April 04, 2008
The Texas A&M volleyball team hosts a spring tournament all day Saturday at G. Rollie White Coliseum.
Admission to the tournament is free.
Eight teams will be participating in the two-pool tournament, which gets underway at 9:30 a.m. with A&M taking on LSU and Louisiana Tech facing Sam Houston State. Rice and Stephen F. Austin join the Aggies and Tigers in Pool 1, while Houston Baptist and the University of Houston will be competing in Pool 2.
All pool matches are two sets to 25 points with a third set to be played if time permits.
Crossover matches begin at 3:30 p.m. with third-place finishers and fourth-place finishers facing off against each other. First and second-place finishers conclude the tournament with 4:30 p.m. match-ups.
The crossover matches will be best 2-of-3 sets. The third set, if necessary, will be played to 15 points.
This is the second of four tournaments the Aggies are slated to participate in during the spring. A&M went 3-0 in its spring opener at Rice on March 20, defeating Sam Houston State, Houston Baptist and Rice each in straight sets.
A&M also will compete at the Texas Tornados annual tournament in Houston on April 12. Teams confirmed to be at the tournament are Arkansas, Baylor, Houston, Kansas State, Louisiana Tech, New Mexico State, New Orleans, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, defending national champion Penn State, Rice, South Florida, SMU, Stephen F. Austin and Texas.
Details are still being finalized for the fourth tournament and will be posted as soon as they become available.
A&M coach Laurie Corbelli returns 10 letterwinners, including five starters ?- setter Kristen Schevikhoven, outside hitters Sarah Ammerman and Mary Batis, middle blocker Jillian Phillips and right-side hitter Kelsey Bryant ?- from last year?â„¢s team that went 21-10.
In addition, Corbelli welcomes four newcomers. Freshmen outside hitters Kelsey Black (Amarillo High School) and Chelsea Ringel (Arlington Martin) were impressive in their A&M debuts, as was junior-to-be setter/defensive specialist Dylan Faulkner (Austin, Texas), who transferred to A&M after playing her first two seasons at Wake Forest. Freshman middle blocker Stephanie Minnerly (Arlington Martin) had shoulder surgery in the fall and is not yet cleared to compete.
The following is the tournament scheduled (Pool 1 / Pool 2) for Saturday:
9:30 a.m. A&M vs. LSU / LA Tech vs. SHSU
10:30 a.m. Rice vs. SFA / HBU vs. UH
11:30 a.m. A&M vs. SFA / UH vs. LA Tech
12:30 p.m. Rice vs. LSU / HBU vs. SHSU
1:30 p.m. LSU vs. SFA / SHSU vs. UH
2:30 p.m. A&M vs. Rice / LA Tech vs. HBU
3:30 p.m. Crossover 3 vs. 3 / 4 vs. 4
4:30 p.m. Crossover 1 vs. 1 / 2 vs. 2