October 06, 2001
Texas A&M coach Laurie Corbelli won her 300th career match as a head coach and 200th at A&M as her 16th-ranked Aggies bested the Texas Longhorns, 30-27, 30-16, 25-30, 30-23, before 2,740 fans at Gregory Gymnasium.
The win marked A&M’s fourth straight victory over Texas and the second in a row in Austin. Last year’’s victory in the Capitol City – in which Corbelli became the winningest coach in A&M history – was the first for the Aggies since 1979. Corbelli now sits at 300-177 in her 16-year coaching career and 200-71 in nine seasons at A&M.
“The first thing that comes to mind is how proud I am of this group to come in here and get the victory,” Corbelli said. “Texas is a very strong net team and, with us coming off a loss (to Colorado on Wedesday), the situation we were entering was very tough. I know how bad the team wanted to win this for me. I just feel really proud and happy to be at A&M. I thank them for all they give our program and the support we get. It allows us to do a lot of things.”
The Aggies (11-2, 4-1 Big 12) never trailed in the first game en route to a 30-27 victory. A&M scored four straight points early to grab a 15-9 lead, its biggest of the game. With the Aggies holding a 21-18 lead, the Longhorns rattled off three straight points to tie the score at 21-21. Two points later, A&M freshman Melissa Munsch killed a UT overpass to give the Aggies the lead for good at 23-22. Back-to-back errors by Texas’ Mira Topic put A&M serving for game point. Gipy Duarte tallied a point for the ‘Horns on a kill off the block, but Michelle Cole put down one of her three kills in the game to end it.
A&M fed off the momentum of the first game, grabbing control of game two and cruising to a 30-16 win. The Aggies out-hit Texas .324 to .024 and stepped up their net play by posting six blocks. Five consecutive points by A&M closed out the game, and a kill by Brandi Mount sent the Aggies into the locker room with a 2-0 match lead.
Texas (9-4, 4-2 Big 12) grabbed its first lead of the match in the third game at 11-10, eventually building a six-point advantage at 20-14. The Aggies rallied, however, and a 5-1 rally forced a Longhorn timeout at 21-19. Texas rebounded to lead by four at 26-22, but a service error and an attack into the net cut the lead to two at 26-24. A Katia Lara kill and consecutive hitting errors by Mount had UT serving for the game, but Cole notched a kill to stave off game point. Munsch, however, followed that by hitting into a triple block to give Texas a 30-25 game three win.
“The first two games we felt (Texas) was a little slower offensively,” Corbelli said. “We didn’t want to become slow, too. We made a commitment to stay in our system, and that helped us out a lot. We had a lot to prove in game three. I think we cauht ourselves waiting for them to make mistakes. We still have to learn to manage rally scoring a bit.”
The Longhorns controlled the fourth game early before A&M took its first lead——other than a 1-0 advantage——at 14-13 on a Duarte attack error. Texas blocked an Erin Lechler attempt to tie the score, but kills by Mount and Tara Pulaski gave the Aggies the lead for good at 16-14 and forced a Longhorn timeout. Holding a three-point lead at 22-19, Cole slammed down a kill and then stepped to the service line and rallied the Aggies to a 26-19 advantage, the last coming on her fourth service ace of the night. With the score 28-23 in favor of A&M, a kill by Mount and an attack error by Lara closed out the match.
The Aggies were led offensively by Munsch and Cole with 16 kills each. Tara Pulaski (11), Mount (10) and Lechler (10) were also in double figures. Lechler posted a team-high 15 digs, while Munsch added a career-high seven blocks.
Bethany Howden led all players with 17 kills for the Longhorns on the evening to go along with a team-high five blocks. Lara posted 16 kills while Topic added 13. Lisa Lutkus notched a match-high 17 digs on the night.
For the match, A&M out-hit Texas .290 to .199 and out-dug the Longhorns 64 to 59. Each team posted 12 blocks on the night.
“I think for the seniors this is a big accomplishment,” Corbelli said. “There has not been an Aggie team of late that has won twice in consecutive years in Austin, and I think that has really been fun for this senior class. They really wanted to win this match in a bad way. I think I’’m most proud that we were able to bounce back from a really difficult loss on Wednesday. We identified what went wrong then and we didn’t let it happen tonight.”
Texas A&M continues its road swing Wednesday when they face the Texas Tech Red Raiders. First serve at United Spirit Arena in Lubbock is set for 7 p.m. (CDT).