Texas A&M Volleyball Loses Wednesday Match Against Alabama

(Source: Texas A&M Athletics)

BRYAN-COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The Texas A&M volleyball dropped its midweek match with Alabama 3-1 (22-25, 26-24, 25-23, 25-20) Wednesday night inside Reed Arena.

Logan Lednicky led Texas A&M (12-11, 4-8 SEC) with 24 kills and added a career high in digs as she tallied 18. Setters Elena Karakasi and Nisa Buzlutepe split the assists for the Aggies as they registered 26 and 21, respectively. Molly Brown led the Maroon & White in blocks as she got up for five on the day.

Texas A&M found its momentum early as it opened the match on a 5-2 scoring run. Alabama (8-15, 2-9 SEC) responded to the Aggies’ early lead as it tied the game at 10. The Maroon & White found itself down one as it headed to the opening timeout of the frame, 15-14, but A&M responded with a seven-point run to lead, 21-15. The Aggies continued their push and a kill from Caroline Meuth won the opening set for A&M, 25-22.

Back-and-forth play opened the second frame as the teams were tied five times early on. Alabama would break that tie as it led the Aggies, 13-10. The Maroon & White responded and knotted the game at 15 following Lednicky’s 10th kill of the game. A run from the Crimson Tide had them up 22-19, but a trio of kills from Lednicky, Meuth and Karakasi tied the game at 22. With Aggies facing two match-points, kills from Brown and Lednicky leveled the game again at 24. Alabama finished the set with a pair of points as it won the frame, 26-24.

Six ties and three lead changes opened the third set. Alabama found some momentum as it pulled away from the Aggies, 16-9. A&M battled back, which forced a Crimson Tide timeout as the Aggies trailed, 21-17. The Maroon & White continued its comeback and tied the game at 22, but Alabama found some rhythm and won the set 25-23.

A close battle was again the theme to begin the fourth frame as both teams traded points before eventually tying things up at 10. The back-and-forth play continued until Alabama created a gap and eventually sealed the match with a 25-20 victory in the final set.

UP NEXT
The Aggies go on the road this weekend to face the Auburn Tigers for a pair of matches at Neville Arena. The games will air on SEC Network+ at 2 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday.

BIRD BITS
Head coach Laura “Bird” Kuhn

On her overall thoughts on the match…
“The SEC is tough from top to bottom. We knew Alabama would come strong and they are a good team. Every team in the SEC is going to battle. We need to execute better and continue to grind together.”

Junior Middle Madison Bowser
On how the team responded in the second set…
“We were just focusing on our first contact. Like Bird said, our pass, our serve. And then just getting excited after every point so we could build some momentum of our own.”

Freshman Libero/Defensive Specialist Ava Underwood
On handling Alabama’s serves…
“[Abby Marjama] is a good server, she has a heavy top spin. Handling stuff like that takes communication, and ours got a better as the match progressed.”

Story by Sam Thornton, Texas A&M Athletics Communications

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