In its last preseason game before SEC play, the Texas A&M volleyball team was swept by No. 6 Texas 20-25, 18-25, 15-25 Wednesday night at Reed Arena.
Despite the lopsided scoreline, the Aggies were competitive in the match, particularly in the first set which saw three lead changes and seven ties.
Sophomore Hollann Hans was dominant in the set with four kills, and freshman setter Camille Conner had 11 assists. The efforts weren’t enough down the stretch though, as the Aggies lost the four of the last five points in the set and fell 25-20.
The Longhorns opened the second set with a 10-4 run, forcing the Aggies to use a timeout to attempt to halt their momentum. However, when the Aggies were able to string some points together, they would shoot themselves in the foot with costly mistakes.
“We had 26 attack errors to their six and the same number of kills, that’s a problem,” A&M head coach Laurie Corbelli said.
The number of errors were attributed to the strong play from the Longhorns’ blockers who finished the match with 13 blocks while the Aggies had just two.
“They do have a really nice block and they started blocking us well and sometimes that makes hitters question “where do I go now?” Corbelli said.
The Aggies lack of confidence showed as they weren’t able to find their groove, losing the second set 25-18.
A&M started the third set off strong, tying the score at 11, but the Aggies then lost eight out of the next ten points and the Longhorns ran away with the set. Hans’ blocks were incredibly powerful leading to her 11 kills on the night. Conversely, the power hindered her accuracy, leading to her eight errors on the night.
“Being more consistent and making less errors is a huge thing for us,” said Hans.
Hans recognizes the immense talent from the Texas side but also point out the lackluster performance of their team as a whole.
“Texas is a great team but we just didn’t play our best tonight,” said Hans.
The loss wraps up the Aggies rigorous non-conference schedule in which the Aggies played three teams ranked in the top 10. Despite losses in each of those affairs, Conner looks at it as a positive as those teams were able to expose their weaknesses.
“We got to play some of the top teams in preseason, and it really opened our eyes to what we need to work on and we’re going to get back in the gym tomorrow and make the changes that we need to,” said Conner.
A final attendance of 3,124 marked the fourth-highest attendance since the games moved to Reed Arena in 2009. Corbelli was happy to see the high attendance even despite the poor performance.
“[The atmosphere] was awesome,” Corbelli said. “I wish we could have used that energy and put it to positive use more. I wish we could have that every game but I understand you have to win to get crowds like that.”
The Aggies will officially turn the page on preseason play when they open SEC play at LSU.
“It’s a whole new season coming up and that’ll be good for us to,” said Corbelli.
In terms of goals for the season Corbelli has one thing on her mind: a SEC Championship.
“This is a championship we’re going for, the SEC, and just to start winning, because we can and we should be,” Corbelli said.
The Aggies kickoff their pursuit of the SEC Championship Friday at LSU at 7 p.m.