COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The Texas A&M volleyball team ended their homestand with a five-set (17-25, 25-20, 25-22, 20-15, 15-12) thriller over Oklahoma on Tuesday night at Reed Arena. The Aggies improve to 8-1, while the Sooners drop to 7-3.
Senior outside hitter Hollann Hans was dominant tonight, registering her third double-double of the season after finishing with a season-high 29 kills and 10 digs. She was three kills shy of tying her career-high of 32 and recorded a .317 mark.
Freshman outside hitter Lauren Davis was also tremendous for the Aggies, recording a career-high 17 kills, while Taylor Voss finished with a career-high 18 digs.
Junior setter Camille Conner dished out a season-high 57 assists. Other Aggies in double figures were Makena Patterson, who finished with 11 kills and Camila Gomez, who had 21 digs.
Set One
Oklahoma was able to get on the board first and did not let up. Lauren Davis stopped a 4-0 run by the Sooners with a kill. Oklahoma continued to take advantage of multiple 3-0 runs to build on its lead. The Aggies came within four of the Sooners after four kills, including back-to-back kills by Hans. A 3-0 run helped the Sooners reach set point, closing out the frame 25-17. Hans led the Aggies with nine kills, no errors and a .562 clip.
Set Two
A&M began the set with a 3-0 run and eventually took an 8-3 lead with Karly Basham at the service line. Taylor Voss’ service ace put the Aggies ahead 15-9 before the media timeout. A 4-0 run gave the Aggies a 23-15 lead, forcing the Sooners to call timeout. Oklahoma put up a strong fight, but Patterson ended the frame with a kill. Hans was unstoppable, recording nine kills in the second set, followed by Patterson who had five.
Set Three
It was a very intense battle with 13 ties and six lead changes. Oklahoma went ahead 11-7 after a 4-0 run. Hans knotted the score at 16 with a kill and the Aggies took the lead after a block by Patterson and Conner. Points continued to trade back and forth until Patterson had a kill and an ace to give A&M a 24-22 advantage. A block by London Austin-Roark and Rush secured the set, 25-22. Hans once again led A&M with five kills, while Patterson and Davis each had three. Gomez tallied eight digs and Voss registered six.
Set Four
The Aggies started off strong with a 6-0 run to go ahead 7-3. Oklahoma battled back little by little, eventually going taking a 17-14 lead from a 4-0 run. The Sooners ended the set with a 3-0 run to push a fifth set, 25-20. Hans’ five kills in the frame added to her total of 28 with Patterson and Davis staying solid for the Aggies as well.
Set Five
Both teams fought for each point. A kill by Lauren Davis began a 3-0 run for the Aggies giving them a 7-6 lead. Another 3-0 run by the Aggies put A&M ahead 10-7, forcing the Sooners to call timeout. The battled continued, but A&M had a 13-10 lead when Oklahoma called their second timeout. The Sooners had a kill to stay alive, but Hans put down her 29th kill of the match to give the Aggies set and match point. An attacking error by the Sooners secured the 15-12 win.
Texas A&M Post-Match Quotes
Texas A&M Head Coach Bird Kuhn
Opening Statement
“That was a great team win. Obviously we were offensively pin heavy, but they stepped up and knew how to execute our game plan. Hollann took some big swings, moving the ball down the line. Lauren was just dropping the ball in the hole. It’s what we have talked about the last two days at training. We still need our balance and there are things we need to clean up, like the missed serves at the end of set four. That’s the momentum of volleyball, and you need to be able to respond and we did. Defensively they executed and we knew that we needed to be automatic. It was a solid team win.”
On the difference between set one and set two
“That was just us taking care of the ball. Those are the things we need to break down as a team. It was slow. We weren’t in our rhythm, and we weren’t setting the tone. We didn’t set the tone the first set. We needed to snap out of it and then in the second set we got going.”
On tonight’s win before taking on Texas
“Being at home and being able to close out a good team like that is huge. That’s setting the tone. A win is a win, and when they grind out and execute like they did tonight, it’s important, especially when you go on the road with your rival this week.”
Senior outside hitter Hollann Hans
On the team playing good defense
“Bird always says we’re a grind team and I think that showed tonight. Our defense was amazing. They picked up everything and they gave us good high balls, which helped us to get aggressive swings out of system.”
On the difference between set one and set two.
“Everything that happened in the first set was all on us. Anytime we do lose a set, it’s because were not executing. We had a game plan because we knew it would work. Once we got it rolling we just did what we had been doing in practice this whole week.”
Freshman outside hitter Lauren Davis
“We really figured out what was working for us. The first set we were just trying to figure stuff out and the second set we really understood why the things we were doing weren’t working, so we fixed it. They had a really big block and on some of the faster balls it was hard to find the deep corners, which is one of the things we have been working on.”
Up Next
The Aggies hit the road to take on No. 3 Texas in Austin at Gregory Gymnasium. First serve is set for 7 p.m. and the match will be streamed on the Longhorn Network.
Visit 12thMan.com for more information on Texas A&M volleyball. Fans can keep up to date with the A&M volleyball team on Facebook and on Twitter by following @AggieVolleyball.
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics