| The Matchups: | Texas A&M (6-3) at (#18) Florida State (6-3) Texas A&M at Florida A&M (0-11) |
| First Serve: | Friday, September 18 - 6 p.m. CT Saturday, September 19 - 11 a.m. CT |
| Venues: | Tully Gym, Tallahassee, Fla. Lawson Center, Tallahassee, Fla. |
| Watch (Friday only): | ESPN3 | WatchESPN |
| Live Stats (Friday only): | seminoles.com |
COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- The Texas A&M volleyball team (6-3) concludes its non-conference schedule with a pair of matches in the Sunshine State. The Aggies, coming off a thrilling 3-2 victory over 15th-ranked Colorado State, Tuesday at Reed Arena, face their second consecutive top-20 opponent when they take on 18th-ranked Florida State (6-3) Friday at 6 p.m. (7 p.m. ET) at Tully Gym in Tallahassee, Fla. The match will be broadcast on ESPN3. A&M then takes on Florida A&M (0-11) Saturday at 11 a.m. (12 p.m. ET) at Al Lawson Center, also in Tallahassee, to bring a close to the non-conference season.
Florida State went 3-0 last weekend to win its own home-season opening A Loft Seminole Invitational in Tallahassee. The Seminoles defeated Coastal Carolina, Florida A&M and Xavier in three sets each to extend their win streak to three matches.
Florida A&M is still looking for its first victory of the season after suffering a 3-0 loss home loss against North Florida on Tuesday.
TEXAS A&M RECENT RESULTS
- Texas A&M returned to the win column with a thrilling 25-15, 19-25, 25-19, 21-25, 15-11 victory over No. 15 Colorado State, Tuesday at Reed Arena, making it a rewarding evening for Aggie head coach Laurie Corbelli who was coaching the 900th match of her 30-year head coaching career.
- Although A&M got aced a season-high 13 times, Corbelli, in her 23rd season at the helm of the Aggies, received clutch performances across the board as A&M recorded its first ranked win of the season.
- A&M outside hitters Emily Hardesty and Angela Lowak each posted double-doubles, with Hardesty tallying 17 kills – one shy of her season high – while hitting .317 and Lowak adding season highs in both kills (16) and digs (14) while hitting at a .297 clip. Sophomore Ashlie Reasor came off the bench and pitched in nine kills without an error for a .529 hitting percentage.
- Defensively, A&M sophomore libero Amy Nettles led A&M to a 78-61 advantage in digs as she tied her career high with 27, and redshirt middle blocker Jazzmin Babers tied her season high with 10 blocks as A&M outblocked the Rams, 16-9.
- Junior setter Kaysie Shebeneck, who entered the match in the second set after starting setter Stephanie Aiple went down with a foot injury, dished out 30 assists while directing the A&M offense to a .278 to .156 hitting advantage over CSU.
TEXAS A&M QUICK HITS
- After a one-week appearance at No. 25, Texas A&M dropped out of the AVCA Top 25 this week following its 1-2 weekend at the Comfort Suites Challenge at Iowa, Sept. 11-12
- A&M is hitting .256 and averaging 13.81 kills, 12.84 assists, 0.84 aces, 0.88 aces, 14.27 digs and 2.49 blocks per set. Opponents are hitting .223 and averaging 13.27 kills, 12.41 assists, 1.38 aces, 13.57 digs and 2.00 blocks per set.
- Redshirt junior middle blocker Jazzmin Babers has started every match of her career (70) and is hitting .354 for her career.
- Babers, who ranks second in the SEC with 1.36 blocks per set, posted double-figure blocks for the second time this season with 10 against Colorado State. Seven of them were block assists, giving her 287 for her career and tying Page White (1993-96) for 10th place in the A&M career records. With one more block assist, Babers will tie Kendra Felder (2001-05) for ninth place.
- Senior middle blocker Shelby Sullivan is hitting .353 this season and .377 for her career, putting her on pace to shatter the A&M career record for hitting percentage (.342) held by Sherri Brinkman (1983-85).
- After missing three matches following an ankle injury, outside hitter Angela Lowak has posted double-figure kills in four consecutive matches, a streak that began when she returned to the lineup against Iowa State on Sept. 11. She now leads the team with 3.23 kills per set for the full season. The senior had season highs with 16 kills and 14 digs against Colorado State to record her first double-double of the season.
- Sophomore libero Amy Nettles has led or tied for the team lead in digs in every match this season. She is averaging a team-high 3.92 digs per set, ranking sixth in the SEC
- Nettles, who has posted double-figure digs in each of the last eight matches, is the only A&M player to reach 20 or more digs in a match this season, posting a season-high and tying her career high with 27 in the 3-2 win against No. 15 Colorado State and notching 20 digs in a 3-1 win against Milwaukee
- Freshman Kaitlyn Blake has started each of the last seven matches as either an opposite hitter or middle blocker. She is hitting .244 and averaging 2.17 kills and 1.00 blocks per set for the season. The Allen High School product had a career-high and team match-high 14 kills while hitting .321 in the loss to Iowa State last week.
- Junior setter Kaysie Shebeneck is expected to get her first start of the season after sophomore starter Stephanie Aiple suffered a foot injury in the second set against Colorado State on Sunday. Shebeneck started four matches at setter last season. As a freshman, she started five at the opposite hitter position.
- Freshman 6-7 outside hitter/middle blocker Montse Castro is competing for Mexico at the Women's U20 World Championship in Puerto Rico.
- Texas A&M's season schedule includes 10 matches against teams that reached at least the second round of the NCAA Championship tournament and were ranked in the top 25 or received votes in the final 2014 AVCA Division I Coaches Poll.
- Seven of A&M's matches are against teams ranked in the top 25 in this week's AVCA Top 25 Poll: No. 8 Stanford, No. 15 Colorado State and No. 18 Florida State, as well as two matches each against No. 5 Florida and No. 24 Kentucky.
- The Aggies are picked to finish fourth in the Southeastern Conference according to a preseason vote of the league's head coaches. Florida, the 2014 SEC champion after posting a perfect 18-0 record in conference play, is picked to defend its title.
- Senior middle blocker Shelby Sullivan was named to the nine-member Preseason Volleyball All-SEC Team for the second consecutive year. She was an All-SEC Team selection at the conclusion of each of the last two seasons and she was the 2014 SEC Scholar Athlete of the Year.
SCOUTING FLORIDA STATE
- Florida State, 6-3 overall, is 3-0 in home matches after sweeping Coastal Carolina, Florida State A&M and Xavier last weekend at its own A Loft Seminole Invitational.
- All three of FSU's losses were against ranked opponents: a 3-2 loss at No. 24 Colorado on Aug. 24 and two losses at No. 22 Ohio State, a 3-2 setback against the Buckeyes on Sept. 5 and a 3-1 loss to OSU on Sept. 6.
- The Noles are 16th in the nation with 2.89 blocks per set and 29th in the country with a .268 hitting percentage.
- Individually, Sarah Burrington ranks 16 in the nation with 1.50 blocks per set, and Melanie Keil is 54th with 1.31 blocks per set.
A&M SERIES HISTORY VS. FSU
- A&M holds a slight 6-5 edge against Florida State in the all-time series which began in 1978.
- A&M, 5-3 against the Seminoles in matches played in College Station, is 0-1 in Tallahassee.
- The teams met twice last year at Reed Arena in College Station, with the sixth-ranked Seminoles winning 3-1 and 3-2 against the 21st-ranked Aggies. Shelby Sullivan hit .370 and averaged a team-high 3.14 kills per set for A&M in the two-match series, but as a team, A&M was outhit, .269 to .157. Nicole Welch posted back-to-back double-doubles, and Katie Horton tallied double-figure kills in both matches while hitting above .400 in each.
- A&M's most recent victory was Sept. 12, 2013. The Aggies upset No. 16 FSU, 3-0 (27-25, 27-25, 25-22) at their own Texas A&M Invitational at Reed Arena
- A&M's all-time results vs. FSU:
Dec. 6, 1978 N W 15-9, 15-8
Oct. 29, 1982 H W 15-5, 14-16, 15-6, 15-12
Sept. 21, 1984 H W 15-4, 15-1, 9-15, 15-11
Oct. 5, 1991 H L 7-15, 11-15, 15-11, 8-15
Sept. 26, 1992 A L 7-15, 8-15, 3-15
Sept. 17, 1993 H W 15-13, 15-13, 14-16, 15-11
Sept. 7, 2001 H W 30-25, 30-18, 30-19
Sept. 12, 2013 H W 27-25, 27-25, 25-22
Sept. 19, 2014 H L 22-25, 25-23, 24-26, 21-25
Sept. 20, 2014 H L 20-25, 16-25, 8-25
SCOUTING FLORIDA A&M
- The Rattlers dropped to 0-11 with a 3-0 (25-16, 25-20, 31-29 loss to Northern Florida on Tuesday.
- FAMU led in kills, 40-37, was outhit, .206 to .132 and outblocked, 11.5 to 5.5. In addition, the Rattlers committed 11 service errors.
- Sophomore 5-10 outside hitter Pamela Soriano, who leads the team with 3.10 kills per set for the season, had a match-high 17 kills in the loss.
- Freshman libero Valentina Carrasco, who averages a team-high 3.74 digs per set for the season, led all players in digs with 17.
- Florida State defeated Florida A&M, 3-0 (25-15, 25-16, 28-26) on Saturday at Tully Gym.
- Tanio "Tony" Trifonov (Bulgarian National Sports Academy, 1990) is in his 18th season as the head coach at FAMU.
A&M SERIES HISTORY VS. FAMU
- This will be the first meeting between Texas A&M and Florida A&M.
UPCOMING
- A&M opens SEC play Sunday, Sept. 27 as the Aggies play host to the Arkansas Razorbacks. First serve is a 1:30 p.m. at Reed Arena, and the match will be broadcast by SEC Network +.
- A&M, which was picked to finish fourth in the SEC according to a preseason vote of the league's coaches, is 3-0 all-time in SEC openers
- The teams twice last year. Arkansas defeated A&M, 3-1 (20-25, 25-12, 25-21, 27-25) at Reed Arena, and the Aggies prevailed in Fayetteville, 3-1 (25-17, 25-19, 19-25, 25-20).