Texas A&M Hosts Arkansas to Mark Aggies’ 100th SEC Match

Friday, October 20

College Station

6:30 p.m.

Texas A&M

Arkansas

Photo by: Glen Johnson/Texas A&M Athletics

Oct 19, 2017 | Volleyball

Complete Match Notes (PDF)

By: Texas A&M Media Relations

Texas A&M (6-8, 3-4 SEC) vs. Arkansas (13-6, 3-4 SEC)
Friday, Oct. 20, 6:30 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 (6-8, 3-4 SEC) plays its 100th Southeastern Conference match on Friday when the Aggies play host to Arkansas (13-6, 3-4 SEC) at Reed Arena. The match begins at 6:30 p.m. and will be digitally streamed on SEC Network + via the WatchESPN app, with Casey Richardson and Chelsea Reber calling the action.

Promotions: Farmers Fight

$3 admission in advance and at the door for all FFA and 4H members
Free adidias polo for the first 75 A&M students in attendance (north entrance)

Texas A&M and Arkansas, led by NCAA kills and points leader Pilar Victoria, are tied with South Carolina for seventh place in the SEC standings with identical 3-4 records. The Aggies, who have the No. 1-ranked strength of schedule in the nation and have faced six Top-10 opponents over the last 12-matches, are coming off a 3-1 (16-25, 25-22, 27-25, 25-19) victory over Auburn on Sunday at Reed Arena. With the win over the Tigers, A&M catapulted from No. 38 to No. 27 in the latest NCAA RPI listing.

Arkansas, which fell to Auburn at the beginning of the month, also returned to the win column in its most recent outing with a 3-0 (25-19, 25-15, 25-14) victory over South Carolina on Friday in Fayetteville. The Razorbacks climbed two spots to No. 40 in this week's NCAA RPI.

A&M was picked to finish fourth in the SEC standings this year according to a preseason poll of the league's head volleyball coaches, and Arkansas was picked to finish eighth.

TEXAS A&M-ARKANSAS ALL-TIME SERIES

A&M leads the all-time series against Arkansas, 6-2.
All eight contests have been as SEC opponents, as the teams had never met until A&M joined the SEC in 2012. (Arkansas did not sponsor volleyball when both schools were members of the Southwest Conference.)
The series is tied at 2-2 in matches played in College Station with the Razorbacks going home victorious in their last two trips to Reed Arena.
A&M has won the last two meetings, with both occurring at Barnhill Arena in Fayetteville, where the Aggies are 4-0 all-time.
In the only matchup last year, the Aggies earned the first-ever sweep in the series, defeating Arkansas, 25-22, 25-11, 25-15, on Oct. 5 at Barnhill Arena. Then freshman Hollann Hans and senior middle blocker Jazzmin Babers tied for team-high honors in kills with 10 apiece with neither committing an error. Libero Amy Nettles led the Aggies with 12 digs, and the Aggies outhit the Razorbacks, .376 to .082. Arkansas, playing without the injured Pilar Victoria, was led by Danielle Harbin's 13 kills.
The last time the two teams met in College Station, Arkansas handed A&M its only home loss of the regular season and spoiled the Aggies' SEC season opener with a 3-1 (21-25, 25-13, 27-25, 25-22) victory on Sept. 27, 2015, at Reed Arena. The Razorbacks, who fought off two set points en route to winning the third set, outhit A&M .276 to .207 for the match. Arkansas' Pilar Victoria led all players with 20 kills, and Chanell Clark-Bibbs took match-high honors in blocks with nine. Then-sophomore Kiara McGee led A&M with 14 kills while hitting .314. It was one of only two losses in SEC play that season for the Aggies, who went on to finish 16-2 and capture the program's first conference championship.
A&M's all-time record/results vs. Arkansas

H: 2-2    A: 4-0    N: 0-0    SEC: 6-2
Oct. 12, 2012              A             W            21-25, 25-15, 25-16, 23-25, 15-3
Nov. 4, 2012               H             W            23-25, 25-19, 25-18, 25-17
Oct. 25, 2013              H             W            27-29, 25-20, 25-23, 25-22
Oct. 15, 2014              H             L              25-20, 12-25, 21-25, 25-27
Nov. 19, 2014             A             W            25-17, 25-19, 19-25, 25-20
Sept. 27, 2015            H             L              25-21, 13-25, 25-27, 22-25
Nov. 28, 2015             A             W            25-27, 25-16, 25-23, 25-23
Oct. 5, 2016                 A             W            25-22, 25-11, 25-15

TEXAS A&M IN THE SEC

Texas A&M will play its 100th SEC match on Oct. 20 against Arkansas at Reed Arena.
Texas A&M is 73-26 overall in SEC matches since joining the league in 2012.
The Aggies are 2-1 in home SEC matches and 1-3 in away conference matches this season.
A&M, which went 8-1 in SEC home matches and 7-2 in SEC away matches in 2016, is 38-11 all-time in SEC home matches and 35-15 all-time in SEC away matches.
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-match opponents are 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.
The Aggies won the SEC championship in 2015 to claim the first conference volleyball title in school history.

TEXAS A&M PLAYER NOTES

Senior libero Amy Nettles has appeared in a school-record 328 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 has 1,287 career digs, ranking seventh in the A&M career records. She holds the A&M record for career digs in SEC matches only with 814.
Nettles, who has posted double-figure digs in 12 of 14 matches, leads the Aggies and is 10th in the SEC with 3.62 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, is second in the SEC and 22nd in the nation with 0.46 aces per set.
Hans has served at least one ace in 10 of 14 matches and has posted two or more aces in seven matches, including two four-ace performances.
Hans is fourth in the SEC with 4.41 points per set and fifth with 3.77 kills per set for the full season.
In SEC matches only, Hans leads A&M and is second in the SEC in aces (0.42) per set and is sixth in the SEC in both kills (3.54) and points (4.10) per set.
Hans, who has led or tied for the team lead in points in 11 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, opposite/outside hitter Samantha Sanders and middle blocker Makena Patterson—have been mainstays in the Aggies' lineup. Conner has started every match and played in every set. Sanders has played in 13 matches overall, drawing eight starts while seeing action at both the opposite and outside hitter positions. Patterson has appeared in 12 of 14 matches and started 10.
The Aggies have had three freshmen in the starting lineup in seven of 14 matches.
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.
Nettles, Hans and Conner are the only three players who have appeared in all 48 sets this season.

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.
Four of A&M's opponents—Texas, Stanford, Florida and Penn State, have spent at least one week ranked in No. 1 in the AVCA Top 25 Poll in 2017.
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 Kentucky and Florida.
A&M is 4-5 in 3-set matches, 2-2 in 4-set matches and 0-1 in 5-set matches.
Texas A&M is 6-0 when winning the second set and 0-8 when losing the second set.
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 515-245 in her A&M career and 615-350 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.

ARKANSAS QUICK HITS

Arkansas is 13-6 overall and tied with A&M and South Carolina for seventh place in the SEC with a 3-4 conference record.
Most recently, Arkansas swept the Gamecocks as Pilar Victoria and Hailey Dirrigl led the Razorbacks with 13 kills apiece.
Victoria, who redshirted last season after suffering a knee injury, leads the nation in total kills (425), kills per set (5.74), total points (471) and points per set (6.36).
Sophomore setter Rachel Rippee is second in the SEC and 14th in the nation with 11.47 assists per set.
Arkansas is No. 40 in this week's NCAA RPI.
The Razorbacks are 0-3 in away SEC matches only and 3-3 in away matches for the full season.
Arkansas is 7-1 in home matches for the full season with the only loss being a 3-2 setback to then-No. 3 Florida in the opening weekend of conference play.
Arkansas has played eight 5-set matches, going 4-4 in those contests. The Razorbacks are 8-2 in 3-set matches and 1-0 in 4-set matches.
Arkansas is outhitting its opponents, .254 to .203, in all matches but only .237 to .224 in SEC matches only.

UPCOMING SCHEDULE

A&M continues its five-match homestand on Sunday as the Aggies play host to Ole Miss. Match time has been changed to 3:30 p.m.
It is Aggie Volleyball Legacy Day, and many former letterwinners will be in attendance, including Tori Mellinger (2009-12), who is an assistant volleyball coach for Ole Miss.
Aggies CAN food drive also will be taking place. Donate a minimum of four canned goods and receive free admission to the match.
Take a Kid to the Game: Up to four kids get in free with the purchase of one full-priced adult ticket.
Kids Court will be held from 2:30-3:30 p.m. in the volleyball practice gym.

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.