COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The Texas A&M volleyball team made sure its five seniors were victorious in their final appearance at Reed Arena as the Aggies defeated LSU, 25-17, 25-27, 25-18, 25-22, in front of 2,604 on Thanksgiving Eve.
It was the sixth consecutive home victory for the Aggies, who improved to 20-8 overall and 14-3 in Southeastern Conference matches with only a Saturday match at Auburn remaining on the regular season schedule. LSU, which had gone home triumphant in three of its last four trips to College Station, falls to 9-19 overall and 4-13 in SEC play.
The Aggies set a school record for digs in an SEC match with 103, with senior defensive specialist Victoria Arenas and junior libero Amy Nettles both posting personal season highs with 25 and 24 digs, respectively. Senior setter Kaysie Shebeneck had a career-high 12 digs and also posted the second double-double of her career by adding 15 sets in two sets played. Junior starting setter Stephanie Aiple dished out 28 assists, appearing in three sets.
Senior middle blocker Jazzmin Babers added a team-high four blocks to give her 549 for her career, putting her within four blocks of breaking the Texas A&M all-time career record of 552 total blocks held by Cindy Lothspeich (1994-97). Sophomore middle blocker Kaitlyn Blake had three blocks, including two block assists to give her 136 blocks assists and put her in fourth place all-time in the A&M season block assist records.
The Aggies used an 11-1 run to open up a 14-5 lead in the first set. The Tigers, who were outhit, .192 to .120, got back within seven points for the second time at 22-15 before the teams began to trade points for the remainder of the frame.
There were 17 ties and four lead changes in the second set, which saw LSU outhit A&M, .177 to .137, to pull off the win and even the match at a set apiece. A&M equaled its largest lead at 14-11 before LSU charged back, scoring four unanswered point to go up, 15-14. A&M tied the score seven times before retaking the lead at 23-22 following back-to-back kills by Babers. LSU got a kill coming out of a timeout to tie the score, but McGee put the Aggies at set point with a cross-court shot, which LSU unsuccessfully challenged that the ball landed wide.
An A&M attack error evened the score, and the Tigers served an ace to go up, 25-24. A&M called a timeout, and LSU served long when play resumed, knotting the score at 25-all. The Tigers’ Toni Rodriguez caromed a kill off the Aggie block to put LSU at set point for a second time, and A&M followed with an attack error to end the set.
LSU held a 15-14 advantage in the third set before a dump kill by Aiple marked the start of a 5-0 run by the Aggies. A&M, which outhit LSU, .189 to .026, held the lead for the rest of the set and was ahead, 22-18, when Hans powered the ball through the seam in the LSU block to record her seventh kill of the set. Junior outside hitter Ashlie Reasor followed with a well-placed tip kill, and Hans capped the stanza with an ace.
There were 13 ties and six lead changes in the fourth and final set. The Tigers had used a 3-0 run to take a 12-11 advantage, but Hans countered with a kill and an ace to put the Aggies back on top, 13-12. A&M, which hit .270 while holding LSU to a .158 hitting efficiency, took its largest lead of the frame at 19-15 following three consecutive attack errors by the Tigers. LSU would fight back and tie the score at 21- and 22-all before McGee pounded down a kill on one play and then softly tipped the ball in for a kill on the next play to put A&M at match point. McGee then teamed with Babers for a block to close out the contest.
A&M outhit LSU, .192 to .128, for the match, and led in kills (63-46), assists (57-44) and digs (103-78). The Tigers led in aces (5-2) and blocks (10-7).
All five A&M seniors saw action in their final appearance in front of the 12th Man at Reed Arena, including Katelyn Labhart, who was in the starting lineup as a defensive specialist and Emily Hardesty, who came off the bench to play outside hitter. The seniors were then honored in a postmatch ceremony.
With the victory, Texas A&M finished 8-2 in home matches and also reached the 20-win milestone for the third consecutive year and the 17th time in 24 years under head coach Laurie Corbelli.
The Aggies’ match at Auburn on Saturday begins at 12:30 p.m. at Auburn Arena.
Visit 12thMan.com for more information on Texas A&M volleyball. Aggie fans also can keep up to date with the A&M volleyball team on Facebook and on Twitter and Instagram by following @AggieVolleyball.
Texas A&M postmatch quotes:
TEXAS A&M HEAD COACH LAURIE CORBELLI:
On playing the seniors in the second set…
“I had full belief that they could do it. It was a group that’s not on the court a lot together all the time. I expected it to be a little choppy. Those players have all played together a lot but not in that situation at the same time…I knew at the end we could get this win and so I wasn’t really that concerned about that carrying over into the rest of the match.”
On strategy of the second set…
“… I’m glad that we got to get all the seniors on the floor at the same time. That was really cool, especially when in the second set, there was a time where all five seniors were on the floor with Amy Nettles and it was really cool. I don’t think I’ve ever been able to do that in the past.”
On senior Victoria Arenas‘ 25 digs tonight…
“It’s really good for her. [LSU is] a team that hits a lot of shots across their body back towards the right side of our court. It takes a little bit of time getting used to it. She is one of our quickest defenders and she was able to just get her hands on so many of them and did a beautiful job. I was really proud of her.”
On bouncing back from Sunday’s loss and Kentucky…
“We knew once we got our passing going and got our rhythm… that we would be fine. I thought we made more errors than normal. Even in the first set with six hitting errors, it’s kind of unlike us. We had more errors than that team, and lately we’ve been cutting our errors so much. I’m not really sure what it’s representing but I hope we got it out of our system.”
On the crowd at Reed Arena tonight…
“I thought this was more special [than previous senior nights]. I really didn’t know what to expect with campus being so empty today. I really didn’t know what to expect, but I walked out and I was so excited that so many people came. I saw some volleyball teams, students, and season ticket holders; it’s almost like everybody in town showed up. It was a really rewarding feeling to have at the end of the season. It’s been a long season; it’s been a rough season in a lot of ways. We’ve overcome a lot of things, and for those fans to continue to support us through it all has been really nice.”
TEXAS A&M SENIOR MIDDLE BLOCKER JAZZMIN BABERS
On her last game at Reed Arena…
“I’m not a very emotional person. It was great. It came through my mind at one time towards the end of the fourth set. It’s kind of what I expected. It was good at the end.”
On climbing the ladder from freshman to senior year…
“I just try to do the best that I can in every match. The stats and the records are not necessarily something that I’m striving for; it just comes along with playing. It being my fourth year and starting in every match and playing every match, naturally you’ll get stats and break records. It tends to come along every day in our games. It’s not something I’m really focused on.”
On other seniors playing today…
“That was awesome. It was good just to play with them. I’ve been here for five years, played with them for four years. Just to get to see Kaysie (Shebeneck) and Emily (Hardesty) playing a lot more in this game, it was great.”
On Reed Arena’s crowd tonight…
“We walked out for warmups and there was already a massive amount of people there. That kind of shocked us. Leave it to the 12th Man to come out the day before Thanksgiving and watch us play and support us. It was awesome. That was just great to play in front of such a solid crowd for one last time.”
TEXAS A&M FRESHMAN OUTSIDE HITTER HOLLANN HANS
On playing for the seniors…
“Before the game we talked about what we wanted to do for the seniors, to make this last game at Reed Arena the best for them. We wanted to go out with a bang and play our best.”
On her career-high 20 kills tonight…
“I don’t really go in striving for that. I just go and play to the best of my ability, and it just so happened that I got those kills.”
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics