Texas A&M
5-1
Hofstra
1-7
Volleyball Sweeps Hofstra in Tournament Opener
Sep 11, 2009 | Volleyball
Sept. 11, 2009
SAN MARCOS, Texas - Texas A&M freshmen middle blockers Sarah Ammerman led all players with nine kills as the Aggies opened the CenturyTel Premier with a 25-23, 25-15, 25-19 victory over Hofstra this morning at Strahan Coliseum.
"Our middle attack was one of the best it has been so far," A&M coach Laurie Corbelli said. "I thought we really had a great connection with Lindsey Miller and Alisia Kastmo. (Hofstra) didn't haven't have an answer for our middle attack, so we tried to stay with that as much as we possibly could."
The Aggies jumped out to a 7-1 lead in the opening set while Hofstra's offense struggled to get on track. The Pride's stingy defense kept them in the set, however, and their offense eventually became more effective, allowing them to narrow the gap. The Aggies, who biggest lead came at 10-3, held a 15-10 advantage, but Hofstra reeled off five consecutive points on two kills, two blocks and an ace to tie the score for the first time.
A kill by Jennifer Banse and a Hofstra attack error put A&M back up, 17-15, but Hofstra countered with a three-point spurt to take its first lead of the match at 18-17. Hofstra's next attack went wide, and Ammerman got a kill courtesy of an overpass to regain the lead for the Aggies. After Miller was successful on the slide attack on the ensuing play, the teams exchanged point for point to close out the set.
"I thought we had a really great start," Corbelli said. "We were going to work our serving to challenge them to not run their middles so much. They have a 6-3 middle blocker (Anissa Whitney), who we would figured would be doing some good stuff against us, so we really wanted to try and slow her down.
"We had a little bit of a lull. They got a little bit of confidence in digging us and got really scrappy with their defense. We had to really make a few adjustments."
Hofstra scored the first two points of the second set with back-to-back kills, but the lead wouldn't last long as a Miller kill gave A&M the lead for good at 4-3. The Aggies continued to reel off series of points throughout most of the set to pull away. Leading 22-15, Ammerman tooled the block for a kill and setter Kristen Schevikhoven dumped the ball for a kill to put the Aggies at set point. Marina Markovic, who led Hofstra with eight kills in the match, then tipped the ball wide to give A&M the winning point.
A&M led the entire third set, and Corbelli was able to sub in numerous players. The Aggies jumped out to a 10-3 lead, and Hofstra never got closer than four points for the remainder of the match. A&M built its biggest lead at 21-13, before Hofstra made a late rally and cut the margin to 23-19. Mary Batis then got a tip kill, and setter Jola Kelner set Miller for the match-clinching kill.
"I got to play a lot of players," Corbelli said. "I got to get (Chelsea) Ringel out there, Dylan Faulkner and Caitlan Adams, and they all got to contribute. We are going to be needing them in those types of roles all season, so it was really important that we got that done."
Batis led A&M with 12 digs, and Ammerman and freshman libero Tori Mellinger added 10 digs apiece.
A&M improves to 6-1. Hofstra, which was held to a 0.46 hitting percentage, falls to 1-7.
The Aggies take on Texas Southern at 5 p.m. today and then conclude the tournament and A&M's pre-conference schedule against host Texas State Saturday at 2 p.m.
