PREVIEW: Texas A&M Hosts Auburn for Annual “Dig Pink” Match

Sunday, October 15

College Station

1:30 p.m.

Texas A&M

Auburn

Photo by: Sam Craft/Texas A&M Athletics

Oct 14, 2017 | Volleyball

Complete Match Notes

By: Texas A&M Media Relations

Texas A&M (5-8, 2-4 SEC) vs. Auburn (11-5, 4-3 SEC)
Sunday, Oct. 15, 1:30 p.m.
Reed Arena, College Station, Texas

Digital Stream: SEC Network + (WatchESPN)
Stats: 12thMan.com/live
Twitter Updates: @AggieVolleyball

COLLEGE STATION, Texas—Texas A&M (5-8, 2-4 SEC) begins a rare five-match homestand on Sunday as the Aggies play host to Auburn (11-5, 4-3 SEC) at 1:30 p.m. at Reed Arena. The match will be digitally streamed on SEC Network + via the WatchESPN app, with Casey Richardson and Chelsea Reber calling the action.

PROMOTIONS:
In conjunction with October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the match will be the Aggies' annual "Dig Pink" match, and all fans wearing pink to the match can purchase tickets at the entrance for only $3. In addition, the first 1,000 fans in attendance receive pink 12th Man Towels, and fans wearing pink in support of the cause can enjoy free pink lemonade from concessions. Like all Sunday home matches, it is Take a Kid to the Match, and up to four kids can get in free with the purchase of one full-priced adult ticket at the door. Also the pre-match Kids Court in the volleyball practice gym on the ground floor of Reed Arena will be open from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. The free youth entertainment will include a bounce house, face painting, balloon animals and volleyball fun.

Texas A&M, which has the No. 1-ranked strength of schedule in the nation and has faced six Top-10 opponent over the last 11-matches, is coming off a 3-0 (25-7, 25-13, 25-21) loss at No. 8 Kentucky on Wednesday. The Aggies were held to season lows in kills (24), hitting percentage (.075), assists (22), digs (26) and aces (0), while the Wildcats hit .410, a season high by an A&M opponent this season. With the loss, A&M dropped into a tie for ninth place in the SEC standings. Kentucky stayed undefeated in conference matches and remain in a tie with No. 1 Florida for the top spot in the SEC standings.

Auburn is coming off a 3-0 (25-23, 25-23, 26-24) home loss to LSU on Friday, although all three sets went down to the wire with each set being decided by the minimum two points. Auburn, No. 21 in the NCAA RPI, dropped into sole possession of fifth place in the SEC standings.

Like the Aggies, all of Auburn's SEC losses have been against teams that are in the top four in the league standings. The Tigers face No. 1 Florida for the first time on Oct. 22 in Auburn.

A&M was picked to finish fourth this year according to a preseason poll of the league's head volleyball coaches, and Auburn was picked to finish fifth.

TEXAS A&M-AUBURN ALL-TIME SERIES

Texas A&M leads the all-time series, 9-1, and has won the last five meetings.
A&M holds a 6-1 record against the Tigers in SEC matches only.
A&M is 4-0 against Auburn in matches played in College Station.
Auburn's only victory in the all-time series was Oct. 20, 2013, when the veteran Tiger squad defeated a youth-laden Texas A&M squad, 3-1 (25-23, 22-25, 25-19, 25-17) at Auburn Arena.
In the most recent meeting, Texas A&M improved to 3-1 in matches play at Auburn, defeating the Tigers, 3-1 (19-25, 25-12, 25-21, 25-23) to conclude the regular season and complete the season series sweep. Aggie senior middle blocker Jazzmin Babers had 11 blocks to break the school record for career blocks while leading A&M to 20 team blocks on the day to break the team record for most blocks in an SEC match. The Aggies also tied the school SEC record with 32 block assists,
Outside hitter Kiara McGee led all players with 16 kills while hitting .313, and opposite Ashlie Reasor finished with eight kills while hitting .467. Middle blocker Kaitlyn Blake pitched in eight blocks in the Aggies' record-setting block performance, and senior outside hitter Emily Hardesty came off the bench to add a career-high six blocks. Victoria Arenas led the Aggies in digs with 13.
Auburn, which had four players in double-figure kills, including a team-high 15 by Brenna McIlroy, led A&M in kills (54-50), attacks (150-119), aces (7-3) and digs (53-50). The Tigers, however, finished with 33 attack errors, the most by an A&M opponent in 2016, as A&M outhit Auburn, .311 to .140, and held the Tigers to five team blocks.
A&M all-time records/results vs. Auburn:

Overall: 8-1   H: 4-0   A: 2-1   N: 2-0   SEC: 6-1
Sept. 1, 1996        N          W         16-14, 15-10, 16-14
Sept. 8, 2007        N          W         30-17, 30-22, 30-15
Sept. 16, 2012      H          W         25-22, 25-16, 25-27, 25-18
Nov. 9, 2012        A          W         25-21, 26-24, 22-25, 25-23
Oct. 20, 2013       A          L          23-25, 25-22, 19-25, 17-25
Nov. 17, 2013      H          W         25-19, 28-26, 25-17
Sept. 28, 2014      H          W         25-11, 25-19, 25-15
Sept. 30, 2015      A          W         25-14, 25-17, 25-21
Sept. 25, 2016      H          W         26-24, 25-18, 25-19
Nov. 26, 2016      A          W         19-25, 25-12, 25-21, 25-23

TEXAS A&M PLAYER NOTES

The match against Kentucky marked senior libero Amy Nettles' 100th match of her career.
Nettles has appeared in a school-record 324 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 obliterated 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 had 11 digs against Kentucky to give her 1,272 for her career and move her into seventh place in the A&M career dig records. She needs 94 more digs before she moves into a tie for sixth place.
Nettles, who has posted double-figure digs in 11 of 13 matches, leads the Aggies and is 10th in the SEC with 3.61 digs per set for the full season.
Sophomore outside hitter Hollann Hans, who was named SEC Player of the Week for the first time in her career on Oct. 2, leads the Aggies and is third in the SEC with 0.43 aces per set and fourth with 3.89 kills and 4.48 points per set for the full season.
In SEC matches only, Hans is fourth in the league with 3.75 kills and 4.20 points per set and sixth with 0.35 aces per set.
Hans, who has led or tied for the team lead in points in 10 matches and in kills in eight matches, had career highs of 32.5 points and 28 kills while hitting .328 against No. 5 Penn State. Her 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.
Freshman lefty Camille Conner, one of the top 14 setters in the nation according to FloVolleyball, was named the SEC Co-Setter of Week for the first time in her career on Oct. 2 after directing the Aggie offense to a season-high .379 hitting percentage at Georgia.
Conner, the MVP of the season-opening Texas A&M Invitational, remains 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.
Three freshmen—Conner, middle blocker Makena Patterson and opposite/outside hitter Samantha Sanders—have been mainstays in the Aggies' lineup. Conner has started every match and played in every set. Patterson appeared in 12 of 13 matches and started 10, and Sanders has played in 12 matches overall, drawing seven starts while seeing action at both the opposite and outside hitter positions.
Freshman 6-4 middle blocker Morgan Davis got her first career start against Mississippi State and responded with a match-high seven blocks to equal the most blocks by an A&M player this season and the most in a three-set match this season. She also started the next match, playing in the first set at Kentucky.

TEXAS A&M TEAM NOTES

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.
Six of A&M's losses have been to teams ranked No. 8 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. A&M also fell to No. 1 Florida, 3-1, in Gainesville and at No. 8 Kentucky.
The Aggies' other two losses were to Missouri and LSU, who are third and fourth, respectively, in the conference standings, behind undefeated Florida and Kentucky.
A&M is 4-5 in 3-set matches, 1-2 in 4-set matches and 0-1 in 5-set matches.
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 514-245 in her A&M career and 614-350 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 the couple was hired in 1993.
Laurie has served as head coach of the USA Volleyball Women's Junior National Team each of the last two summers. This past summer, she coached the team that included Kentucky's Gabby Curry and Leah Edmond and Florida's Paige Hammons and Rachael Kramer at the 2017 FIVB Volleyball Women's U20 World Championship in Boca del Rio and Cordoba, Mexico.

AUBURN QUICK HITS

Auburn is 11-5 overall and in fifth place in the SEC standings with a 4-3 record.
Auburn is No. 21 in this week's NCAA RPI. Florida is No. 2 and Kentucky is No. 3, and they are the only two teams in the SEC with a higher RPI than the Tigers.
The Tigers are 4-2 in away matches, including 3-1 in SEC away matches only.
Auburn has lost its last two matches, marking the first time the Tigers have dropped back-to-back matches this season.
Senior libero Jesse Earl, the eighth best libero in the nation according to FloVolleyball.com, leads the SEC with 5.38 digs per set for the full season and 6.33 digs per set in league matches only.
Earl has posted double-figure digs in every match this season. She has posted 20-plus digs seven times, including a 36-dig performance in a 3-2 win at Tennessee and a 30-dig effort in a 3-2 loss at No. 20 Florida State.
Sophomore middle blocker Shaina White entered the weekend ranked 11th in the nation with a .422 hitting efficiency.
Senior setter Alexa Filley has 10 double-doubles this season and is third in the SEC with 10.77 assists per set.
Filley runs a balanced attack that has four players averaging more than two kills per set apiece, including Shaina White, who averages a team-leading 2.78 kills per set while hitting .358 in SEC matches only.
The Tigers are outhitting their opponents, .215 to .186, for the full season and .198 to .197 in SEC matches only.
Rick Nold (Louisville, 1998) is 104-94 in his seventh season as head coach at Auburn and 276-192 in the 16th season of his head coaching career.

UPCOMING SCHEDULE

A&M plays its second match of a five-match homestand on Friday, Oct. 20, as the Aggies play host to Arkansas. First serve is at 6:30 p.m.
It is "Farmers Fight Night," and all members of the farmers association will be admitted for only $3.

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.