September 06, 2003
Texas A&M suffered its first loss of the season as the Aggies fell to Michigan, 30-25, 30-17, 32-30 at the Michigan/Pepsi Challenge in front of 1,144 at Cliff Keen Arena.
Hitting errors plagued the Aggies, who hit a season-low .129 and fell to 3-1. Michigan hit .258, the highest allowed by A&M this season, and improved to 3-2. In addition, the Wolverines outblocked A&M, 9-6.
"We made errors that we had not made since last year," A&M coach Laurie Corbelli said. "It was very out of character for us, and it wasn't just one player but nearly all of them."
Michigan hit .298 in the first game while holding the Aggies to a paltry .163. There were five lead changes early in the contest, including when Michigan regained the lead for good at 13-12 following an A&M attack error. The Wolverines built a game-high seven-point lead at 21-14, and the Aggies could not get closer than four points for the remainder of the game.
Things got worse in Game 2 as the Wolverines went on a 10-point scoring run early in the game to take a commanding 11-2 lead. They eventually built their first game-high 13-point lead at 18-5 en route to the 30-17 pounding. The Aggies' hitting percentage dropped to a .059 hitting percentage, while Michigan upped its hitting percentage to .429 for the game.
A&M never trailed early in Game 3 and built a game-high four-point lead at 28-24. The Wolverines, however, scored four unanswered points to tie the score for the 13th time in the game. A&M's Tara Pulaski ended the run with one of her five kills of the match, but Michigan tied the score with a kill and took its first lead of the game when the Wolverines blocked an A&M attack. With Michigan serving for match point, A&M's Laura Jones tied the score with her team-high 12th kill of the match. Michigan setter Lisa Gamalski then got a kill on a dump and teammate Jennifer Gandolph followed with her 15th kill of the match to give the Wolverines the come-from-behind win and the match.
"Michigan prepared better to go out and fight," Corbelli said. "They were very determined, and they executed and caught us off guard. We couldn't seem to get into a rhythm. What we had seen of Michigan was nothing we had seen tonight, and they started running circles around us which really threw us off. They came at us 100 percent."
One bright spot for the Aggies was the play of outside hitter Jayna Baker, who came off the bench to post career-highs of seven kills and two blocks. Corbelli also was pleased with the effort of Kendra Felder.
"Jayna did a great job," Corbelli said. "For not having been on the court much, she went out with a lot of courage. Kendra also fought hard and was not afraid."
The Aggies return to action Sunday as they conclude the tournament against Murray State at 10 a.m. (CDT).
Michigan/Pepsi Challenge Results:
Friday, Sept. 5
Texas A&M def. No. 16 Louisville, 3-1 (30-22, 30-26, 28-30, 32-30)
Michigan def. Murray State, 3-0 (30-24, 30-28, 30-27)
Saturday, Sept. 6
No. 16 Louisville def. Murray State, 3-2 (27-30, 30-24, 24-30, 30-25, 15-12)
Michigan def. Texas A&M, 3-0 (30-25, 30-17, 32-30)