Over the weekend, the No. 14 Texas A&M volleyball team traveled to San Juan, Puerto Rico for the Puerto Rico Clasico at the Ruben Rodriguez Coliseum. Texas A&M went 1-2 in Puerto Rico, taking its record to 3-3 on the season.
The Aggies started the tournament on Thursday with a 3-2 loss against No. 16 Florida State. The second set was tied up at 18 before A&M scored six straight points to go up 24-18 and eventually win 25-19.
The Seminoles turned it around after the second set and built a 23-15 lead before winning the set 25-20. The third set was a back and forth affair as the Seminoles eventually pulled away to win the set 25-21. Florida State dominated the last set, winning 15-8.
Junior Kiara McGee started the match strong with seven kills in the first set, and finished with a career high 21 kills in the match. In addition to Kiara McGee’s career match, the Aggies were led by senior Emily Hardesty and sophomore Kaitlyn Blake. Hardesty had 14 kills and two blocks, as Blake had 13 kills, five blocks, and an ace.
Friday, the Aggies faced off against No. 6 Minnesota, but the match didn’t go in the Aggies favor. Minnesota started the first set strong with a 7-3 lead over the Aggies.
The Gophers dominated the set as they built a 24-16 lead before taking it 25-18. A&M took their first lead of the match in the second set when it took a 7-6 lead after starting the set down 4-0. Minnesota eventually pulled away from the Aggies in the set, taking a 23-17 lead.
The Aggies wouldn’t give up though as A&M won five straight points to cut the Gopher lead to 23-22. The Aggies couldn’t pull through in the set as Minnesota took it 25-23. Minnesota again dominated the third set as they took a 22-15 lead and coasted to a 25-19 win to sweep the Aggies in the match. Senior Jazzmin Babers and freshman Hollann Hans led the Aggies in the loss. Babers had 10 kills and three blocks and Hans had seven kills and two blocks.
The Aggies finished the tournament strong against Virginia Tech on Saturday, sweeping the Hokies 3-0. The first set was close throughout, and the Aggies eventually took it 28-26 as Jazzmin Babers and Hollann Hans finished the set with consecutive kills.
A&M took a big 19-12 lead in the second set before the Hokies made a furious comeback, tying up the set at 21. The Aggies fought off the comeback and took the set 25-23. A&M was strong in the third set, building a 22-14 lead before winning the set 25-15. Junior setter Stephanie Aiple led the Aggies against Virginia Tech, racking up 41 assists in the match.
“We found a lot of things on our team that we need to continue to improve in, some serving things, some blocking things, some ball control things,” head coach Laurie Corbelli told 12thman.com. “Those are all fixable. And we saw some moments of some really, really awesome things from some of our young players that haven’t been on the court much.”
The Aggies will host Chinese team Shandong at 6:30 p.m. on Monday at A&M Consolidated.
