September 03, 2001
The 18th-ranked Texas A&M volleyball team opens its home schedule against Texas-San-Antonio on Tuesday. First serve is at 7 p.m. at G. Rollie White Coliseum.
"The team is fired up and ready to play in front of the home crowd," A&M coach Laurie Corbelli said. "I anticipate that we will be jumping higher and hitting harder because of the extra adrenaline and excitement.
"This is another match where we hope to work with several lineups. We want to use all of the players if possible. We found that we didn't miss a beat too much with substitutions, and we would like to continue that."
The Aggies are 4-0 after winning the Crowne Plaza/Rice Invitational last weekend in Houston. A&M defeated Samford, Houston, Stephen F. Austin and Rice in three games each en route to the title. Senior setter Jenna Moscovic (Stockton, Calif.) earned most valuable player honors, and she was joined on the all-tournament team by senior outside hitter Erin Lechler (Houston, Texas), who led A&M with 4.25 kills per game.
The Roadrunners are 0-3 after going winless at the Northern Illinois University tournament. UTSA, which advanced to the NCAA tournament last year, suffered three-game losses to NIU, Crieghton and DePaul.
A&M is 8-0 in home openers under head coach Laurie Corbelli, and the Aggies have not dropped a home opener since 1989. The Aggies are 4-0 all-time against the Roadrunners. The teams last met on Nov. 7, 1993, in San Antonio, where A&M won the match, 15-2, 15-7, 15-10. UTSA is 0-1 in matches played at G. Rollie.
A&M continues its home stand Friday and Saturday as the Aggies play host to the Verizon Texas A&M Invitational. A&M plays Florida State Friday at 6 p.m. and faces Olympian Logan Tom and four-time national champion and ninth-ranked Stanford Saturday at 7 p.m. No. 25 Texas also is participating in the tournament but will not face the Aggies.
Country music recording artist John Conlee is slated to sing the National Anthem prior to the Stanford-A&M match.
The tournament represents the final tune-up for conference play as the Aggies open Big 12 play at Oklahoma on Wednesday, Sept. 12.
Tickets for A&M home matches are $6 for reserve seating, $4 for adult general admission and $3 for high school age and under. Call the Verizon Ticket Hotline at 1-888-99-AGGIE for more information.
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES: Schedule posters will be given away at Tuesday's match, and cokes will be on sale for only 25 cents…Senior outside hitter Michelle Cole needs 36 digs to reach 1,000 for her career…Setter Jenna Moscovic needs 79 assists to move into second place in the A&M all-time career records with 3,895…UTSA assistant coach Laura (Neugebauer) Groff served as an assistant coach at A&M from 1991-92 under former head coach Al Givens. She and A&M defensive specialist Beth Weynand are cousins, and Groff's husband, Dwayne, and A&M athletic director Wally Groff also are cousins.