PREVIEW: Texas A&M Hosts Missouri

Texas A&M (3-5, 0-1 SEC) vs. Missouri (7-7, 0-1 SEC)
Sunday, Sept. 24, 12 p.m.
Reed Arena, College Station, Texas
 
TV: SEC Network (Tyler Denning. Missy Whittemore)
Stats: 12thMan.com/live
Twitter Updates: @AggieVolleyball

COLLEGE STATION, Texas—Texas A&M (3-5, 0-1 SEC) opens its SEC home slate Sunday as the Aggies play host to the Missouri Tigers (7-7, 0-1 SEC) at Reed Arena. First serve is at 12 p.m., and the match will be televised on SEC Network with Tyler Denning and Missy Whittemore calling the action.
 
PROMOTIONS: Take a Kid to the Match

• Up to four kids can get in free with the purchase of one adult ticket.
• The first 100 kids to attend the Hawaiian-themed Kids Court receive free popcorn.

 
Both teams will be looking to get into the win column after dropping their conference openers last week. A&M, which entered last week with the No. 1-ranked strength of schedule in the nation, is mired in a three-match losing skid, having dropped matches to No. 6 Wisconsin and No. 6 Texas to conclude the preconference schedule, as well as LSU in the Aggies' SEC opener on Friday in Baton Rouge.
 
Missouri opened conference play with a 3-1 loss to No. 10 Kentucky on Wednesday, in what also was the Tigers' home season opener. The loss ended the Tigers' three-match winning streak.
 
Both Texas A&M and Missouri are coached by married couples with Laurie Corbelli serving as head coach of the Aggies and her husband, John Corbelli, serving as associate head coach. The Tigers are led by head coach Wayne Kreklow and his wife, assistant coach Susan Kreklow.
 
The Aggies, who went 15-3 in conference matches last season to tie Kentucky for third place in the SEC, were picked to finish fourth this year according to a preseason poll of the league's head volleyball coaches. Missouri, which tied Florida for the SEC championship with a 16-2 mark in 2016, was picked to finish just ahead of the Aggies in third place according to the preseason poll.
 
A&M-MISSOURI ALL-TIME SERIES

• Texas A&M owns a 30-13 lead in the all-time series against Missouri since the teams first met in 1981.
• The Aggies have won the last five meetings as well as eight of the last nine meetings.
• A&M is 18-3 against the Tigers in matches played in College Station.
• A&M holds a 6-2 edge in match-ups as SEC foes.
• In the only meeting last season, host Texas A&M handed Missouri its first SEC loss of the season with a crucial come-from-behind 22-25, 25-22, 25-20, 25-23 victory on Oct. 26 at Reed Arena. The Tigers, who went on to tie Florida for the SEC title, entered the match 9-0 in conference matches.
• Four Texas A&M players posted double-figure kills, with then-junior outside hitter Kiara McGee leading all players with 16. Junior opposite hitter Ashlie Reasor contributed 12 kills, and sophomore middle blocker Kaitlyn Blake and freshman outside hitter Hollann Hans pitched in 11 kills apiece. The Aggies outhit Missouri, .227 to .188. Kira Larson had a team-high 15 kills for Missouri, which not only was playing without season kill leader Melanie Crow, but also her back-up, Sydney Deeken, who suffered an apparent ankle injury midway through the first set.
• Texas A&M's most historic meeting against Missouri came on Nov. 25, 2015, in a match with SEC championship implications on the line for both teams. Texas A&M, which entered the match riding a 12-match winning streak, needed to defeat Missouri to clinch its first-ever conference championship. The Tigers, who were entering the match 10-0 on their home court, the Hearnes Center, were in a must-win situation in order to stay in the hunt for at least a share of the championship title with one match remaining for each team. Missouri built a 2-1 lead in sets and had the momentum after taking a 22-18 lead in the fourth set. Jazzmin Babers ended the Tigers' rally with a kill, and the Aggies went on to reel off seven unanswered points to close out the frame and force a fifth set. The Aggies took a 4-2 lead in the fifth set after a 3-0 run and never looked back.
• Missouri's most recent victory against Texas A&M was a 25-17, 29-27, 25-20 win at Reed in 2013, the year the Tigers won the SEC with a perfect 18-0 record and finished 35-1 overall.
• In the 16 years as members of the Big 12 Conference, A&M led the conference series, 21-11, although Missouri closed out Big 12 play with three consecutive wins against the Aggies.
• A&M's overall records/last 10 results vs. Missouri:

Overall:  30-13   H:  18-3   A:  10-9   N:  2-1   SEC:  6-2
Sept. 24,  2011           A           L              25-23, 23-25, 24-26, 23-25
Nov.  12,  2011           H           W            25-17, 25-22, 25-20
Sept. 28,  2012           A           W            25-20, 23-25, 25-23, 25-17
Nov.  16,  2012           H           W            25-20, 18-25, 25-15, 25-15
Oct.    27,  2013           H           L              17-25, 27-29, 20-25
Nov.  2,    2014           A           W            17-25, 25-13, 25-13, 25-16
Nov.  23,  2014           H           W            25-15, 25-17, 25-12
Nov.  4,    2015           H           W            27-25, 25-23, 25-23
Nov.  25,  2015           A           W            19-25, 25-20, 25-27, 25-22, 15-10
Oct.    26,  2016           H           W            22-25, 25-22, 25-20, 25-23
 
TEXAS A&M IN THE SEC

• Texas A&M is 4-1 in SEC home openers and 70-23 overall in SEC matches since joining the league in 2012.
• The Aggies, who went 8-1 in SEC home matches and 7-2 in SEC away matches in 2016, are 36-10 in SEC home matches overall and 34-13 all-time in SEC away matches.
• This is the third consecutive year the Aggies have lost their SEC opener. In 2015, A&M dropped its SEC opener for the first time but went on to go 16-2 in SEC matches to capture the first conference championship in program history.
• Texas A&M will play two matches each against last year's top three SEC teams, co-champions Florida and Missouri, as well as Kentucky, which tied A&M for third place. Other home-and-home series will be played against Arkansas, Ole Miss and Mississippi State. Single matches will be against LSU, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Auburn and Alabama.
• In their inaugural SEC season opener, the Aggies defeated Ole Miss on Sept. 14, 2012, at Reed Arena, marking Texas A&M's first SEC victory in any sport. The Aggies went on to finish 16-4, winning the SEC Western Division and placing second overall.
• Texas A&M will play its 100th SEC match on Oct. 20 against Arkansas at Reed Arena.

 
TEXAS A&M NOTES

• In conjunction with September being Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and in support of Jamie's Hope and its Bald is Beautiful program, the Aggies will be sporting yellow ribbons on their shoes on Sunday and will be hosting Madison, an 11-year old cancer survivor from the Houston area.
• Texas A&M has the No. 1-ranked strength of schedule in the nation according to Volleytalk.net's RPI Futures, a season ending projected RPI based on the win probabilities for all remaining games on the schedule using each team's Pablo rating.
• Four of A&M's five losses have been to teams ranked No. 6 or higher. The Aggies pushed No. 5 Penn State to five sets on Sept. 2 and fell to No. 1 Stanford, 3-0, on Sept. 3 at Reed Arena, at No. 6 Wisconsin, 3-0, on Sept. 9, and closed out the preconference schedule with a 3-0 home loss to No. 6 Texas on Sept. 13.
• Two freshmen, 6-1 lefty setter Camille Conner and 6-3 middle blocker Makena Patterson, have started every match for the Aggies. In addition, 6-2 freshman outside hitter Samantha Sanders, for all intents and purposes, has been the Aggies' starter at the opposite hitter position, although she did start on the left side against LSU while Kiara McGee was out for medical reasons.
• Conner, the MVP of the season-opening Texas A&M Invitational, is the only player in the SEC that has recorded a triple double this season, having tallied 43 assists, 12 digs and 12 kills while hitting .321 in the five-set loss to No. 5 Penn State. She is the first A&M player to record a triple-double since former lefty setter Allie Sawatzky achieved the feat with 31 assists, 10 kills and 11 digs at Ole Miss on Nov. 10, 2013.
• Patterson has led or tied for the team lead in blocks in five of eight matches and leads the Aggies with 1.00 blocks per set.
• Sophomore outside hitter Hollann Hans, who had career highs of 32.5 points and 28 kills while hitting .328 against No. 5 Penn State, leads A&M and is fifth in the SEC in aces (0.48), kills (4.07) and points (4.74) per set.
• Hans' 32.5 points against Penn State ties for fourth in A&M single match records, and her 28 kills against the Nittany Lions are the most by an A&M player since Kelsey Black had 28 against Oklahoma on Oct. 6, 2010.
• Junior middle blocker Kaitlyn Blake has started every match and leads the Aggies and is ninth in the SEC with a .352 hitting efficiency.
• Senior libero Amy Nettles, who leads the Aggies and is 10th in the SEC with 3.70 digs per set, has 1,213 digs for her career. She needs only 20 more digs to move into the top 10 in the Aggie career record books, tying Laura Jones (2002-05) for 10th place.
• Nettles has appeared in a school-record 307 consecutive sets. The streak began when the then-freshman came off the bench for the final three sets against Arkansas on Oct. 15, 2014. The now-senior co-captain broke the previous record of 284 consecutive sets played held by fellow San Antonian Suzy Wente since 1994 in the second match of the 2017 season. Nettles  has led the Aggies in digs per set each of the last three seasons and in total digs each of the last two years and is averaging 3.57 digs per set for her career.
• Texas A&M returns 11 letterwinners overall—including four starters plus the libero—from last year's team that went 21-9 overall and reached the NCAA Championship tournament for a sixth consecutive season. The Aggies also welcome a stellar four-member freshman class, ranked the 18th best recruiting class in the nation by PrepVolleyball.com, as well as a redshirt freshman.

 
25th SEASON FOR CORBELLI DUO

• Texas A&M head coach Laurie Corbelli and her husband, associate head coach John Corbelli, are celebrating their 25th season at the helm of the Aggies. Laurie, the 2015 SEC and AVCA South Region coach of the year and the longest tenured head coach at Texas A&M, is 512-242 in her A&M career and 612-348 in the 32nd year of her head coaching career.
• Under the Corbellis' direction, the Aggies have reached the 20-win milestone 17 times and have made 20 NCAA tournament appearances, making A&M one of only 14 teams to make at least 20 NCAA appearances since Corbelli was hired in 1993.

 
TEXAS A&M RECENT RESULTS

• Texas A&M fell to LSU, 25-20, 25-22, 25-23, in both teams' SEC season opener Friday at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, La.
• The Aggies, who were without both starting senior outside hitter Kiara McGee and defensive specialist Gabby Litwin due to medical reasons, were outhit, .294 to .139. LSU led A&M in kills (45-35), digs (55-39) and blocks (8-6) to end a three-match losing skid against the Aggies.
• Hollann Hans had a match-high 14 kills, and Amy Nettles led the Aggies in digs with 18.

 

• MISSOURI QUICK HITS
• The match at A&M is the first of three consecutive road matches for the Tigers.
• Missouri is road tested as the Tigers played their first 13 matches away from home before hosting Kentucky in the SEC opener.
• Most recently, the Tigers dropped their home season opener, winning the first set against No. 10 Kentucky but falling 19-25, 25-18, 25-19, 25-19.
• Redshirt senior outside hitter Melanie Crow led the Tigers with eight kills but was held to a .065 hitting percentage in the loss to the Wildcats.
• Missouri is third in the SEC with 2.91 blocks per set for the full season. Junior middle blocker Alyssa Munlyn leads the Tigers and is second in the SEC with 1.46 blocks per set.
• Wayne Kreklow is 265-135 in his 18th season as head coach of the Tigers.

 
UPCOMING SCHEDULE

• The Aggies return to the road for their next two matches. A&M takes on a much-improved Georgia Bulldog team on Friday, Sept. 29, at the Ramsey Center in Athens, Ga. First serve is at 6 p.m. CT (7 p.m. ET)
• A&M continues its road tour on Wed., Oct. 4, as the Aggies take on defending SEC champion and third-ranked Florida in Gainesville.

 
Visit 12thMan.com for more information on Texas A&M volleyball. Aggie fans also can keep up to date with the A&M volleyball team on Facebook and on Twitter and Instagram by following @AggieVolleyball.