The Aggies, who had five of their season-high 10 aces in the decisive fifth set, improve to 11-4 overall and 3-1 in Southeastern Conference play. Alabama drops to 15-4, 3-2.
A&M freshman opposite hitter Ashlie Reason had a career-high 18.5 points and led a trio of Aggies in double-figure kills with 14, tying her career high. Junior middle blocker Shelby Sullivan added 13 kills, and senior outside hitter Sydney Wilhelm pitched in 10 kills. Junior outside hitter Angela Lowak and sophomore middle blocker Jazzmin Babers nearly reached double digits, finishing with nine kills each as freshman setter Stephanie Aiple dished out 49 assists and directed the balanced offense to a .347 hitting efficiency.
Freshman Kat Hutson was a one-man show for the Tide, finishing with 27 kills, the most by an A&M opponent this season, while hitting .365. Brittany Thomas added 12 kills but was held to a .185 hitting efficiency. No other Alabama player had more than six kills, and the Tide was held to a .191 hitting efficiency.
Alabama used a commanding eight-point scoring surge in the opening set to build an 18-12 lead. The Tide later built its largest lead at 22-15 following back-to-back kills. After trading sideouts, a Hutson kill put Alabama at set point, 24-17. A&M fought off three set points before Alabama setter Sierra Wilson won a joust at the net to clinch the set.
Alabama outhit A&M, .310 to .172 in the opening frame, but A&M caught fire in the second set, outhitting the Tide, .722 to .133. The Tide had taken its first lead at 5-4 following an ace before A&M went on a 10-2 run to build a 14-7 lead. A&M continued to pull away, siding out every time Alabama won a point and was up 23-14 when an Alabama attack sailed long, putting the Aggies at set point. Reasor and Sullivan then teamed to block Hutson, who had eight kills in the stanza, to close out the set and even the match, 1-1.
Alabama twice rallied for four consecutive points and also used a five-point run to eventually build a 22-17 lead in the third set. After exchanging point-for-point, the Tide was at set point, 24-19. The Aggies staved off two set points, with Sullivan connecting on a kill, and Babers and Aiple blocking a Hutson attack to get within 24-21. The powerful Hutson then pounded down her seventh kill of the frame to secure the win for the Tide, giving them a 2-1 lead in the match.
A&M never trailed in the fourth set, using a 7-2 run to break away from a 13-13 tie. Alabama scored three consecutive points, including two on Hutson kills to get within 20-18. The Tide stayed within two points at 22-20, but an Alabama attack error, a kill by Reasor and a block by Babers and Aiple completed A&M's 25-20 win that evened the match at 2-2 and forced a fifth set.
The Aggies dominated the final set like no other, jumping out to a 5-0 lead behind the strong serving of sophomore libero Emily Hardesty, who posted two aces during the run. A&M then committed two errors before an Alabama ball handling error returned the serve to A&M. Reasor stepped to the line, and she posted two aces during another 5-0 outburst that gave the Aggies a commanding 10-2 lead. Hutson managed her only kill of the set – Alabama had only two kills in the entire set – to temporarily end the run, but a kill by Aiple, a Hutson attack error and an ace by Wilhelm gave A&M its largest lead, 13-3. Alabama got a kill and an ace before Sullivan's fourth kill of the set put the Aggies at match point. Alabama, which was outhit .625 to -.250 in the set, then hit wide to seal the victory for A&M.
Wilhelm led the Aggies with eight digs, and Sullivan and Babers tied for match-high in blocks with six apiece as A&M outblocked the Tide, 12-6.
Next up for the Aggies is a meeting with ninth-ranked and preseason SEC-favorite Florida on Sunday. Match time is 1 p.m. CT at the Stephen O'Connell Center in Gainesville. The match will be televised by the SEC Network with Melissa Lee and Missy Whittemore calling the action. The Gators are 11-3 overall, 5-0 in SEC play, and are riding a six-match win streak following their 3-0 victory over Georgia tonight in Gainesville.
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Texas A&M post-match quotes:
Head coach Laurie Corbelli:
On the team's nervous energy to start the match…
“I think it was the team really wants it so badly that sometimes I think that it hurts us because we just rush. It's just human nature. We get impatient, we get overly excited and we just kind of want to give so much. It's an honest, good approach if we can find the right level. They talk about the sports psychology stuff, over arousal and under arousal and finding the level that each athlete needs to be ready to go. I think today that we were really just jazzed up, and I think it took some time and I really trusted that over time they would calm down and we would get a picture of what our opponents were like in person, since we had only seen them on video. This is a relatively all new group, and three players from last season were on the team. No. 3 is brand new, and No. 15 is brand new, and those were two key attackers. We just didn't really know what they were going to look like, how they were really going to hit, so I think our team is better when we already know the answers up front. I think we are still kind of finding that comfort level that we need to be in, what we need to do as Aggie volleyball.”
Keeping the lead the entire fourth set…
“I'm not sure it was a certain strategy. We certainly made a few little minor adjustments, blocking, digging, trying to slow down their attackers. We had to find what they found was a weakness on us, and we had to recognize it and fix it. It may be more than that, the team really settled in. I thought Stephanie [Aiple] did a really nice job of distributing the ball. They were sending two blockers out with Jazzmin [Babers] and [Shelby] Sullivan behind, and it left our outsides in system. It gave them a lot of openings. [When] Stephanie was at the net, she did a really nice job of being deceptive and looking like she was going to backset and just tapped it forward and got rid of our left fronts. We sped up our left fronts. That made it really hard for their right-front blockers. I thought we also settled down with our passing. Usually that's where you see when the team is really starting to build the confidence and build certainty of what is going to happen. When they really start believing is when they start trusting their passing. Honestly the Auburn match a few weeks ago, we passed nails and it was beautiful. They all know how and they all can. I think sometimes we get a little bit too hard on ourselves, and a lot of things start to manifest and just hesitate a little bit. We are working on it. It's not something that can't be mended, and it's not happening all the time. I certainly don't think it's a major issue, but it's something I think that we have to continue to remember that our team needs to stay settled down and confident.”
Senior outside hitter Sydney Wilhelm:
How's it feels hitting off the block for the kill…
“It felt incredible when you go around a big huge block like that, but it's kind of what I've been doing since I've been playing. I've always been a small hitter, and that's just my game, going around. And my teammates behind me are telling me where to hit, and I have to thank them for that because I listen to them. They see it, and I just do what they tell me to do and it works.”
Junior outside hitter Angela Lowak:
On the team's blocking…
“We worked on blocking a lot in practice, and we worked on some really specific things with our hitters and it made all of the difference. I think what's so cool about this team is when we do spend so much time in practice on something, you can really see the change in the game and even the adjustments during the game, and so I think that's where it came from.”
On beating Alabama…
“Any win in the SEC is awesome, but they are a great team and I know Laurie told us after the match they're receiving votes. They deserve respect, and so to get a win against them is awesome and especially to do it at home in front of our fans.”