Match Day Preview: Stanford & Minnesota

Friday, August 28

Palo Alto, Calif.

8:00 PM

Texas A&M

Stanford

Aug 27, 2015 | Volleyball

By: Texas A&M Media Relations

Complete Match Notes

Texas A&M (0-0) at No. 2 Stanford (0-0)
Friday, Aug. 28, 6 p.m. (8 p.m. CT)
Maples Pavilion, Stanford Calif.
TV: Pac 12 Network
Live Stats: 12thMan.com

Texas A&M vs. Minnesota (0-0)
Saturday, Aug. 29, 4:30 p.m. (6:30 p.m. CT)
Maples Pavilion, Stanford Calif.
TV: None
Live Stats: 12thMan.com

STANFORD, Calif. -- The Texas A&M volleyball team opens its 2015 campaign this weekend as the Aggies take on No. 2 Stanford on Friday at 6 p.m. (8 p.m. CT) and Minnesota, Saturday at 4:30 p.m. (6:30 p.m. CT) at Maples Pavilion in Stanford, Calif.

Aggie head coach Laurie Corbelli returns 11 letterwinners -- including nine with starting experience – and a redshirted player from last year's team that tied for fourth in the Southeastern Conference with a 13-5 league record and finished 21-9 overall and No. 22 in the final national ratings percentage index (RPI) after advancing to the first round of the NCAA tournament. Corbelli, who is entering her 23rd season at the helm of the Aggies and the 30th year of her head coaching career also welcomes the addition of five freshmen.

FOLLOW THE ACTION:

The opening match against the Cardinal will be televised on Pac-12 Network (Suddenlink channel 421). Check cable/satellite provider for availability.
Links to live stats for both matches will be available on 12thMan.com.
Updates and other information can be found by following @AggieVolleyball on Twitter.

TEXAS A&M NOTES:

A&M is 29-10 in season openers since 1976.
The Aggies are 17-5 in season openers since head coach Laurie Corbelli was hired in 1993. In the 2014 opener, the Aggies swept Iowa of the Big Ten Conference, 25-17, 25-17, 25-21, en route to winning their own Texas A&M Invitational.
The Aggies are 7-5 under Corbelli when opening away from home, including 1-2 in true road matches.
Corbelli is entering her 23rd season at the helm of the Aggies and the 30th year of her head coaching career. She is 564-327 overall and 464-221 at A&M, where she has directed the Aggies to 18 NCAA appearances.
Corbelli returns all six regular starters -- seniors Angela Lowak (6-0, OH) and Shelby Sullivan (6-2, MB), juniors Jazzmin Babers (6-2, MB) and Emily Hardesty (6-3, OH), and sophomores Stephanie Aiple (6-1, S) and Ashlie Reasor (6-1, OPP) -- plus sophomore libero Amy Nettles. Sullivan, the team's MVP in 2014, and co-best offensive players Aiple and Babers all earned Honorable Mention All-America distinction from the American Volleyball Coaches Association in 2014.
Others who have starting experience are junior setter Kaysie Shebeneck and junior defensive specialists Victoria Arenas and Katelyn Labhart.
There are five newcomers on the team not including sophomore defensive specialist Gabby Litwin, who redshirted last year after transferring to Texas A&M following her freshman season at Mississippi State. Freshman middle blocker/opposite hitter Kaitlyn Blake, a high school All-American from Allen, Texas, graduated high school in December and joined the team in January. Montse Castro, a 6-7 freshman outside hitter/middle blocker from Mexico City, is the most recent addition and participated in practice for the first time on Tuesday.
The Aggies received votes in the AVCA's preseason Top 25 poll and are listed 30th.
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.
This marks A&M's fourth season as a member of the SEC. Formerly, the Aggies had been a member of the Big 12 Conference since its inception in 1996.
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.

2014 TEXAS A&M HIGHLIGHTS:

With a 21-9 record, Texas A&M (21-9, 13-5 SEC) reached the 20-win milestone for the third time in four years and for the 15th time in Laurie Corbelli's 22-year tenure as head coach of the Aggies.
Texas A&M's Stephanie Aiple, Jazzmin Babers and Shelby Sullivan were named Honorable Mention All-America by the AVCA. All three Aggies received the honor for the first time in their careers, while Aiple, a freshman setter, and Babers, a redshirt sophomore middle blocker, became A&M's first underclassmen to garner the accolade from the AVCA.
The Aggies made their fourth consecutive and 22nd overall appearance in the NCAA tournament, including their 18th appearance under Corbelli, making A&M one of only 14 teams in the nation that has made at least 18 NCAA tournament appearances since she was hired in 1993.
Texas A&M, which was picked to finish sixth in the SEC according to a preseason poll of the league's head coaches, capped the regular season with a 3-2 come-back victory at Ole Miss on Nov. 28 to close out the regular season riding a season-best six-match win streak and finish in a tie with Alabama for fourth place in the SEC.
With a 13-5 SEC record, A&M bettered its 10 total number of conference victories in 2013, when the Aggies tied for sixth place. In 2012, A&M's first year in the SEC, the Aggies went 16-4 and won the SEC Western Division. That was the last year the SEC recognized divisional winners in volleyball.
Nine A&M players were named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll: Victoria Arenas, Jazzmin Babers, Darby Graff, Emily Hardesty, Katelyn Labhart, Angela Lowak, Kaysie Shebeneck, Shelby Sullivan and Sydney Wilhelm.

SCOUTING STANFORD:

The Cardinal return five starters -- including three first-team All-Americans and one second-team All-American -- from the 2014 team that went 33-2 and ranked No. 2 in the final Top 25 poll after reaching the semifinals of the NCAA Championship.
Senior middle blocker Inky Ajanaku, a first-team All-American and the Volleyball Magazine National Player of the Year in 2014, will miss the 2015 season due to an injury suffered while competing for the U.S. National Team this past summer.
Other returning first-team All-Americans are senior setter and two-time Pac-12 Setter of the Year Madi Bugg and senior outside hitter Jordan Burgess. Redshirt sophomore Merete Lutz, a 6-8 middle blocker, was an AVCA second-team All-American in 2014.
Freshman Hayley Hodson, a 6-3 opposite from Newport Beach, Calif., is making her Cardinal debut after being named the No. 1 overall recruit in the nation by Volleyball Magazine.
John Dunning (San Diego State, '73) is 401-69 (.853) entering his 15th season as head coach of the Cardinal. Dunning, inducted into the AVCA Hall of Fame in 2011, is 838-171 (.831) entering the 31st season of his head coaching career.

SERIES HISTORY VS. STANFORD:

Stanford leads the all-time series against A&M, 3-1, including 2-0 in matches played at Maples Pavilion.
This will be the second time in A&M history that the Aggies have faced Stanford in a season-opening match. On Aug. 22, 1997, the No. 1-ranked Cardinal topped A&M, 12-15, 15-9, 15-11, 15-9, at the State Farm/NACWAA Volleyball Classic at Stanford.
A&M's lone win of the series came in the first-ever meeting between the two programs, a 15-11, 15-12, 15-17, 4-15, 15-12 victory against then-No. 1 and defending national champion Stanford on Sept. 8, 1995, at the USA Mizuno Cup, contested in Chicago. The win still remains A&M's only victory against a top-ranked opponent in program history. Andrea Williams, now the associate commissioner for football and basketball at the Big Ten Conference, led A&M with a career-high 19 kills and 18 digs.
Stanford has won each of the last three meetings. The most recent was a 30-28, 30-24, 30-23 victory over the Aggies on Dec. 8, 2001, in the NCAA Championship regional final at Maples Pavilion.

SCOUTING MINNESOTA:

Minnesota returns all six starters plus the libero from last year's team that went 19-12 overall, placed eighth in the Big Ten Conference with a 9-11 mark and was 54th in the NCAA's final RPI ranking.
Top returners include junior middle blocker Paige Tapp, a 2014 AVCA third-team All-American and All-Big Ten selection, and senior outside hitter Daly Santana, who was honorable mention All-America.
The Gophers are picked to finish fifth in the Big Ten Conference in 2015.
Hugh McCutcheon, who coached the USA Men's Olympic Team to a gold medal in 2008 and also coached the USA Women's Olympic Team to a silver medal in 2012, is beginning his fourth season as head coach of the Gophers.

SERIES HISTORY VS. MINNESOTA:

A&M owns a 5-1 lead in the all-time series against Minnesota since the teams first met in 1978. All six matches were played on a neutral court.
A&M won the first five meetings of the six-match series. The Aggies' most recent victory was Sept. 2, 2006, as A&M topped then-No. 22 Minnesota, 22-30, 30-24, 31-29, 30-25, at the SLU Billiken Invitational in St. Louis.
Minnesota got its first win of the series in the most recent match-up, as the No. 16 Gophers defeated the Aggies on Aug. 30, 2008, at the Bluejay Invitational in Omaha, Neb.

UPCOMING SCHEDULE:

The Aggies make their home debut Saturday, Sept. 5 as they host the Texas A&M Invitational.
A&M opens the tournament at noon against Wichita State and takes on Abilene Christian at 4:30 p.m. The Aggies conclude the tournament on Sunday against New Mexico State at 1 p.m.