October 09, 2003
The 24th-ranked Texas A&M volleyball team hits the road to face the Iowa State Cyclones Saturday in Ames, Iowa. First serve is 7 p.m. at Hilton Coliseum.
The Aggies, who are in a three-way tie for fifth place in the Big 12 Conference, will be aiming for their first conference road win of the season. ISU, which is in ninth place in the league standings, will be looking for its first conference home win of the season.
The Aggies swept Texas Tech Wednesday in College Station to snap a two-match losing skid and improve to 11-5 overall and 3-3 in the Big 12 Conference. The 30-21, 30-25, 30-21 victory marked A&M's first sweep of a Big 12 opponent this season.
The A&M defense held the Red Raiders to a .102 hitting percentage, the lowest by an A&M opponent since the season opener in which the Aggies held Marquette to a .071 efficiency.
The Aggies are holding opponents to a .207 hitting efficiency for the full season. Junior middle blocker Melissa Munsch (Columbus, Texas) sports a team-best 1.22 blocks per game, and senior outside hitter Beth Skypala (Amarillo, Texas) leads the team with 3.81 digs per game. In addition, Skypala leads the Big 12 with a 4.38 dig average in conference games only.
The A&M offense is hitting .246 and is second in the league with 16.5 kills per game. Individually, sophomore outside hitter Laura Jones (Arlington, Texas) boasts team highs of 4.2 kills and 4.84 points per game. Junior middle blocker Kendra Felder (Corpus Christi, Texas) leads the Aggies with a .307 hitting percentage and also leads the Big 12 with a .394 hitting percentage in conference games only.
Iowa State improved to 9-8 overall and 2-5 in the Big 12 by defeating Oklahoma, 22-30, 30-20, 30-19, 30-23, in Norman on Wednesday. The victory marked the first time the Cyclones have won more than one Big 12 match in a season since 1996 - the first year of the league - when ISU finished 3-17.
Three Cyclones reached double figures in kills, including sophomore Ashlie McWee, who posted team highs of 15 kills and a .444 hitting percentage. In addition, the 6-0 middle blocker added a career-high nine blocks as ISU outblocked the Sooners, 14 to 7, and held them to a .136 hitting percentage.
McWee leads the Cyclones with 1.28 blocks per game in Big 12 matches. Junior outside hitter Brittany Dalager is averaging team highs of 3.04 kills and 3.28 digs per conference game.
The Aggies have won the last 15 meetings against the Cyclones and own a 16-1 lead in the all-time series, including a 14-0 mark in Big 12 matches. In the most recent meeting, A&M defeated ISU in four games (25-30, 31-29, 30-24, 30-26) last season in Ames, marking the first time the Aggies dropped a game in their 15-match winning streak against the Cyclones.