Aggie Volleyball Makes Home Debut
Sep 11, 2003 | Volleyball
September 11, 2003
The Texas A&M volleyball team makes its 2003 home debut this weekend as the Aggies play host to the McDonald's/Texas A&M Invitational Friday and Saturday at G. Rollie White Coliseum. Other teams participating in the four-team round-robin tournament are Centenary (3-6), Southwest Missouri State (6-1) and No. 1-ranked USC (6-0), which eliminated the Aggies in the second round of the 2002 NCAA tournament en route to the national championship title...The Aggies (5-1) take the court Friday at 6 p.m. against Southwest Missouri State. On Saturday, A&M meets Centenary at noon and then battles the Women of Troy at 7 p.m...The first 1,000 fans at the USC match will receive a free Aggie volleyball T-shirt courtesy of Cingular Wireless... of Saturday's matches will be available at AggieAthletics.com, and live video streaming of Saturday's contests will be available by subscribing to .
The 2003 AGGIES
Texas A&M is 5-1 after going 2-1 at the Michigan/Pepsi Challenge last weekend in Ann Arbor, Mich. A&M finished in a three-way tie for first place with a 2-1 record but was awarded second place based on the tiebreaker rule...The Aggies upset No. 16 Louisville, 3-1, in the opening match of the tournament, marking the highest ranked team A&M has defeated since upending No. 6 Wisconsin in the regional semifinals of the 2001 NCAA tournament, but then fell to the host Wolverines before concluding the tournament with a victory over Murray State...Sophomore outside hitter Laura Jones and junior outside hitter/middle blocker Melissa Munsch were named to the all-tournament team for the second consecutive week...Jones, who has led the Aggies in kills in every match this season, leads the team with 4.81 kills and 5.52 points per game, while Munsch is the team leader in aces (0.38) and blocks (1.38) per game...Senior outside hitter Beth Skypala, who recorded the first double-double of her career with a career-high 15 kills and a match-high 19 digs in the Aggies' win against the 16th-ranked Cardinals, leads the Aggies with 3.70 digs per game, and senior outside hitter Carol Price is hitting at a team-best .371 clip...Junior setter Lexy Beers is averaging 9.19 assists per game, and sophomore setter Kari Kelley is averaging 7.53 assists per game as the Aggies experiment with a 6-2 offense...As a team, A&M is outhitting its opponents, .248 to .175, and is averaging 17.29 kills to opponents' 14.81 kills per game...The Aggies are ranked eighth in the nation and lead the Big 12 Conference in both assists (15.81) and kills per game....A&M, which is picked to finish tied for fourth with Missouri in the Big 12, received points in the this week's USA Today/AVCA Top 25 Poll and is listed 28th.
OPPONENT PROFILES
Centenary College (3-6) had a three-match winning streak halted in its last outing as the Ladies fell to Northwestern State in three games...Freshman outside hitter/middle blocker Ashley Templer leads the Ladies with 3.03 kills per game, while sophomore outside hitter Kelley Heckman is averaging a team-high 3.55 digs per game...Centenary is ranked 28th in the nation with 2.45 aces per game...The Ladies are hitting .091 while holding opponents to a .192 hitting percentage...Jenny Hazelwood, a standout setter for Mississippi State from 1996-99, is entering her second season at the helm of the Ladies. Hazelwood returns all six starters from last year's team that went 13-30.
USC (6-0) returns all seven starters - including the libero - from last year's Pac-10 and NCAA championship team...All six of USC's wins this season have been in three games, and four of the six matches have been against top 10 opponents (No. 2 Hawaii, No. 3 Florida, No. 8 Northern Iowa and No. 8 Pepperdine.) ...The Women of Troy are tied for second in the nation with 3.89 blocks per game. In addition, they rank sixth in the nation with 15.94 assists per game, seventh with a .317 hitting percentage and 11th in kills per game with 17.17 as of Sept. 7...In the individual national stats, 6-foot-5 sophomore middle blocker Bibiana Candelas, who also is a standout on the Mexican National Team, is listed sixth in the nation with a .489 hitting percentage. In addition Candelas is tied with 6-6 teammate Emily Adams for 11th in the nation with 1.67 blocks per game...USC's probable starting outside hitters and middle blockers range in height from 6-foot-1 (Keao Burdine and April Ross) to 6-foot-6 (Emily Adams) for an average height of 6-foot-3...Head coach Mick Haley, who is entering his third season at USC after coaching the USA Olympic team in the 2000 Sydney Games, is very familiar with G. Rollie White as he served as the head coach at the University of Texas from 1980-96. Haley led the rival Longhorns to 14 Southwest Conference titles during his 17-year tenure and is an impressive 12-3 at G. Rollie. However, in Haley's last appearance at G. Rollie as the coach of the Longhorns (Sept. 25, 1996) and the first match of the newly created Big 12 Conference, A&M recorded its first three-game sweep of Texas, which was ranked No. 5 in the nation.
Southwest Missouri State (6-1) is coming off a successful weekend in which the Bears captured the T.J. Sales/SMS Dr. Mary Jo Wynn Invitational with sweeps against Saint Louis, North Texas and BYU...After a season-opening four-game loss to Cincinnati, the Bears have rallied to win their last six matches...SMS returns four starters and 10 letterwinners from last year's squad that went 21-9 and narrowly missed out of the NCAA tournament... Senior middle blocker Linette White is ranked 13th in the nation with 1.64 blocks per game, and the Bears are tied for 14th in the team statistics with 3.04 blocks per game...In addition, White is 22nd in the nation with a .431 hitting percentage...Outside hitter Erin Murphy leads SMS with 3.88 kills and 3.96 digs per game...Bears head coach Melissa Stokes picked up her 150th win against BYU and now stands at 150-81 in her eighth season of her head coaching career and her SMS career.
SERIES RECORDS
Texas A&M holds a narrow 7-6 advantage in the all-time series against Southwest Missouri State and has won the last two meetings...The teams last met Nov. 13, 1994, in Springfield, Mo., with A&M recording a sweep (15-11, 15-2, 15-11) on the Bears' home court...SMS won the first meeting, 17-15, 15-10, at the North Texas State tournament on Sept. 24, 1977.
The Aggies are winless in four meetings against USC...In the two most recent meetings, the Women of Troy have eliminated A&M in the second round of the both the 1998 and 2002 NCAA tournaments...In the most recent meeting (Dec. 7, 2002), No. 1 USC defeated A&M, 30-18, 30-21, 30-23, in Los Angeles en route to its national championship title. Melissa Munsch was the only Aggie to reach double figures in kills with 11, while Keao Burdine and All-American April Ross led USC with 12 kills apiece. Katie Oslovsky led the Trojans with seven blocks as USC posted 12 blocks to A&M's 5. In addition, USC outhit A&M, .327 to .119.
A&M and Centenary will be meeting for the first time.
A&M SHOOTING FOR ATTENDANCE RECORD
Considering the Aggies are making their home debut and A&M is hosting the defending national champion and No.-1 ranked USC -- in addition to the football team being idle this week - A&M is hoping for a record-home crowd when the Aggies take the court against the Women of Troy on Saturday night. The all-time volleyball attendance record at G. Rollie White Coliseum is 3,500 against Texas on Nov. 20, 1985. USC coach Mike Haley is very familiar with the crowds at the Holler House as he spent 17 years as the head coach of the rival Texas Longhorns and was on the opposing bench when the Horns battled for a 10-15, 11-15, 15-12, 15-13, 17-15 come-from-behind victory in front of the record crowd. The only other time the Aggies have reached the 3,000-attendance mark was against Haley's Longhorns on Nov. 3, 1993.
NOTES AND TIDBITS
- The Aggies are 10-0 in home openers under coach Laurie Corbelli and 21-4 in home openers since 1978.
- The highest ranked team A&M has defeated at G. Rollie White Coliseum is No. 3 Nebraska on Nov. 20, 1998. The Aggies upended the Huskers, 8-15, 15-12, 8-15, 15-6, 16-14.
- A&M is 1-6 against No. 1-ranked teams since the AVCA began conducting its poll in 1982. The Aggies' lone victory over a top-ranked team was against Stanford on Sept. 8, 1995, as A&M defeated the defending national-champion Cardinal in five games (15-11, 15-12, 15-17, 4-15, 15-12) at the USA Mizuno Cup in Chicago.
- USC represents the second No. 1 team to visit G. Rollie. Nebraska was ranked No. 1 when the Huskers came to College Station on Nov. 8, 2000, and downed the Aggies in four games.
- The match against the Trojans will mark the fourth time over the last five seasons that A&M has hosted the defending national champion and/or a team that has gone on to win the national title.
- Senior middle blocker Tara Pulaski needs 13 block assists to give her 272 in her career and move into 10th place in the A&M career records.
- Junior setter Lexy Beers needs 89 assists to move into seventh place in the A&M career records with 1,826.
- Sophomore outside hitter Laura Jones has led the Aggies in kills in every match. In addition, the Arlington, Texas, native has recorded double digits in digs in five matches and has led the team in points in five matches.
- A&M is scheduled to play a total of 30 matches - 13 matches at home and 17 matches on the road - during the regular season. Twelve of the matches are against teams who participated in the 2002 NCAA tournament, including the home battle against defending national champion USC. A&M plays a total of seven matches against opponents who were ranked in the final 2002 USA Today/AVCA Top 25 Poll and two others who received points.
UPCOMING
The McDonald's/Texas A&M Invitational represents the Aggies' final tune-up for Big 12 Conference play as A&M opens league play at five-time defending league champion and No. 5-ranked Nebraska on Sept. 17. Match time is at 7 p.m. at Nebraska Coliseum (4,030 capacity) in Lincoln...The Aggies, who are 5-2 in Big 12 season openers, are 6-17 all-time against the Huskers, including a 0-10 record in matches played at Nebraska...The Aggies then play their final non-conference match of the regular season as they take on former Southwest Conference-foe Houston, Sunday, Sept. 21 in Houston. First serve is at 2 p.m. at Hofheinz Pavilion.
