Sept. 26, 2008
Complete Release in PDF Format 
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Texas A&M hits the road this weekend to take on the Colorado Buffaloes Saturday in Boulder. First serve is at 6:30 p.m. (7:30 p.m. CDT) at the Coors Events Center.
Both teams have struggled as of late, with each losing four of their last five matches after having won at least five straight prior to the slide.
The Aggies fell to 6-7 overall and 1-2 in the Big 12 Conference after falling to No. 17 Kansas State, 3-0 (25-23, 25-28, 25-20), Wednesday in College Station. It was A&M's first home loss of the season after starting out 5-0 at G. Rollie White Coliseum.
Colorado is 7-4 overall and a half game ahead of A&M with a 1-1 record in the Big 12. The Buffaloes, who won their first six matches of the season, had a bye on Wednesday. In their most recent action, the Buffs fell to then-No. 18 Kansas State, 3-0 (25-15, 25-16, 25-19) Saturday in Manhattan, Kan.
Live statistics and video (fee) of the match will be available at CUBuffs.com.
Junior outside hitter Mary Batis leads the Aggies with 3.53 kills, 3.20 digs and 3.94 points per set for the season. She also ranks seventh in the Big 12 in kills per set, eighth in points per set and 10th in digs per set for the full season.
Junior outside hitter Sarah Ammerman leads A&M with 0.23 aces per set and ranks second on the squad with 3.05 kills and 3.45 points per set. Senior Kelsey Bryant, formerly a starting right-side hitter who has moved to the middle blocker position for the first time in her collegiate career while senior middle Jillian Phillips (1.33 bps) is out indefinitely with a stress fracture in her lower right leg, is ranked 10th in the league and leads the Aggies with a .308 hitting percentage, and senior middle blocker Darla Donaldson leads the active players with 0.91 blocks per set. Junior setter Kristen Schevikhoven ranks sixth in the Big 12 with 9.96 assists per set.
As a team, A&M is hitting .211 and averaging 13.41 kills, 0.91 aces, 14.89 digs and 2.10 blocks per set. Opponents are hitting .203 and averaging 12.50 kills, 1.09 aces, 15.20 digs and 2.09 blocks per set.
SCOUTING THE BUFFALOES • Colorado is 7-4 overall and 1-1 in the Big 12 and has lost four of its last five matches. • The Buffaloes opened Big 12 play with a 3-2 home victory against Kansas on Sept. 17 and then fell to No. 18 Kansas State in Manhattan on Sept. 20. • Colorado, which had a midweek bye this week, is 1-3 in home matches. Losses were to currently ranked No. 10 Florida, No. 13 Colorado State and North Carolina, which is receiving votes. All three losses were by identical 3-1 scores. • Senior middle blocker Lauren Schaefer leads the starters and ranks fifth in the Big 12 with a .375 hitting percentage. Senior libero Callie Webster is ranked eighth in the league with 3.67 digs per set. • Amber Sutherland, a senior outside hitter who redshirted last year, led the Buffaloes with 10 kills against the Wildcats last Saturday. She is averaging 2.05 kills per set and is second on the team with 2.74 digs per set. • Colorado returns all six starters plus the libero from last year's team that went 6-22 and tied Texas Tech for last place in the Big 12 with a 1-19 record. • The Buffs were picked to finish seventh in the Big 12 according to a preseason vote of the league coaches. • Pi'i Aiu (Colorado `89) is 193-142 in his 12th season as head coach at Colorado.
THE A&M-COLORADO ALL-TIME SERIES • A&M leads the all-time series, 17-8, since the teams first met in 1994, including 8-5 in matches played in Boulder and 16-8 in Big 12 matches only. • A&M has won the last two meetings after sweeping the season series in 2007. It was the fifth time since the league was formed in 1996 that A&M swept the season series against the Buffs. Colorado swept the series in 2006, the only year the Buffs have accomplished the feat. • Last year, the Aggies defeated Colorado, 3-1 (26-30, 30-22, 30-25, 30-17) in College Station on Oct. 13, and defeated the Buffs, (3-1 (28-30, 30-17, 30-25, 30-23) on Nov. 21 in Boulder. • In the Nov. 21 match in Boulder, A&M closed out the road portion of its regular season schedule and posted its 20th victory of the season with a 28-30, 30-17, 30-25, 30-23 win at the Coors Events Center. Mary Batis added 15 kills and a team-high 19 digs for the Aggies, and Kelsey Bryant for match-high honors in blocks with six as the Aggies out-blocked Colorado, 15-7. Setter Kristen Schevikhoven tallied 60 assists. A&M hit .302 for the match while holding Colorado to a .147 hitting percentage. Schylur Edelman led the Buffs with 15 kills, and Alex Buth and Mallori Gibson added 13 and 11, respectively.
AGGIE QUICK HITS: • The trip to Colorado is a homecoming of sorts for junior outside hitter Sarah Ammerman and junior setter Kristen Schevikhoven. Ammerman attended Chaparral High School in Parker, Colo., and Schevikhoven graduated from Eaglecrest High School in Centennial, Colo., and transferred to A&M from the University of Northern Colorado. Both played for Front Range Volleyball Club and won the AAU Junior National Championship in 2006.
• Kelsey Bryant set a Big 12 Conference record for hitting percentage in the four-game match against Colorado last year in College Station. The then-junior right-side hitter hit .812 with 13 kills and no errors in 16 attempts.
• Mary Batis recorded 24.5 points against Oklahoma to surpass 1,000 points for her career. She enters the Colorado match with 1024.5 total points, ranking fourth in the A&M records. Batis, who leads the Aggies with 3.93 points per set, needs 120.5 points to pass Christi Hahn (2003-06) for third place in the career records. Laura Jones (2002-05) is A&M's all-time career leader with 2,346.5 points.
• Sarah Ammerman also is quickly approaching 1,000 career points, needing only 21.5 more to reach the milestone. Ammerman, who currently ranks second on the team with 3.45 points per set, posted 9.5 points against Kansas State on Wednesday to give her 978.5 for her career and move her into fifth in the A&M records, surpassing Kendra Felder (2001-05), who had 973 points during her career.
• Both Batis and Ammerman are on pace to surpass 1,000 career kills this season. Batis, who had 377 kills last season, needs 94 to join the 1,000 Kills Club. She leads the team with 3.74 kills per set. Ammerman, who is averaging 3.05 kills per set, posted 447 kills in 2007 and is currently 147 kills shy of the 1,000-kill milestone. Twelve former players are members of the 1,000 Kill Club. The most recent member was Laura Jones (2002-05), who is A&M's all-time kill leader with 2,064.
• In less than two seasons, setter Kristen Schevikhoven has tallied 1,705 assists, ranking 10th in the A&M career records. She is currently averaging 9.96 assists per set and needs 121 assists to move into ninth place, ahead of Krista Hierholzer, who had 1,825 from 1987-1990.
• Jennifer Banse's career-high 24 digs against Oklahoma on Sept. 21 was the most digs in a match by an A&M player since former libero Holly Clay had 28 at Texas Tech on Oct. 22, 2005.
• The Aggies have had four different liberos in the last three matches. Freshman Jennifer Banse's played libero for the first time this season in the first set against Oklahoma, and freshman Kelsey Black was the libero for the first time in her career in the next four sets. Black, who recorded a career-high 22 digs against the Sooners, also was the libero in all three sets against Kansas State.
• Senior middle blocker Mary Batis and Sarah Ammerman have started every match this season.
• A&M's win against No. 16 BYU on Sept. 6 was the Aggies' highest ranked victory since upsetting No. 9 Texas on Oct. 16, 2004, in College Station. Prior to the BYU match, A&M's most recent win against a ranked opponent was against No. 22 Minnesota on Sept. 2, 2006, at the Billiken Invitational in Saint Louis.
• A&M played four matches against ranked teams during the pre-conference schedule and went 1-3 against those teams. No other Big 12 team played more than three matches against a ranked opponent during the pre-conference season. The Aggies are now 1-4 against ranked opponents, while Colorado is 0-3 against Top 25 teams.
• A&M's match at Kansas State on Oct. 29 will be televised by FSN Kansas City. Match time is 7 p.m. at the Ahearn Field House in Manhattan.
• Aggie head coach Laurie Corbelli is 333-151 in her 16th year as head coach of the Aggies and 433-257 in the 23rd season of her head coaching career. She is A&M's winningest coach in terms of total victories and ranks second for winning percentage. Corbelli is 18-8 against Colorado in her head coaching career.
UPCOMING SCHEDULE The Aggies have a midweek bye next week and are off until they play host to Missouri on Saturday, Oct. 4. Match time is 6:30 p.m. at G. Rollie White Coliseum. Following the Missouri match, the Aggies are at Kansas (Oct. 8) and at Texas Tech (Oct. 11) before returning home for a State Farm Lone Star Showdown against No. 3 Texas on Wednesday, Oct. 15 at G. Rollie White Coliseum.
AGGIES ON THE INTERNET Free video streaming of all 14 A&M home matches will be available at AggieAthletics.com. In addition, audio broadcasts of 19 matches, both home and away, are slated with Matt Simon providing the play-by-play. Simon will call the action for all Wednesday and Sunday matches and selected Saturday matches.