Texas A&M Hosts Ole Miss to Conclude First Half of SEC Play

Sunday, October 22

College Station

3:30 p.m.

Texas A&M

Ole Miss

Photo by: Glen Johnson/Texas A&M Athletics

Oct 21, 2017 | Volleyball

Complete Match Notes (PDF)

By: Texas A&M Media Relations

Texas A&M (6-9, 3-5 SEC) vs. Ole Miss (13-9, 4-5 SEC)
Sunday, Oct. 22, 3:30 p.m.
Reed Arena, College Station, Texas

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

Promotions:

Aggies CAN: free admission to fans who donate a minimum of four canned food items at the door
Texas A&M Volleyball Legacy Day: a reunion of former Aggie volleyball letterwinners
Take a Kid to the Game: up to four kids are admitted free with the purchase of one full-priced adult ticket. In addition, Kids Court will be open in the volleyball practice gym from 2:30-3:30 p.m. and will include a bounce house, face painting, balloon animals and more.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas—Texas A&M (6-9, 3-5 SEC) closes out the first half of Southeastern Conference play on Sunday as the Aggies play host to Ole Miss (13-9, 4-5 SEC) at Reed Arena. The match begins at 3:30 p.m. and will be digitally streamed on SEC Network + via the WatchESPN app, with Casey Richardson and Chelsea Reber calling the action.

Both teams will be aiming to get back into the win column after they each suffered a loss in their most recent outing. Texas A&M, which has never lost to Ole Miss in all 13 meetings, fell to Arkansas, 3-0 (25-20, 25-17, 26-24), Friday at Reed, and the Rebels lost a hard-fought 3-2 (25-22, 25-27, 25-23, 28-30, 19-17) marathon match at LSU on Wednesday.

It will be Texas A&M Volleyball's Legacy Day, and numerous former Aggie letterwinners will be in attendance, including Rebels' assistant coach Tori Mellinger, a four-year Aggie letterwinner in 2009-12 and Texas A&M Class of '13.

Ole Miss is in a three-way tie with Auburn and Georgia for sixth place in the SEC standings, while A&M is tied with Tennessee, the Aggies' next opponent, for 10th place.

TEXAS A&M-OLE MISS ALL-TIME SERIES

A&M has never lost to Ole Miss and leads the all-time series, 13-0, including 8-0 in SEC matches only.
A&M is 4-0 against the Rebels in matches played in College Station, including 3-0 since joining the SEC in 2012.
Texas A&M's 25-21, 25-23, 25-16 victory against the Rebels on Sept. 14, 2012, marked the Aggies' first-ever SEC volleyball match as well as Texas A&M's first SEC victory in any sport. Current Rebels assistant coach Tori Mellinger was a senior during the Aggies' first season in the SEC and had 13 kills in the opening win against Ole Miss.
The teams met once last year, with the Aggies prevailing, 25-12, 21-25, 25-20, 20-18, at The Pavilion in Oxford.
Kiara McGee had a team-high 15 kills while hitting .407, and Kaitlyn Blake tied her career high with 14 kills while hitting at a .444 clip to lead the Aggies to a 56-47 lead in kills and a .269 to .122 team hitting percentage advantage. Blake also had a big day defensively, contributing a match-high eight blocks as she finished with a team-high 19.5 points. Amy Nettles had a match high 18 digs to head up the back row defense.
Kate Gibson led the Rebels with a match-high 22 kills, and Lexi Thompson added 10 in the loss.
The teams first met in 1983 at the Saluki Volleyball Invitational in Carbondale, Illinois.
A&M's all-time records/results vs. Ole Miss:
Overall: 13-0 H: 4-0 A: 5-0 N: 4-0 SEC: 8-0

Sept. 17, 1983          N               W            15-7, 12-15, 15-7, 15-1
Sept. 28, 1984          N               W            15-7, 15-3, 15-1
Aug. 30, 1991           H               W            15-6, 5-15, 15-12, 15-12
Oct. 30, 1992            N               W            7-15, 12-15, 15-7, 15-4, 15-12
Sept. 11, 1993          N               W            15-12, 15-8, 12-15, 15-0
Sept. 14, 2012          H               W            25-21, 25-23, 25-16
Nov. 23, 2012           A               W            25-9, 24-26, 27-25, 20-25, 15-10
Nov. 10, 2013           A               W            25-10, 25-20, 22-25, 25-21
Nov. 9, 2014             H               W            19-25, 25-16, 25-23, 25-18
Nov. 28, 2014           A               W            25-19, 18-25, 24-26, 25-16, 15-13
Oct. 4, 2015               H               W            25-13, 25-20, 25-13
Nov. 13, 2015           A               W            26-24, 17-25, 25-19, 23-25, 15-12
Oct. 9, 2016               A               W            25-12, 21-25, 25-20, 25-18

TEXAS A&M PLAYER NOTES

Senior libero Amy Nettles has appeared in a school-record 331 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 1,299 career digs, ranking seventh in the A&M career records. She holds the A&M record for career digs in SEC matches only with 826.
Nettles, who has posted double-figure digs in 13 of 15 matches, leads the Aggies and is ninth in the SEC with 3.65 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 second in the SEC with 0.41 aces per set in SEC matches only. She also leads A&M and is third in the conference with 0.45 aces per set for the full season.
Hans has served at least one ace in 11 of 15 matches and has posted two or more aces in seven matches, including two four-ace performances.
Hans is fourth in the SEC with 4.27 points per set and fifth with 3.63 kills per set for the full season.
In SEC matches only, Hans leads A&M and is seventh in the league in points (3.89) and tied for eight in kills (3.30) 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 nine starts while seeing action at both the opposite and outside hitter positions. Patterson has appeared in 12 of 15 matches and started 10.
The Aggies have had three freshmen in the starting lineup in seven of 15 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.
Nettles, Hans and Conner are the only three players who have appeared in all 51 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.
Six of A&M's eight matches in the month of October are home matches. A&M is 4-5 in home matches this season, including 2-1 in October home matches.
A&M is 4-6 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 0-9 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 515-246 in her A&M career and 615-352 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.

OLE MISS QUICK HITS

Ole Miss is coming off a 25-22, 25-27, 25-23, 28-30, 19-17 loss at LSU on Wednesday. It is the Rebels' highest scoring match (241 points) since 25-point rally scoring began in 2008.
The Rebels have lost four of their last five matches to drop to 13-9 overall and 4-5 in the SEC.
Ole Miss, which went 6-12 and finished in a three-way tie for ninth place in the SEC last year, was picked to finish 12th in this year's preseason coaches poll.
Ole Miss leads the SEC with 16.54 digs per set and is second with a .179 opponent hitting efficiency for the full season.
Libero Caroline Adams is seventh in the SEC with 4.00 digs per set in all matches.
Kate Gibson and Lexi Thompson lead the SEC in double-doubles with 15 and 13, respectively, for the full season. Gibson is tied for the league lead with six double-doubles in conference matches only.
Head coach Steven McRoberts is 74-44 in his fourth season at the helm of the Rebels and 548-207 in the 21st season of his head coaching career.
Former Aggie libero/outside hitter Tori Mellinger (2009-12) is in her first season as assistant coach/recruiting coordinator at Ole Miss. She ranks second in the A&M records for career digs with 1,480.

UPCOMING SCHEDULE
A&M wraps up its five-match homestand with a pair of matches next weekend. The Aggies play host to Tennessee on Friday, Oct. 27 at 6:30 p.m. and then close out the homestand against No. 6 Kentucky on Sunday, Oct. 29 at 1:30 p.m. at Reed Arena.

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.