September 10, 2004
No. 14 Texas A&M suffered its second consecutive loss to a ranked opponent, falling to No. 13 UC Santa Barbara, 30-24, 30-25, 30-23, in the opening match of the Golden Bear Invitational at Haas Pavilion.
A&M, which fell to No. 3 UCLA in its only other contest against a ranked opponent, came from behind and tied the Gauchos five times early in the first game but was unable to take the lead. The Gauchos slowly pulled away, building their biggest lead at 25-18 following an A&M ball handling error. The Aggies went on a 5-1 scoring run to cut the lead to 26-23 but could get no closer before Janine Sandell put down one of her match-high 11 kills to end the game.
The teams were tied at 17 in the second game when the Gauchos went on a six-point run and forced the Aggies to play catch-up the remainder of the game. UCSB built its biggest lead at 25-18, but A&M managed to cut the lead to three points four times, the last at 28-25. An A&M ball handling error and a kill by Sandell gave UCSB a two-game lead.
A&M took its biggest lead of the match with a 6-4 edge early in the third game, but UCSB outscored A&M, 13-2 to quickly take control of the game. A&M got within 20-16, but the Gauchos went on an 8-2 run to build their biggest lead at 28-18. UCSB was serving for the match at 29-20, but two consecutive attack errors and a kill by A&M's Christi Hahn cut the lead to 29-23 before Olivia Waldowski put down her 10th kill of the match and sealed the victory for the Gauchos.
The Aggies were held to a .112 hitting percentage as they fell to 3-2. The Gauchos hit .192 and remained undefeated at 4-0.
Laura Jones led the Aggies with 10 kills. Carrie Moreira tied her career high with a team-leading 13 digs. Melissa Munsch added 11 digs and became the seventh player in A&M history to reach both 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs in a career.
Kendra Felder was named A&M's State Farm Player of the Match, posting six kills, a .250 hitting percentage and a team-leading three blocks.
The Aggies face their third ranked opponent Saturday as they meet eighth-ranked California to close out the tournament.