After having its 8-0 start squashed in a loss to No. 7 Wisconsin on Saturday, Texas A&M volleyball needed to end its nonconference slate on a high note in its game against Troy on Sunday in Madison, Wisconsin.
The Maroon and White did just that, defeating the Trojans 3-1 despite Troy catching A&M off guard by winning the first set.
“I thought we started slow today,” A&M coach Jamie Morrison said postgame. “But, I was really fired up with the way we ended things near the end of the first [set] and even more as the match went on.”
The offense for the Aggies was led by junior opposite hitter Logan Lednicky, who had 16 kills on the day. A&M’s defense had seven blocks come from junior middle blocker Morgan Perkins, five from junior MB Ifenna Cos-Okpalla and five from Lednicky.
A&M started hot in the first set, as it quickly put Troy down 5-1. The Trojans then came back and tied things at 6 before going back and forth with the Aggies until they were tied at 8.
The Trojans then went on a run to take a 14-9 lead over the Aggies before a mix of attack errors from Troy and two kills from Cos-Okpalla brought A&M back into striking distance at 16-14. The Aggies were forced to take a timeout after Troy went back up 19-15, and then they were forced to take another when Troy made it 23-18.
Set 1 ended with the Trojans on top, 25-22, as Troy junior outside hitter Amiah Butler and senior OH Tori Hester each had three kills in the first. For the Aggies, their offense gave Troy 11 points off of attack errors.
The second set was a different story, as the Aggies immediately took the lead and didn’t look back. The momentum-driven Aggies came out of Set 2 with a 25-14 win, with 12 of those points coming from Lednicky’s 12 kills.
A&M looked much more focused in the second set, as not one member of the Maroon and White gave up a point to an attack error.
The momentum carried over into the third set, as A&M started with going up 6-3 before the Trojans went on a run to tie the set at 7. Two straight kills from junior OH Emily Hellmuth started an A&M run that ended with A&M up 16-10 before the Trojans were forced into taking a timeout.
The timeout did not slow down the Aggies. A&M was able to close out the third set on top, 25-15, with Lednicky and Cos-Okpalla each contributing two kills and a block assist coming out of the timeout.
The start of the fourth and final set saw both the Aggies and Trojans go back and forth until they were tied at 8. A&M scored two points off a Trojan attack error and a service ace from Perkins to go up 10-8.
Despite Troy putting up a fight and staying close to A&M throughout the rest of the final set, it couldn’t build enough momentum to mount a comeback. The Aggies ended the final set with a score of 25-18, with Perkins contributing five kills and junior OH Lexi Guinn adding four kills for A&M.
The Maroon and White begin SEC play against No. 8 Texas at Reed Arena on Friday at 6:30 p.m., marking the first time these two teams will have faced off since the 2023 NCAA Tournament.
