October 25, 2000
The 21st-ranked Texas A&M volleyball team remained in second place in the Big 12 Conference, defeating the Kansas Jayhakws 15-10, 15-13, 15-12, before 641 fans Wednesday at the Horejsi Family Athletics Center on the KU campus.
A&M, now 14-5 on the year and 9-3 in Big 12 play, has won six of their last seven matches. The Jayhawks fall to 12-9 overall and 3-9 in league action.
"We kept enough control to seal the victory in three games," A&M head coach Laurie Corbelli said. "The whole team seemed to be moving slowly, but as we went along our passing improved. We just had to keep hacking away. Kansas played great defense and we had to bang balls at them and keep our aggressive nature."
Kansas opened the match by scoring the first four points of game one before the Aggies chipped away and finally took a 7-6 lead. Back-to-back blocks by the Jayhawks gave KU the lead back at 8-7 before A&M rattled off three straight points to go up by two. Kansas took advantage of two Aggie attack errors to tie the score at 10-10. After the Aggies regained serve, a big block by redshirt freshman middle blocker Tara Pulaski and junior setter Jenna Moscovic put A&M up by one. With junior defensive specialist Beth Weynand at the service line, the Aggies followed a Jayhawk attack error with two straight kills from junior outside hitter Michelle Cole and another from senior middle blocker Heather Marshall to give A&M a 15-10 win.
Texas A&M held a slim 5-4 lead to start game two before they scored the next seven points to open up a comfortable 12-4 advantage. KU fought its way back into the match and got within one point at 12-11 on a block by Kylie Thomas and Nancy Bell. Junior outside hitter Brandi Mount put A&M up by two with a kill, but Kansas regained serve and got kills by Amy Myatt and Bell to tie the score at 13-13. After the teams exchanged sideouts, Pulaski and junior outside hitter Erin Gibson teamed on a block, moving the Aggies within one of the win. Gibson put down a KU overpass on the ensuing serve to close out the 15-13 win.
The Jayhawks held a 10-8 lead in game three when sophomore middle blocker A.D. Achilefu came off the bench and sparked the Aggies to an 11-10 lead on a kill and two consecutive blocks. Attack errors by both squads spotted each team a point before Mount put down one of her match-high 18 kills to increase the A&M lead to two at 13-11. KU closed within one before Achilefu posted a kill to have the Aggies serving for the match. A Kansas attack attempt then sailed wide, giving A&M the 15-12 win and the 3-0 match sweep.
Moscovic posted 16 assists in game one to move into third place in the A&M career record book ahead of Farah Mensik. The Stockton, Calif. native finished with 50 on the night and now has 3,289 assists for her career.
Gibson posted 17 kills to go along with a match-high 17 digs. Cole had 13 kills while Marshall added 12. For the match, the Aggies out-hit KU .284 to .176 and out-blocked the Jayhawks nine to four.
"Michelle [Cole] caught on fire and that was huge for the team," Corbelli said. "Brandi [Mount] had an incredible night at the net. Everyone was doing a nice job, but we decided to put A.D. [Achilefu] in the middle in game three to add a little bit of spark. She is so quick and is as effective in the middle as she is on the outside. She changed the course of the game."
The match will be televised on a tape-delay basis by FOX Sports Net as part of the Big 12 Conference television package. Fans in the Bryan-College Station area can catch the action on Saturday at 4 p.m. on FOX Sports Net Southwest (COX Cable Ch. 25).
Texas A&M looks to extend its school-record 27-match home winning streak on Friday when it plays host to the Oklahoma Sooners. First serve at G. Rollie White Coliseum is set for 7 p.m.