October 01, 2004
No. 14 Texas A&M survived a scare by Texas Tech but held on to defeat the Red Raiders, 27-30, 30-22, 26-30, 30-22, 15-10, in front of 2,517 at G. Rollie White Coliseum.
Laura Jones (Arlington, Texas) led the Aggies with 28 kills -- one shy of her career high -- in A&M's first five-game match of the season. Melissa Munsch (Columbus, Texas), who moved from middle blocker to left-side hitter, recorded A&M's first 20-20 performance of the season with 20 kills and 21 digs, and Kendra Felder (Corpus Christi, Texas) tied her career high with a match-high eight blocks while adding 11 kills. Christi Hahn (Leander, Texas) also reached double figures in kills for A&M with 11 and led all players with a .391 hitting efficiency, while setter Kari Kelley (Houston) set a career high with 56 assists.
Kelly Johnson led Tech with 22 kills and Kiley Lyons added 19, but the pair was held to a combined .132 hitting percentage as A&M outhit the Red Raiders, .218 to .147, for the match.
"Tech always plays us tough," A&M coach Laurie Corbelli said. "We had a medium start; not quite where we wanted to be. Our serve-and-pass was erratic, but we worked to get our rhythm and in Game 2 we started to click."
There were four lead changes and 15 ties in the opening frame. Tech took its biggest lead at 14-10, but A&M took its second lead of the game at 17-16 following consecutive kills by Munsch. The teams battle point for point, and Tech tied the score five times before regaining the lead at 22-21 on back-to-back kills by Johnson. A&M managed to tie the score three more times, the last at 27, before Tech went on its longest scoring run of the game by tallying three points to close out the game.
A&M controlled the second game, taking the lead at 3-2 and never allowing Tech to catch up. The Aggies built a 10-4 lead, but the Red Raiders continued to fight. Tech got within 13-11 but could not overcome the deficit. A&M, which outhit Tech, .371 to .118 in the game, was leading 27-22 when Hahn posted two kills and blocked a Johnson attack to end the game and tie the match.
Although Tech hit only .085 to A&M's .132 in the third game, the Aggies committed six of their season-high 15 service errors in the frame. The Red Raiders never trailed in the game, although A&M managed to tie the score eight times early in the stanza. The score was tied for the last time at 14, when A&M committed a service error to give Tech the lead for good. Tech built its biggest lead at 28-22 following a Johnson kill. A&M cut the lead to three at 29-26 but committed an attack error to give the Red Raiders a 2-1 game advantage.
Jones had eight kills and Munsch tallied three aces as A&M won the fourth game and forced the deciding fifth game.
A&M spotted the Red Raiders the first three points of the final game but a kill by Jones tied the score at 4-4, and a block by Hahn and Kelley gave the Aggies their first lead of the game. Tech regained the lead at 7-6 following an A&M attack error, but the Aggies retook the lead at 7-6 on a Munsch kill.
Amy Charlebois tied the score with a kill, but A&M answered with a three-point run courtesy of a Tech attack error, an ace by Kelley and a kill by Munsch. The Red Raiders cut the lead to 11-9 but could get no closer before Jones nailed a Tech overpass to end the match.
A&M improves to 8-4 overall and 4-2 in the Big 12. Tech falls to 6-6 and 2-4.
The Aggies have only one match next week as they are idle on Wednesday and then take on the Missouri Tigers Saturday in Columbia. First serve is at 7 p.m. at the Hearnes Center.
State Farm Player of the Match: Laura Jones