Match Day Preview: Colorado State

Tuesday, September 15

College Station

6:30 PM

Texas A&M

Colorado State

Buy Tickets

Sep 14, 2015 | Volleyball

By: Texas A&M Media Relations

The Matchup:	(#15) Colorado State (6-2) vs Texas A&M (5-3)
First Serve:	Tuesday, Sept. 15 - 6:35 p.m.
Venue:	Reed Arena
Watch:	SEC Network + (Casey Richardson, Chelsea Reber) \| WatchESPN
Live Stats:	12thman.com

COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- The Texas A&M volleyball team (5-3) returns to the friendly confines of Reed Arena Tuesday as the Aggies play host to No. 15 Colorado State (6-2). First serve is set for 6:30 p.m., and the match will be available on SEC Network + through the WatchESPN app and SECSports.com. Both teams will be aiming to get back into the win column after each suffered a loss in their most recent outing.

Texas A&M went 1-2 at the Comfort Suites Challenge in Iowa City, Iowa, over the weekend. The then-No. 25 Aggies fell to Iowa State, 3-1, in the opener, snapping a four-match win streak. A&M rebounded with a 3-1 victory over Milwaukee in the first-ever meeting between the two programs but closed out the tournament Saturday with a 3-1 loss to host Iowa, which went 3-0 to win the tournament.

CSU went 1-1 on Sunday, defeating Iona, 3-0, for its third straight victory and falling to No. 4 Texas, 3-0. Both matches were played at Gregory Gym in Austin, Texas.

PROMOTIONS:
Fish Camp Night: Students are encouraged to wear their Fish Camp T-shirts to the match for a chance to win a $200 VISA gift card and back-to-school Adidas gear.
ACE Shirts: Be on the lookout for "ACE" shirts this season. After every ace the Aggies serve, a Yell Leader will throw a T-shirt to the crowd.
12th Man Sports Pass: Any Sports Pass option will get students into every Aggie volleyball match this season. You won't want to miss any of the Aggie Volleyball action at Reed Arena.

Tickets: Tickets are available for purchase anytime online at 12thManFoundation.com or beginning one hour before the match at the Reed Arena box office.

MATCH NO. 900 FOR CORBELLI

A&M's contest against CSU marks the 900th match of Aggie coach Laurie Corbelli's head coaching career. Corbelli began her head coaching career at the University of San Francisco in 1986.
Corbelli, who spent four years at USF and three seasons at Santa Clara, is in the 30th year of her head coaching career and her 23rd season as head coach of the Aggies. She is 569-330 overall and 469-224 at A&M, where she has directed the Aggies to 18 NCAA appearances.

BABERS NAMED ALL-TOURAMENT

Junior middle blocker Jazzmin Babers was named all-tournament for the second consecutive week after hitting .393 and averaging 4.00 kills, 1.17 blocks and 4.62 points per set in the three matches at the Comfort Suites Challenge in Iowa, City, Iowa.
Babers posted double figures in kills in all three contests -- tying her career-high with 20 against Milwaukee -- and hit .320 or above in each match. She enters the CSU match having posted double-digit kills in each of the last five matches, including two 20-kill performances.

TEXAS A&M QUICK HITS

A&M is hitting .253 and averaging 13.97 kills, 12.88 assists, 0.88 assists, 0.88 aces, 14.06 digs and 2.38 blocks per set. Opponents are hitting .233 and averaging 13.56 kills, 12.72 assists, 1.19 aces, 13.78 digs and 2.03 blocks per set.
A&M's 13.97 kills per set is third best in the SEC and ranks 36th in the nation.
Sophomore setter Stephanie Aiple is ranked 22nd in the nation and third in the SEC with 11.27 assists per set. The Round Rock, Texas, native averaged 11.33 assists per set at the tournament last weekend and has tallied 50 or more assists four times this season, including a career-high and Reed Arena-record setting 60 assists in the 3-2 victory over New Mexico State on Sept. 6.
Aiple had 50 assists and 10 digs at Iowa to notch her team-leading third double-double of the season.
Jazzmin Babers has started every match of her career (69) and is hitting .357 for her career.
Babers needs seven block assists to give her 287 for her career, which will move her into a tie with Page White (1993-96) for 10th place in the A&M career records.
Babers ranks fifth in the SEC and 42nd in the nation with a .408 hitting percentage. She is second in the SEC and 65th in the nation with 1.26 blocks per set.
After missing two matches due to an injury suffered against Wichita State on Sept. 5, senior middle blocker Shelby Sullivan was in the starting lineup for all three matches at the Comfort Suites Challenge and played in all 12 sets at the tournament.
Sullivan is hitting .373 this season and .379 for her career, putting her on pace to shatter the A&M career record for hitting percentage (.342) held by Sherri Brinkman (1983-85).
Senior outside hitter Angela Lowak also appeared for the first time against Iowa State since going down with an injury against Minnesota in the second match of the season. Lowak posted double-figure kills in each of the three matches at the Comfort Suites Challenge and averaged 3.00 kills and 3.33 points per set.
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 3.69 digs per set and has posted double-figure digs in each of the last seven matches.
Freshman Kaitlyn Blake has started each of the last six matches as either an opposite hitter or middle blocker. She is hitting .265 and averaging 2.18 kills, 1.07 blocks and is hitting .265. The Allen High School product had a career-high and team match-high 14 kills while hitting .321 in the loss to Iowa State on Friday.
Freshman outside hitter/middle blocker Montse Castro is competing for Mexico at the Women's U20 World Championship in Puerto Rico.
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.
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 COLORADO STATE

The Rams are 6-2 overall following their 3-0 loss at Texas on Sunday. The loss snapped CSU's three-match win streak.
CSU dropped one spot in the AVCA Top 25 Poll, falling to No. 15.
Both of CSU's losses were to ranked opponents: a 3-0 home loss against No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 4 and the 3-0 loss at No. 4 Texas on Sunday.
All eight of the Rams' matches have been decided in three sets.
The Rams are averaging 2.85 blocks per set, ranking 17th best in the nation.
CSU is outhitting its opponents, .248 to .146. The Rams are averaging 13.96 kills per set while holding opponents to 11.71 kills per set
Redshirt junior and 6-5 middle blocker Acacia Andrews is fourth in the nation with a .500 hitting percentage. She is averaging 2.04 kills and 1.12 blocks per set.
Senior setter Crystal Young played her first two seasons of collegiate volleyball at Blinn College, where as a sophomore the Pasadena, Texas, native and Clear Brook High School product led the Buccaneers to the 2013 NJCAA national championship.
CSU returns five starters plus the libero from the 2014 squad which went 31-3, advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 and finished No. 12 in the final AVCA rankings.
CSU, which made its 20th consecutive NCAA tournament appearance in 2014, has won the Mountain West Conference regular season championship each of the last six years.
Tom Hibert (Oklahoma '84) is 468-111 in his 19th season as head coach of the Rams and 642-183 in the 26th year of his head coaching career.

A&M-CSU SERIES HISTORY

Colorado State owns a 6-2 lead in the all-time series against A&M.
The teams last met in 2013 with the Rams posting a convincing 25-11, 25-16, 25-20 home victory over the Aggies at Moby Arena in Fort Collins.
A&M's most recent victory was a 30-24, 27-30, 42-40, 30-26 season-opening road win at the 2006 CSU Hilton Classic in Fort Collins, Colo., on Aug. 25, 2006. The 42 points scored by the Aggies in the third set is the school record for most points scored by an A&M team in a single set during the 30-point scoring cap era.

A&M'S ALL-TIME RESULTS VS. COLORADO STATE
[H: 0-1    A: 1-3    N: 1-2]
Sept.    28,       1978    N          W         15-5, 7-15, 15-4
Sept.    27,       1980    N          L          1-15, 15-12, 11-15, 8-15
Oct.     3,         1986    A          L          9-15, 5-15, 15-8, 11-15
Sept.    9,         1988    H          L          15-8, 12-15, 15-8, 5-15, 13-15
Nov.     28,       1992    N          L          7-15, 10-15, 4-15
Aug.     31,       1996    A          L          7-15, 15-10, 13-15, 11-15
Aug.     25,       2006    A          W         30-24, 27-30, 42-40, 30-26
Sept.    21,       2013    A          L          11-25, 16-25, 20-25

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