PREVIEW: Texas A&M Returns Home to Play Host to Mississippi State

Sunday, October 8

College Station

1:30 p.m.

Texas A&M

Mississippi State

Photo by: Glen Johnson/Texas A&M Athletics

Oct 07, 2017 | Volleyball

PREVIEW: Texas A&M Plays Host to Mississippi State

By: Texas A&M Media Relations

Texas A&M (4-7, 1-3 SEC) vs. Mississippi State (9-11, 0-5 SEC)
Sunday, Oct. 8, 1:30 p.m.
Reed Arena, College Station, Texas

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

Promotions:

Camper Reunion Day - Free admission to all volleyball summer campers. Additional tickets $3 each (at time of purchase).
Take a Kid to the Game - Up to four kids get in free with the purchase of one full-price adult ticket
Postgame Autograph Session - Aggie players will be signing autographs after the match

COLLEGE STATION, Texas— Texas A&M (4-7, 1-3 SEC) returns home to Reed Arena on Sunday to play host to Mississippi State (9-11, 0-5 SEC). First serve against the Bulldogs is at 1:30 p.m., and the match will be streamed on SEC Network + (WatchESPN) with Casey Richardson and Chelsea Reber calling the action.

Texas A&M, which has the No. 1-ranked strength of schedule in the nation, is coming off a 3-1 (26-24, 25-23, 25-27, 25-10) loss at No. 1 Florida on Wednesday. The Aggies, playing their fifth match against an opponent ranked in the top six in the nation, pushed the Gators in the first three sets, dropping the first two sets by the minimum two points and then winning the third set, 27-25, to take a set off Florida for the first time in Gainesville since winning a set in the first meeting in the series in 1988.

Mississippi State suffered its fifth consecutive loss and remained winless in SEC matches after falling at LSU, 3-0 (25-13, 25-21, 25-22) on Friday in Baton Rouge, La.

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. State was picked to finish last.

A&M-STATE ALL-TIME SERIES

A&M leads the all-time series against Mississippi State, 7-0, and has not dropped a single set in the entire series.
The teams will have a rematch in Starkville, Mississippi, on Wednesday, Nov. 22 at the Newell-Grissom Building.
The Aggies are 4-0 against the Bulldogs in matches played at Reed Arena.
All seven meetings have been as SEC foes, as the teams never met until A&M joined the league in 2012.
The most recent meeting was Nov. 11, 2016, in College Station, where Texas A&M middle blocker Kaitlyn Blake had a team-high 13 kills while hitting a career-high .632 as the Aggies outhit the Bulldogs, .283 to .208, and pulled away for a 27-25, 29-27, 25-20 victory.
State, which built a 21-13 lead in the opening set, had a combined four set points in the first two sets before A&M made its comeback. There were 17 ties and eight lead changes in the closely contested second set before A&M pulled out the 29-27 win.
A&M all-time records/results vs. Mississippi State:

Overall: 7-0   H: 4-0   A: 3-0   N: 0-0   SEC: 6-0
Oct. 7, 2012           H       W        25-8, 25-14, 25-10
Oct. 11, 2013        H       W        25-19, 25-21, 25-16
Nov. 8, 2013         A       W        25-17, 25-21, 25-15
Nov. 26, 2014       A       W        25-14, 25-18, 25-10
Oct. 18, 2015        H       W        25-19, 25-18, 25-15
Nov. 15, 2015       A       W        25-21, 25-19, 25-21
Nov. 11, 2016       H       W        27-25, 29-27, 25-20

TEXAS A&M NOTES

Sophomore outside hitter Hollann Hans was named SEC Player of the Week for the first time in her career on Monday after leading the Aggies to a 3-0 victory at Georgia with 15 points and 12 kills while hitting a season-high .435 (minimum 10 kills) on Sept. 29.
Hans leads the Aggies and is third in the SEC with 4.05 kills and 0.45 aces per set and fourth with 4.66 points per set for the full season.
In SEC matches only, Hans is second in the league with 4.14 kills per set and is third with 4.57 points per set.
Hans, who has led or tied for the team lead in points in eight matches and in kills in seven 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 Monday 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, 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.
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 has started 10 of 11 matches and appeared in 32 of 38 sets, and Sanders has played in 31 sets and 10 matches overall, drawing five starts while seeing action at both the opposite and outside hitter positions.
Senior libero Amy Nettles leads the Aggies and is ninth in the SEC with 3.71 digs per set for the full season and is sixth in the league with 4.21 digs per set in SEC matches only.
Nettles had a team-high 14 digs at Florida to give her 1,254 digs for her career and move her into ninth place in the A&M career record books.
Nettles needs seven more digs to move into a tie for eighth place with Kristie Smedsrud (1994-97) in the A&M career records and eight total digs to move into a tie for seventh place with Suzy Wente, who had 1,262 digs from 1992-95
Nettles has appeared in a school-record 318 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 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.
Five of A&M's 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. A&M also fell to No. 1 Florida, 3-1, in Gainesville.
A&M is 3-4 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 513-244 in her A&M career and 613-350 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 Corbelli was hired in 1993.

MISSISSIPPI STATE QUICK HITS

Mississippi State is 9-11 overall and looking for its first SEC victory after falling to 0-5 in league play with a 3-0 loss at LSU on Friday.
The match against the Aggies is the second of a three-match road stretch for State. The Bulldogs are at Missouri on Wednesday, Oct. 13.
The Bulldogs are being outhit, .225 to .178, for the full season.
In SEC matches only, State is being outhit, .280 to .088.
Senior right side hitter Jelena Vujcin leads State and is ranked eighth in the SEC with 3.44 kills and 4.06 points per set for the full season. She also leads the squad with 20 aces for a team-best 0.28 aces per set.
Senior libero Payton Harris became the program's all-time career dig leader against Kentucky on Oct. 1 and currently has 1,727 for her career.
Harris, who is averaging 2.92 digs per set for the full season, is third in the SEC with 4.61 digs per set in conference matches only.
The Bulldogs' most recent victory was a 3-0 win against Southeastern Louisiana on Sept. 16 to close out the preconference schedule.
State is 5-7 in 3-set matches, 1-3 in 4-set matches and 3-1 in 5-set matches, including a season-opening 3-2 win at SMU, which eliminated A&M in the first round of the 2016 NCAA tournament.
Coach David McFatrich is 40-44 in his third season as head coach of the Bulldogs. He is 136-80 in the seventh year of his head coaching career.

UPCOMING SCHEDULE

A&M returns to the road to take on the Kentucky Wildcats on Wednesday in Lexington. First serve is at 7 p.m. CT (8 p.m. ET) at Memorial Coliseum, and the match will be televised on SEC Network with Cara Capuano and Lizzy Stemke calling the action.
Following the trip to Kentucky, the Aggies return home to begin a five-match homestand beginning Sunday, Oct. 15 against Auburn.
The Oct. 15 match against Auburn will be the Aggies' annual Dig Pink match. Fans can get in for only $3 by wearing pink to the match in support of breast cancer awareness.

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.