September 15, 2005
The Texas A&M volleyball team opens its Big 12 Conference home schedule with a Top 15 showdown against Missouri Friday at G. Rollie White Coliseum. The 15th-ranked Aggies and No. 10 Missouri take the court at 6:30 p.m.
Live audio and video of the match will be available at AggieAthletics.com.
The Aggies, who are 5-0 in home matches this season and rank seventh in the nation with a 1,943 home attendance average, will be looking to get into the conference win column after dropping their Big 12 opener at Kansas on Wednesday. With the loss A&M fell to 7-3 overall suffered its third loss in the last four matches. The other two losses were four-game setbacks to No. 6 Florida and No. 8 Southern California at the UTSA Dome Rally last weekend in San Antonio.
In addition to remaining undefeated, Missouri will be aiming for its first victory at G. Rollie, having gone home winless in each of its previous nine trips to College Station. The Tigers enter the match 7-0 and have won every match in the minimum three games. Included in that record are sweeps against both then-No. 9 Tennessee and No. 9 Wisconsin, as well as a 3-0 victory against Big 12-foe Iowa State Wednesday in Columbia, Mo.
All-American Laura Jones leads the Aggies and the Big 12 with 5.82 kills and 6.58 points per game. The Arlington, Texas, native has 1,556 career kills and needs 31 more to overtake former two-time All-American and Olympian Stacy Sykora for second place in the A&M career records.
Senior libero Holly Clay leads A&M and the Big 12 with 4.97 digs per game, and senior Kendra Felder is the leader in blocks with 1.09 per game.
As a team, A&M is hitting .242 and averaging 16.17 kills, 2.74 blocks and a league-leading 17.6 digs per game. Aggie opponents are hitting .155 and averaging 13.03 kills, 2.47 blocks and 14.66 digs per game.
Missouri, which moved up four spots to an all-time high No. 10 in the national ranking earlier this week, is led by senior setter Lindsey Hunter, who is averaging a Big 12-best 15.38 assists per game. Her primary target has been 6-3 sophomore outside hitter Na Yang, who is averaging 4.24 kills per game while hitting at an impressive .390 clip.
The Tiger team leads the Big 12 in hitting percentage (.329), assists (17.14) and kills (18.33) per game. In addition Missouri is holding opponents to a league-best .127 hitting percentage and 11.81 kills per game.
A&M holds a 17-4 lead in the all-time series against Missouri, but three of the Tigers' wins have been in the last five seasons. The Aggies fell to the Tigers, 3-1, at Missouri last year, but avenged the loss with a 3-1 victory at home.
A&M and Missouri tied for third place in the Big 12 last year. The Tigers are picked to finish second and the Aggies fourth this year, according to a preseason poll of the league coaches.
The A&M-Missouri match will be the third match of the day to be contested at G. Rollie White. The Tulane volleyball team, which relocated to A&M because of the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina, will be holding its "home" matches at G. Rollie this season, beginning Friday when the Green Wave takes on No. 8 Notre Dame at 2 p.m. in the second match of the NOKIA Sugar Bowl Classic. LSU and Arizona State open the tournament at noon. The tournament concludes Sunday with Notre Dame facing LSU at 11 a.m. and Tulane taking on the Sun Devils at 1 p.m.