PREVIEW: Aggies Host Season-Opening Texas A&M Invitational

Friday, August 25

College Station

6:30 p.m.

Texas A&M

Sam Houston State

Aug 24, 2017 | Volleyball

Complete Match Notes (PDF)

By: Texas A&M Media Relations

Tournament Schedule:
Friday, August 25
11 a.m.          SHSU vs. Texas State
4 p.m.            Texas State vs. VCU
6:30 p.m.      Texas A&M vs. SHSU

Saturday, August 26
10 a.m.         VCU vs. SHSU
1 p.m.           Texas A&M vs. Texas State
6:30 p.m.     Texas A&M vs. VCU

Ticket Information:

$10 reserve seating; $7 adult general admission; $4 for youth, high school age and under.
A&M students without a sports pass can purchase tickets for $4 each.
Tickets may be purchased at Reed Arena beginning one hour before match time or in advance at 12thManFoundation.com or by calling the Athletic Ticket Office at 979-845-2311 or toll free at 1-888-99-AGGIE

Follow the Action:

Broadcast (A&M matches only): SEC Network + (via WatchESPN)
Live Stats: tamu.statbroadcast.com
Twitter updates: @AggieVolleyball
Tournament Central: http://www.12thman.com/sports/2017/7/19/2017-texas-am-invitational.aspx

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Texas A&M begins its 2017 campaign this weekend as the Aggies play host to Sam Houston State, Texas State and Virginia Commonwealth in the Texas A&M Invitational, Friday and Saturday at Reed Arena. The Aggies open against Sam Houston State on Friday at 6:30 p.m. and return to the court for a pair of matches on Saturday, facing Texas State at 1 p.m. and VCU at 6:30 p.m.

TEXAS A&M NOTES:

Texas A&M returns 11 letterwinners—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.
A&M head coach Laurie Corbelli and her husband, associate head coach John Corbelli, celebrate their 25th season at the helm of the Aggies. The longest tenured head coach at Texas A&M, Laurie is 509-237 in her A&M career and 609-343 entering the 32nd year of her head coaching career.
Starters returning are 2016 PrepVolleyball.com All-American honorable mention selections Kiara McGee, a senior outside hitter who led the Aggies with 3.15 kills per set last year, and junior middle blocker and all-SEC member Kaitlyn Blake, who led the team and the SEC and ranked seventh in the nation with 1.52 blocks per set. Sophomore outside hitter Hollann Hans, the 2016 AVCA South Region Freshman of the Year, and senior opposite hitter Ashlie Reasor also are returning starters, and senior libero and two-time season dig leader Amy Nettles returns to anchor the back row defense.
Senior defensive specialist Gabby Litwin and Nettles are the team captains.
Others returning are junior defensive specialist Amy Houser, sophomores Maddie Douglas (MB), Amanda Heller (DS), Kiana Peroff (OH) and setter Haley Slocum, as well as redshirt freshman middle blocker/opposite hitter Elli Shadricks.
Four players make up the freshman class that was ranked the 18th best recruiting class in the nation by PrepVolleyball.com: High school All-American middle blockers Morgan Davis (6-4), the Orlando Sentinel Girls Athlete of the Year, and Makena Patterson (6-3), the AZCentral.com Big Schools Girls Volleyball Athlete of the Year; outside hitter Samantha Sanders (6-2), who was named to the 2017 USA Volleyball Girls Junior National Championship 18s Open Division all-tournament team after leading Texas Advantage Volleyball to a silver medal; and lefty setter Camille Conner (6-1), a Under Armour Girls High School All-America Honorable Mention selection, who is the projected predecessor for three-time AVCA All-American setter Stephanie Aiple, who had one year of eligibility remaining when she retired following the 2016 season.
In addition to Aiple, the Aggies must replace All-American middle blocker Jazzmin Babers, who started every match of her four-year career and broke the A&M all-time career record for total blocks, as well as outside hitter Emily Hardesty, defensive specialists Victoria Arenas and Katelyn Labhart, and setter Kaysie Shebeneck.
Laurie Corbelli, the 2015 SEC and AVCA South Region coach of the year, is 509-237 entering her 25th season as head coach of the Aggies and 609-343 in the 32nd year of her head coaching career. Under her 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.

SEASON OPENER NOTES

Texas A&M is 30-11 in season openers since 1976, including 18-6 under Corbelli.
The Aggies have won the season opener in six of the last seven years, with the one loss being at No. 2 Stanford to open the 2015 season.
Last year, A&M swept Nevada, 25-14, 25-23, 30-28, at the North Texas Challenge in Denton, Texas.
Since 1978, A&M is 13-2 when playing the season opener at home, including 10-0 under Corbelli.
The last time A&M lost a season opener at home was 1989. Under then-head coach Al Givens, the Aggies fell to LSU, 15-7, 13-15, 15-13, 16-14 at G. Rollie White Coliseum.

RULE CHANGE

Breaks between all sets will be 3 minutes. There is no longer a 10-minute break between sets 2 and 3.

NETTLES ON PACE TO BREAK RECORD

Senior co-captain and libero Amy Nettles is on pace to break the school record for consecutive sets played this weekend, needing to play in the first five sets to break the record of 284 set by fellow San Antonian Suzy Wente in 1994. (Note: record began being kept beginning with the 1985 season.)
Nettles, who has played in every set since coming off the bench for the final three sets against Arkansas on Oct. 15, 2014, has led the Aggies in digs per set each of the last three season and in total digs each of the last two years.
She is averaging 3.56 digs per set for her career, and she ranks 15th in the A&M career records with 1,113 total digs.
Nettles needs only eight digs to move into 14th place in the A&M career records for total digs, surpassing Krista Hierholzer, who had 1,120 digs from 1987-90.

AGGIES PICKED FOURTH IN SEC

Texas A&M is picked to finish fourth in the SEC according to a preseason poll of the league's coaches.
Last year, A&M went 15-3 in conference play, tying Kentucky for third place.
Florida, which tied Missouri for first place last season with a 16-2 record, is the preseason favorite to win the title again this year, having received seven first-place votes and a league-best 139 points.
Defending co-champion Missouri placed third with 121 points, and the Aggies followed with 110 points. Auburn finished sixth with 96 points, and Tennessee received 79 points to place sixth. South Carolina came in seventh with 73 points, followed by Arkansas (70) in eighth, and LSU (56) in ninth. Alabama (48) took 10th place, followed by Georgia (42), Ole Miss (28) and Mississippi State (14) to round out the poll.

BLAKE NAMED PRESEASON ALL-SEC

Junior middle blocker Kaitlyn Blake was voted to the 10-member Volleyball Preseason All-SEC Team.
As a sophomore, Blake earned Honorable Mention All-America laurels from both the American Volleyball Coaches Association and PrepVolleyball.com and also was named to the AVCA All-South Region Team and the All-SEC Team after leading the conference and ranking seventh in the nation with 1.52 blocks per set. A two-time SEC Player of the Week, Blake also led the SEC, was 15th in the nation and ranked fourth in the A&M season records with 164 total blocks, and her 145 block assists tied for third in the A&M all-time season records, only nine short of the school's all-time record.
Blake, who started every match and played in all 108 sets as a sophomore, also was second on the team and seventh in the SEC with a .361 hitting percentage in all matches.

ANOTHER CHALLENGING SCHEDULE

Texas A&M will face four teams ranked in the top seven in the AVCA Preseason Top 25 Poll during the Aggies' eight-match preconference schedule, including No. 1 Texas, No. 2 Stanford and No. 6 Penn State all at Reed Arena. In addition, A&M will face No. 7 Wisconsin at the HotelRed Invitational in Madison, Wisconsin.
A&M will play No. 12 Florida, No. 14 Kentucky and No. 19 Missouri two times each during the SEC season.
Last year, seven of A&M's nine losses were against teams that were ranked in the AVCA Top 25 when the match was played.

A&M SERIES HISTORY VS. SHSU

Texas A&M is 30-7-1 all-time against Sam Houston State, including 15-2 in matches played in College Station.
The Aggies have won the last five meetings, including a 25-15, 25-16, 25-11 victory in the most recent meeting on Sept. 1, 2010, at Reed Arena.
The Bearkats' most recent victory against the Aggies was Sept. 7, 1994, in Huntsville.
A&M SERIES HISTORY Vs. Texas STATE
Texas A&M owns a 24-3 record in the all-time series against Texas State, including a 12-1 mark in matches played in College Station.
The Aggies have won the last 15 meetings, including a 25-16, 25-15, 25-16 home victory over the Bobcats in the Aggies' 2012 season opener on August 24, 2012.
A&M's most recent victory against Texas State marked the 500th victory of Laurie Corbelli's head coaching career as well as her 400th win as the Aggies' head coach.
Corbelli sports a 15-0 career record in matches against the Bobcats.
Texas State's most recent victory in the series was on Sept. 28, 1991, in San Marcos. The Aggies, under former head coach Al Givens, fell, 13-15, 15-4, 17-15, 4-15, 15-11.

TEXAS A&M SERIES HISTORY VS. VCU

Texas A&M won the only meeting against VCU, defeating the Rams, 25-20, 19-25, 22-25, 25-22, 15-11, on Sept. 6, 2014, at the Baymont Inn & Suites Invitational in Athens, Ohio.

SCOUTING SHSU

SHSU returns four starters and eight letterwinners overall from last year's team that went 18-14 and reached the finals of the Southland Conference Tournament.
Senior outside hitters Brooke White and Jordyn Vaughn, who both recorded more than 400 kills apiece to lead the Bearkats, and junior middle blocker Taylor Cunningham were named to the preseason All-SLC Team.
Brenda Gray is 663-447 entering her 33rd season as head coach at her alma mater. She ranks 13th for victories among active NCAA Division I coaches.

SCOUTING TEXAS STATE

Texas State returns nine players from last year's team that went 21-12 overall, including 13-3 in the Sun Belt Conference.
The Bobcats finished second in the SBC West Division last year and advanced to the semifinals of the 2016 SBC Championship.
Senior Erin Hoppe was voted the 2017 SBC Preseason Setter of the Year.
Karen Chisum (Texas State, '72) is 843-533-3 entering her 38th season as head coach of the Bobcats.

SCOUTING VCU

VCU went 19-14 last season, including 8-6 in the Atlantic 10 Conference to tie for fourth place.
The Rams reached the semifinals of the 2016 Atlantic 10 Championship and nearly upset top-seeded Dayton before falling in five sets.
Head coach Jody Rogers is entering her fifth season at the helm of the Rams.

UPCOMING SCHEDULE

Texas A&M, facing one of the toughest preconference schedules in the nation, returns to Reed Arena next weekend to play host to defending national champion and No. 2-ranked Stanford and sixth-ranked Penn State in the Aggie Classic.
Penn State and Stanford, the only two volleyball programs in the nation that have played in every NCAA tournament since its inception in 1981 and who combine for 14 national titles, open the tournament Friday at 6:30 p.m. Texas A&M takes on the Nittany Lions on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. and then concludes the tournament Sunday against Stanford at 11 a.m.

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.