocking game with both Cos-Okpalla and Perkins tallying three each, which limited Oklahoma’s offensive game for the Sooners.
Oklahoma started to creep back in, going on a four-point run late in the first set behind freshman pin hitter Kamille Gibson’s two fierce kills. The Sooners’ run was shut down by junior Pepperdine transfer outside hitter Emily Hellmuth when she got a kill to secure the first set for the Aggies, 25-21.
“The way we came out, we were surgical in that match in terms of the game plan,” Morrison said. “We dialed in, we were low error and we did a really good job across the board of playing volleyball. We were balanced and we had kills in a lot of different directions, so I’m really happy with the way that went.”
The second set began with back-and-forth action before the Aggies ran away with the lead late in the set, giving the Sooners a slim margin for error. The period ended with three different Aggies securing the last three kills of the game. Junior Rutgers transfer OH Taylor Humphrey played a strong game, tacking on eight kills, three blocks and an impressive hitting percentage of .615, putting the Aggies in front with a 25-18 win.
The Sooners fell apart in the third set with 10 attacking errors compared to just one by the Aggies. Junior opposite hitter Logan Lednicky came up big for the Maroon and White with five kills in the period, getting A&M closer to a win. Perkins ended the set with a monster kill on match point, allowing the Aggies to dominate the third set with a score of 25-13 to finish off the sweep.
“We talked during the break just about, ‘They’re going to push a little bit,’” Morrison said. “We need to push at the beginning of this and make sure we go hard, and I thought we did that.”
The Aggies have a few days off before taking on the Georgia Bulldogs at Reed Arena next Friday, Nov. 22.
