After a disastrous first set, the Texas A&M volleyball team dropped a quick match 3-0 (25-7, 25-13, 25-21) to the No. 8 University of Kentucky (15-2, 6-0 SEC). The Aggies fall to 5-8 on the season and 2-4 against Southeastern Conference opponents.
“We met a very tough opponent at their place tonight, and we could not get our serving and passing anywhere close to where it can be, which meant zero attacking and made defense that much harder,” Texas A&M head coach Laurie Corbelli told 12thman.com. “Kentucky played awesome. It definitely was not our night at all.”
The Wildcats held Texas A&M to only .075 hitting while boasting a .410 hitting percentage. Errors proved costly for the Aggies in the match as they committed 18 attack and nine service errors to Kentucky’s nine and eight.
Senior libero Amy Nettles notched her 100th career start against the Wildcats, and also took over seventh place in the Texas A&M record books after recording 11 digs to bring her career total to 1,272.
Sophomore Hollann Hans followed with eight digs and led the team with 10 kills, 10 points, and a .280 hitting percentage.
Leah Edmond and Avery Skinner led the charge for the Wildcats, combining for 25 kills and 28 points, with 11 of those kills coming in the third set. Edmond also added one of Kentucky’s three service aces.
Senior middle blocker Kaz Brown led Kentucky in hitting with a .667 percentage. She also added eight points and six kills on nine attacks with no errors.
Kentucky took off early to open the match on a 12-0 run, with five of those points coming off of Aggie errors. Corbelli used two timeouts during this run in an attempt to halt the Wildcat momentum, but to no avail. An attack error by Skinner finally placed the Aggies on the scoreboard with one point.
Texas A&M was unable to gain any traction, however, and only put up seven points throughout the set. Hans gave the Aggies their only offensive points of the first set with three kills.
In the first set, Kentucky hit .516 while the Aggies only managed a -.200 hitting percentage. The second set fared slightly better for the Aggies as they hit -.040 and dropped Kentucky to .367.
Texas A&M started off the second set strong, staying toe-to-toe with the Wildcats and even taking over the lead twice. The Aggies couldn’t hang on, though, and lost the lead on two errors.
Kentucky then began to pull away, making use of seven Texas A&M errors to take a 21-13 lead. Kentucky then used two consecutive kills by Edmond to wrap up the second set 25-13 on a nine-point scoring run.
The Aggies finally found the momentum they had been searching for in the third set, jumping out to a 1-0 start. Five lead changes and 14 ties followed. The Aggies also had 15 kills in the third set, a leap from their nine in the first two sets, and hit .314 to Kentucky’s .382.
Kentucky moves on to face the only remaining undefeated team in the nation in No. 1 Florida. The match kicks off at 1 p.m. on Sunday from Gainesville, Florida.
The Aggies return home to Reed Arena to kick off a five-game home slate starting with Auburn at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday.