A&M split two games with Stanford and Minnesota at the Stanford tournament in Palo Alto, California over the weekend.

To kick off the 2015 campaign, the Aggies got their first test of the season against the No. 2 team in the nation, the Stanford Cardinal, on their home floor. A&M fell in three sets by a final score of 3-0.

Angela Lowak led the Aggies with 13 kills in the match and sophomore Kiara McGee came off the bench to put in seven kills of her own. On the defensive side, Amy Nettles and Stephanie Aiple both had six digs and Jazzmin Babers had three blocks on the night.

Stanford outhit A&M .320 to .160. The Aggies had some communication miscues a few times and that led to Stanford being able to put A&M out of reach. A&M trailed 17-11 in the first set and rallied to make it 22-18. However, an Aggie lapse gave Stanford a 23-18 lead, and A&M did not get any closer.

A&M led 10-6 in the second set, but a Stanford run ended up giving them a 14-12 lead.

A&M grew close towards the end of the set, again drawing to 23-18, but the Cardinal finished off the set. A&M led in the third set too, but that went away quickly. Once the Cardinal gained a 3-2 lead, they never looked back en route to a sweep of A&M with a 25-15 win in the third and final set.
In the Aggies second game of the tournament, they once again faced a tough opponent in Minnesota, a team ranked just one spot below A&M in the preseason poll at No. 31.
The fortunes of A&M were different this time out, as the Aggies battled back for a 3-2 win over the Gophers. A&M trailed two sets to one, but they reeled off wins in the final two sets to come away with a solid win.

Making her first career start, Kiara McGee posted a double-double with 13 kills and 14 digs, and also added four aces. Shelby Sullivan and Jazzmin Babers both added 12 and 11 kills, respectively, to the stat sheet. Babers also led the team with four blocks.

On defense, sophomore Amy Nettles had 15 digs and Emily Hardesty, who was inserted after Lowak left with an injury, threw in 13 digs to the Aggie cause as well.

After 12 ties and seven lead changes in the first set, A&M reeled off five straight points to take a come-from-behind set win. After that, Minnesota took two straight sets from A&M to gain a 2-1 lead.

The Aggies led the entire fourth set to tie the match up at two sets apiece. In the final set, A&M led the whole way through as well, and McGee gave A&M all the momentum with a rocket kill to give the Aggies a 12-8 lead. Two Gopher miscues put A&M at match point, and Emily Hardesty put the game away with a block.

The Aggies return home on Saturday for their home debut. They will host the Aggie Invitational this weekend, where they will play a doubleheader on Saturday against Wichita State and Abilene Christian at Reed Arena.