August 23, 2006
The Texas A&M volleyball team opens its 2006 campaign against Colorado State Friday on the first day of the CSU Hilton Classic. First serve is slated for 7 p.m. (8 p.m. CDT) at Moby Arena in Fort Collins, Colo. The tournament concludes Saturday with the Aggies facing Missouri State at 10 a.m. (11 a.m. CDT) and Morgan State at 5 p.m. (6 p.m. CDT). A complete release in pdf format is available at AggieAthletics.com.
Live scoring of all matches will be available at csurams.com and AggieAthletics.com.
| MATCH INFO |
| Hilton Classic vs. Colorado State Friday, Aug. 25, 8 p.m. (CDT) vs. Missouri State/vs. Morgan State Saturday, Aug. 26, 11 a.m./6 p.m. (CDT) Moby Arena, Fort Collins, Colo. |
| 2005 RECORDS |
| Texas A&M: 16-14, NCAA First Round Colorado State: 21-9, NCAA Second Round Missouri State: 24-9, NCAA First Round Morgan State: 14-21 |
| RANKINGS |
| Both A&M and Colorado State are receiving votes in the CSTV/AVCA Preseason Top 25 Poll. |
| RADIO |
| None |
| INTERNET |
| Live Stats (CSU): (csurams.com) Live Stats (MoSt): (csurams.com) Live Stats (Morg): (csurams.com) |
| SERIES |
| CSU leads A&M, 5-1 Last Meeting: A&M 3, CSU 1 (8/31/96) A&M leads Missouri State, 8-6 Last Meeting: (9/12/03) A&M vs Morgan State: first meeting |
| UP NEXT |
| A&M at SLU Billiken Invitational Fri-Sun, Sept. 1-3 Bauman-Eberhardt Center, St. Louis, Mo. |
A&M head coach Laurie Corbelli returns seven letterwinners -- including starters Christi Hahn (Sr., 6-1, MB), Kelsey Bryant (So., 6-2, RS), and Lindsey Yon (So., 6-0, OH) -- from last year's team that went 16-14 and advanced to the NCAA tournament for the 13th consecutive year. She also welcomes a record-eight freshmen who make up a recruiting class ranked an all-time high No. 4 by Volleyball Magazine.
QUICK HITS
- SEASON OPENER HISTORY: The Aggies are 9-4 in season openers since Corbelli was hired in 1993. A&M extended its season-opening winning streak to five last season after defeating Prairie View A&M, 3-0, in College Station. A&M is 21-9 in season openers since 1976 (Opening-day results are not available for 1975 season).
- COLORADO HOMECOMING: The trip to Colorado will be a homecoming of sorts for two Aggie freshmen, Sarah Ammerman and Cara Quayle. Ammerman, a 6-2 outside hitter and the 2005 Colorado Gatorade Player of the Year, and Quayle, a 6-1 middle blocker, are from the Denver suburbs of Parker and Greenwood Village, respectively, and played together for highly acclaimed Front Range Volleyball Club. Both made recruiting visits to Colorado State.
- TOP 5 RECRUITING CLASS: A&M's recruiting class is ranked an all-time high No. 4 in the nation by Volleyball Magazine. Members of this year's heralded class are three-time PrepVolleyball.com high school All-American Mary Batis (6-0, OH), as well as National Player of the Year finalist Sarah Ammerman (6-2, OH) and Zanny Castillo, (5-10, OH/DS), who were named 2005 Prepvolleyball.com All-Americans.
Also included in the group is 2004 Prepvolleyball.com All-American and 2005 Mizuno/Volleyball All-American second-team selection Jenny Banse (6-0, OH), as well as two-time Texas all-state honoree and Prepvolleyball.com "Defensive Dandy" selection Stephanie Cadavid (5-8, DS/L). Two-time Colorado all-state honorable mention selection Cara Quayle (6-1, MB), Courtnee Rhodes (5-6, S), a member of LoneStarVolleyball.com's All-Texas team and Jola Kelner, a 6-foot setter from Poland, complete the heralded class.
The No. 4 ranking surpasses the previous high No. 6 ranking received by the 1998 class, which included future AVCA first-team All-American Jenna Moscovic, Michelle Cole, Brandi Mount and A.D. Achilefu. That group helped direct A&M to its first NCAA regional final in 1999 and an all-time high No. 9 ranking in the final national poll. The group also led the Aggies to their only other NCAA regional final berth in 2001.
- HAHN SOLO: Christi Hahn is the lone senior on A&M's 15-member roster. The 6-1 middle blocker and preseason All-Big 12 selection has been a starter since her sophomore season, and last year the kinesiology/exercise science major was named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America third team with a 4.0 grade-point average.
- COACHING VICTORY MILESTONES: Aggie coach Laurie Corbelli needs six victories to reach her 400th career victory and her 300th win at Texas A&M. Corbelli is in her 21st season as a head coach, including her 14th season at A&M.
- A&M RECEIVES VOTES: A&M received votes in the preseason CSTV/AVCA Top 25 poll, and is listed 35th. Big 12-foe Nebraska, which advanced to the 2005 NCAA championship match, is ranked No. 1. No. 8 Texas, No. 13 Missouri and No. 25 Kansas State also represent the Big 12 in the preseason rankings. Colorado received votes and is listed 28th. A&M's season-opening opponent, Colorado State is listed 42. A&M faces No. 22 Minnesota and LSU, which is listed 30th, next weekend at the SLU Billiken Invitational.
- HAHN NAMED ALL-BIG 12: Christi Hahn has been selected to the Preseason All-Big 12 Team, according to a vote of the conference head coaches. Hahn has started the last two seasons at the middle blocker or right side positions. Last season, the Leander, Texas, product played in all 30 matches and led the team in ace average (.29) and ranked second in attack percentage (.325), kills per game (2.87) and points per game (3.62). In addition, Hahn reached double figures in kills in 18 matches, including each of the last six matches of the season. She also averaged .84 blocks per game and led the team in blocks in a team-high 11 matches.
The academic All-American and two-time NSCA All-American Athlete garnered Big 12 Player of the Week laurels and became the second player in A&M history to be named National Player of the Week by the American Volleyball Coaches Association after posting back-to-back career-setting performances and leading A&M to crucial victories against Kansas (21 kills, 25 points, .526 hitting percentage) and No. 24 Colorado (23 kills, 27 points).
- AGGIES PICKED FIFTH: Texas A&M is picked to place fifth in the competitive Big 12 Conference, according to a poll of the league's head coaches. Defending Big 12 champion Nebraska, which has won eight league titles in the 10-year history of the conference, is picked to repeat as the conference champion after receiving eight first-place votes and 98 total points. The polling was based on a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 system with a first-place vote receiving 10 points. Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own team.
Texas, which received three first-place votes and 93 points, is picked to finish second, followed by Missouri (79 points) and Kansas State (71).
Texas A&M, which tied Iowa State for sixth place with a 9-11 mark in the 2005 final standings, received 57 points and is followed by Colorado (51), Kansas (45) and Iowa State (37).
Baylor (35), Oklahoma (27) and Texas Tech (12) round out the poll.
- NCAA TOURNAMENT HISTORY: The Aggies have been to the NCAA tournament every year since Laurie Corbelli was hired as head coach in 1993. A&M had advanced to at least the second round every year until 2005, when it was eliminated in the first round by Northwestern, 3-2. Before the loss, A&M was one of only six teams to have advanced to at least the second round every year since 1993, joining Florida, Nebraska, Penn State, Southern California and Stanford. Despite the first-round loss in 2005, the Aggies still remain one of only 10 teams that have received an NCAA tournament berth in each of the last 13 years.
OPPONENT NOTES
Colorado State returns six letterwinners, including four starters, from last year's team that went 21-9 and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament. The Rams, who placed second in the Mountain West Conference with a 12-4 record, are picked to finish third behind BYU and Utah, according to a preseason poll.
CSU received votes in the CSTV/AVCA Preseason Top 25 Poll and is listed No. 42.
Missouri State returns nine letterwinners, including three starters from the 2005 squad that went 24-9 and advanced to the first round of the NCAAs. The Bears went 15-3 in the Missouri Valley, good for second place.
Morgan State, located in Baltimore, Md., returns six letterwinners from last year's team that went 14-21 and placed fourth in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference with a 6-4 mark.
THE ALL-TIME SERIES
Colorado State owns a 5-1 lead in the all-time series against A&M, including a 2-0 mark in matches contested in Fort Collins. A&M won the first-ever meeting in 1978, but the Rams have won the last five, including a 3-1 (15-7, 10-15, 15-13, 15-11) victory in the most recent meeting, August 31, 1996, at the CSU Hilton Classic.
A&M owns an 8-6 record against Missouri State after winning the last three meetings. The teams last met Sept. 12, 2003. The Aggies dropped the first two games to then-Southwest Missouri State but won the next three games to take the match at G. Rollie White Coliseum.
A&M and Morgan State will be meeting for the first time.
UPCOMING SCHEDULE
The Aggies hit the road again next weekend to participate in the SLU Billiken Invitational, Sept. 1-2, in St. Louis. A&M faces LSU Friday at 5 p.m. and then takes on Saint Louis and No. 22 Minnesota at 10 a.m. and 7:30 p.m., respectively, on Saturday.
LSU, which A&M defeated in five games last season at the UTSA Dome Rally in San Antonio, and Minnesota both appeared in the 2005 NCAA tournament.
A&M makes its home debut Sept. 8, hosting Loyola at 2 p.m. and McNeese State at 6:30 p.m. at G. Rollie White Coliseum. They mark the Aggies' final tune-up for Big 12 play, which A&M begins Sept. 13 against Oklahoma in College Station.