Texas A&M
5-4
Denver
4-5
Volleyball Notches Second Consecutive Sweep
Sep 10, 2010 | Volleyball
Sept. 10, 2010
DENVER - Texas A&M completed a clean sweep Saturday night, spoiling Denver's home opener with a 26-24, 25-18, 25-19 victory over the Pioneers in the Aggies' second match of the day at the Pioneer Class at Hamilton Gymnasium.
The Aggies, who swept Jacksonville State earlier in the day, improve to 5-4 overall, while Denver falls to 4-5.
Kelsey Black led the Aggies with 12 kills and 12 digs, and Chelsea Ringel added a career-high 10 kills. Stephanie Minnerly led in blocks with five, including two solo blocks. Overall, A&M hit .330 as a team with 44 kills and held Denver to a .138 hitting efficiency on 31 kills.
"Once again we faced a team for its home opener, big crowds and a team that is very fired up to come after us," A&M coach Laurie Corbelli said. "We really needed to make sure that we were taking care of the discipline of our moves, because it can get sloppy really fast if you are not careful against a team that is very fast and their setter attacks a ton."
Denver came out determined in its home debut, and there were 16 ties and nine lead changes in the closely contested first set in which neither team built more than a two-point lead. A&M scored two consecutive points on a Pioneer service error and a kill by Alisia Kastmo to take a 22-21 lead, the Aggies' first lead since 11-10. The teams traded points and A&M held a 23-22 edge when DU setter Kresson Vreeman attacked the second ball for a kill. Black's back-row attack went into the net on the next play to put the Pioneers serving for the set, but Lindsey Miller kept A&M alive with a kill. Chelsea Ringel then stepped to the service line and served a ball that narrowly dropped in for an ace, just kissing the back line. Denver was unable to handle Ringel's next serve, and the Aggies capped off the come-from-behind win.
A&M, which hit .250 in the first set, hit .483 in and never trailed in the second set. The Aggies used an 8-2 run, which included three kills by Minnerly, two kills by Ringel and back-to-back blocks by Kastmo and Miller, to build their biggest lead at 19-11. Denver never got closer than five points and was within 22-17 when a dig by A&M's Sarah Grace went over the net and fell in for a kill to put the Aggies up, 23-17. A triple block by Black, Minnerly and Kastmo put the Aggies serving for the set, but Vreeman extended the set with another kill on a second-ball attack. Black then tooled the Denver block for the set-winning point.
Denver used a three-point rally to build its first lead of the third set at 9-8. The Pioneers maintained the lead at 10-9 when A&M setter Allie Sawatzky got a dump kill, and Black followed with a kill to give the Aggies the lead. A&M went on to outscore the Pioneers, 9-2, in the run to build its biggest lead at 18-12.
Denver answered with five consecutive points to get within 18-17, but A&M came back by scoring three straight points. A&M kept its lead at 22-19 before a Black kill and a solo block by Minnerly put the Aggies serving for the match. Minnerly then iced the win with a kill on the slide attack to complete the sweep and move A&M to 2-0 in the tournament.
"I was mostly impressed with Chelsea Ringel and Stephanie Minnerly, who both just really played so hard and so intensely and led the team in offensive effort and in defensive effort," Corbelli said.
Corbelli also was happy to get several different players on the court, including Colorado native Allie Freiwald, a freshman setter from nearby Littleton.
"We are just happy that we got two 3-0 wins and got to play a couple of other people," Corbelli said. "It was too bad that although Freiwald did a beautiful job, the rest of the group wasn't functioning too well at that time, and I'm sorry it didn't work out that she could finish out the set, but I'm hoping we get her out there a lot tomorrow."
A&M concludes the tournament Saturday against Gonzaga. First serve is slated for 4 p.m. (MT).
"Gonzaga looks very athletic," Corbelli said. "We don't know much about them, but their style is most likely very quick, and so far we have had every team come at us guns out and going hard and attacking us so much, and I don't think it will be any different."
The match against the Bulldogs represents A&M's final tune-up for Big 12 Conference play, which the Aggies open by hosting No. 5 Texas on Thursday, Sept. 16 at Reed Arena. Match time is 6:30 p.m.
