October 23, 2004
No. 16 Texas A&M was not playing its best volleyball today but managed to overcome several deficits to defeat Texas Tech, 19-30, 31-29, 30-28, 26-30, 17-15, in front of 579 at United Spirit Arena.
Melissa Munsch posted her second triple-double of the season with 19 kills, 18 digs and 11 blocks as the Aggies extended their winning streak to a season-high four matches and improved to 12-5 overall and 8-3 in the Big 12.
Texas Tech, which fell to the Aggies in five games earlier this season in College Station, suffered its third consecutive loss to fall to 7-10, 3-8.
"We had a very difficult time today, but you are going to have matches like this," A&M coach Laurie Corbelli said. "We got off to such a slow start, but we eventually started to gain our confidence. I was proud that we held together as a team."
Errors doomed the Aggies in Game 1, and Tech raced out to a 12-5 lead. The Red Raiders held a 17-11 lead when they scored five consecutive points to build their biggest lead of the game. A&M, which was outhit, .297 to .103 in the game, never got closer than five points before Amy Charlebois ended the game with a kill.
The Red Raiders carried the momentum into the second game and jumped out to a 16-8 advantage. The Aggies, however, clawed their way back, and with Tech holding a 21-15 lead, A&M went on a 9-3 run to tie the score for the first time since 2-2. The teams exchanged points and with the score knotted at 25, Tech posted consecutive kills to take a 27-25 lead. A&M then rallied for three unanswered points on a kill by Laura Jones, an ace by Munsch and a block by Jones and Kendra Felder to take its first lead since scoring the first two points of the game. The teams traded points, and with the score even at 29, Jones powered another kill, and Felder teamed with Christi Hahn to block Kelly Johnson's attack to win the game.
The Aggies began Game 3 with three consecutive errors, and the Red Raiders continued to pull away. Tech built its biggest lead at 12-3, but then began to struggle. The Red Raiders committed six errors during a 7-1 scoring run by the Aggies to put A&M within 13-10.
Tech maintained its lead and got back up by six at 21-15 before A&M made another comeback. The Aggies went on another 7-1 run to tie the score at 22. The teams exchanged points and with Tech holding a 25-24 edge, Jones had a kill and Hahn and Felder blocked Johnson to give A&M its first lead of the game. Johnson's next attack sailed wide to put the Aggies up, 28-26. The teams then traded points, and with A&M up, 29-28, Munsch put down a kill to give the Aggies the win.
After trailing by five early in Game 4, the Aggies took their first lead at 14-13. The teams exchanged the lead and A&M held a 19-17 edge when the Red Raiders rallied for four consecutive points. A&M managed to tie the score at 21 and 26 before Tech closed out the game with another four-point run to even the match at two games apiece.
The teams answered point for point in the decisive fifth game before Jones and Felder teamed for a block to give A&M its first lead at 8-7. Tech quickly regained its lead with three consecutive points. A&M got within 11-10 before Johnson posted back-to-back kills to put Tech up 13-10 and force the Aggies to use their last timeout.
A&M came out of the huddle and Hahn got a kill off the block. Tech then had two attacks go into the net to tie the score. Munsch and Hahn then blocked Johnson's attack to return the lead to A&M and force Tech to use its final timeout.
Following the timeout, Tech setter Emily Ziegler came out and found a hole in the Aggie defense to get a kill, and Munsch's attack went wide as the Red Raiders went up 15-14. With Tech serving for the match, Munsch and Jones posted consecutive kills, and then Johnson's attack went untouched past the A&M end line to give the Aggies the exhausting five-game victory.
A&M was held to a .185 hitting percentage, its lowest against an unranked opponent this season. In addition, the Aggies gave up a season-high 14 aces but still managed the come-from-behind victory.
"Our serving and passing were holding us back," Corbelli said. "We were down in most every game, and they were serving us out of sync. When we got out of system, we had problems. We knew we had more in us and began to dig deeper."
Jones led the Aggies with 25 kills and added 14 digs. Hahn posted a career-high seven blocks as A&M outblocked the Red Raiders, 16 to 9.5, and held them to a .148 hitting percentage.
Johnson posted a match-high 28 kills for Tech, and Kiley Lyons also reached double figures with 14. Desiree Batista led Tech in digs with a match-high 25.
The Aggies return home Wednesday and aim to avenge an earlier road loss to unranked Missouri. First serve against the Tigers is at 7 p.m. at G. Rollie White Coliseum.
State Farm Player of the Match: Melissa Munsch