Missouri Holds Off Volleyball, 3-0

Friday, November 3

Columbia, Mo.

6:30 p.m.

Texas A&M

7-12, 4-8

Missouri

15-9, 8-3

Texas A&M

Missouri

Photo by: Sam Craft/Texas A&M Athletics

Nov 03, 2017 | Volleyball

Box Score Box Score (MU 3, A&M 0)

By: Texas A&M Media Relations

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Texas A&M dropped the first two sets by the minimum two points against Missouri, and the Tigers pulled away late in the third set to defeat the Aggies, 25-23, 25-23, 25-19, tonight at the Hearnes Center.

It was the third consecutive victory for Missouri, which improves to 15-9 overall and remains in third place in the Southeastern Conference at 8-3. The Aggies fall to 7-12, including 4-8 in SEC matches.

Missouri never trailed in the opening set, although the Tigers could never build more than a four-point lead. The Tigers, who outhit A&M .290 to .207 in the set, scored four unanswered points to build their largest lead, 15-11, but A&M countered with its own four-point run, with Hollann Hans getting the kill that knotted the score at 15-15. Missouri responded with another 4-0 streak to take the lead for good. The Aggies got within a point four times, the last coming at 24-23 following a kill by Kiara McGee before Kira Larson closed out the set for Missouri with a kill.

There were 14 ties and five lead changes in the second set that also went down to the wire. The Tigers held a 12-11 lead when McGee and Kaitlyn Blake had back-to-back kills, and Hans followed with a solo block to put the Aggies up, 14-12. The Tigers tied the score three times—including at 17-17 courtesy of one of A&M's nine service errors in the match—and retook the lead, 18-17, on a kill by Dariana Hollingsworth. Consecutive A&M attacking errors gave the Tigers a 20-17 cushion, but a kill by Hans, a Missouri attack error and a kill by Aggie middle blocker Maddie Douglas tied the score once again. The teams, who both hit .143 in the frame, traded points and the set was tied at 23-all before Missouri's Leketor Member-Meneh got a kill to put the Tigers at set point. Missouri then registered a set-ending block to take a 2-0 lead in the match.

The third set was tied at 15-15 before the Tigers went on a 6-0 run to build the largest lead of the match. A block by Douglas and Hans ended the streak, but the Aggies, who were outhit, .179 to .000 in the final set, could only manage to exchange point for point with the Tigers before Missouri got a kill to close out the match.

McGee led the Aggies with 12 kills and 15 points, and setter Camille Conner finished with 29 assists. Libero Amy Nettles had a team-high 16 digs to give her 1,373 for her career, moving her from seventh place into a tie for fifth place in the A&M all-time career records. Douglas led all players with a career-high seven blocks, tying the most blocks by an A&M player this season. McGee added a personal season-best four blocks as the Aggies led in blocks, 12-10, against the Tigers, who entered the weekend ranked eighth in the nation in blocks per set.

Missouri, which outhit A&M, .202 to .115 for the match, was led by Member-Meneh, who had 12 kills while hitting .500.

A&M continues its three-match road swing at Arkansas on Sunday, Nov. 5. First serve is at 1 p.m. at Barnhill Arena in Fayetteville, and the match will be broadcast on SEC Network +, available via the WatchESPN app. Arkansas defeated A&M, 3-0, in College Station on Oct. 20, but the Aggies are 4-0 all-time in matches played in Fayetteville.

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.

TEXAS A&M POSTMATCH QUOTES:

HEAD COACH LAURIE CORBELLI

On staying close but unable to finish...
"We did some really great things. I see the team improving. I love the blocking we did. The passing was one of our best passing matches. We were able to stay close to a darn good veteran team at their home, but those critical points when you have to score, important points at the end of sets, we couldn't find a way to get those. So we will just get back to the gym tomorrow and get ready to play Arkansas and really focus on finishing, which we have been doing already but we will do more of it. The team has lots of hope, and we will keep fighting and improving and produce the best finish we possibly can."