PREVIEW: Aggies Host No. 1 Stanford, No. 5 Penn State

Saturday, September 2

College Station

4:30 p.m.

Texas A&M

Penn State

Photo by: Sam Craft/Texas A&M Athletics

Aug 31, 2017 | Volleyball

VB: Complete Match Notes - Aggie Classic

By: Texas A&M Media Relations

Complete Match Notes (PDF)

Tournament Schedule:
Friday, Sept. 1
6:30 p.m.      No. 1 Stanford vs. No. 5 Penn State (FREE admission)

Saturday, Sept. 2
4:30 p.m.     Texas A&M vs. No. 5 Penn State

Sunday, Sept. 3
11 a.m.         Texas A&M vs. No. 1 Stanford

Follow the Action:

Broadcast (A&M matches only): SEC Network + (via WatchESPN)
Live Stats: tamu.statbroadcast.com
Twitter updates: @AggieVolleyball

Promotions:
Saturday vs. Penn State
Howdy World!

Free admission with Sports Pass
Receive free admission by presenting a ticket from the Aggie soccer team's Friday contest against Oklahoma State;
$3 admission in advance (or at the gate) for Texas A&M International Students
All International students can visit the marketing kiosk for chances to win A&M gear
Chances to win Whataburger, Rudy's, t-shirts, & more

Sunday vs. Stanford
Jammies & Volleyball!

Free admission with Sports Pass
Wear your jammies to the match and visit the Kids Court pre-match to enjoy a "jammin' jammies" party with interactive fun, prizes and the chance to be part of the Dairy Queen Anthem Buddies
Purchase 1 full-price adult ticket and bring up to 4 kids for FREE (available only as a walk up sale on the day of the event. No advance purchases.)
Purchase a volleyball ticket to the Stanford match and bring it to the Sept. 3 soccer game vs. DePaul to received free admission.
Chances to win Whataburger, Rudy's, t-shirts, & more

Ticket Information:

$9 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

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Volleyball fans across the nation will be focused on College Station this weekend as Texas A&M plays host to defending national champion and No. 1-ranked Stanford and No. 5 Penn State in the Aggie Classic at Reed Arena, Friday through Sunday. Stanford and Penn State, who have combined for 14 national volleyball titles and are the only two programs that have played in every NCAA Division I Volleyball Championship tournament since its inception in 1981, face off against each other Friday at 6:30 p.m., and admission is free. On Saturday, the Aggies take on the Nittany Lions at 4:30 p.m., and the tournament concludes with Texas A&M facing Stanford on Sunday at 11 a.m.

Texas A&M matches will be broadcast on SEC Network +, available via the WatchESPN app, with Casey Richardson and Chelsea Reber calling the action. Live stats of all matches will be available at tamu.statbroadcast.com.

All three teams enter the tournament undefeated and have not dropped a single set. The Aggies went 2-0 at the Texas A&M Invitational, Stanford went 3-0 to win the LBSU Invitational and Penn State posted a 3-0 record at the West Virginia Tournament.

TEXAS A&M NOTES:

The Aggies are 2-0 after sweeping both Sam Houston State and Virginia Commonwealth at the Texas A&M Invitational last weekend at Reed Arena. A&M also was scheduled to play Texas State, but the Bobcats pulled out of the tournament after their Friday matches due to flooding concerns associated with Hurricane Harvey.
Freshman setter Camille Conner was named the MVP of the tournament after averaging 11.00 assists, 2.00 digs and 2.17 kills per set while hitting a tournament-leading .500 (minimum three attempts per set). Overall, she directed the A&M offense to a .292 hitting efficiency.
Senior outside hitter Kiara McGee was named Best Attacker at the tournament, and freshman Makena Patterson earned Best Blocker accolades.
McGee took match-high honors in kills in each match and led the entire tournament field with 4.17 kills and 4.75 points per set while hitting .435.
Patterson averaged a team-high 1.33 blocks per set. She also averaged 2.17 kills per set while hitting at a .323 clip.
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 511-237 in her A&M career and 611-343 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.

A&M SERIES HISTORY VS. PENN STATE

Penn State holds a 3-0 lead in the all-time series against Texas A&M since the teams first met in 1983.
All three matches were decided in three sets.
This is PSU's first trip to College Station, as all three previous meetings were played at neutral sites.
The teams last met Sept. 21, 1990, at the Tiger Classic, hosted by LSU in Baton Rouge, La. The 11th-ranked Nittany Lions won the match, 15-4, 15-8, 15-8.

A&M SERIES HISTORY VS. STANFORD

Stanford leads the series against Texas A&M, 4-1, and has won the last four meetings.
The teams first met in 1995 with A&M upsetting then-No. 1 and defending national champion Stanford, 3-2 (15-11, 15-12, 15-17, 4-15, 15-12) at the Mizuno USA Cup in Chicago. Andrea Williams, currently the commissioner of the Big Sky Conference, led the Aggies with a career-high 19 kills and 18 digs.
The victory remains A&M volleyball's only win over a top-ranked team in program history.
This is the second time the Cardinal have come to College Station, having also made the trek in 2001. Stanford, led by Logan Tom's 21 kills, defeated A&M, 3-1 (30-18, 30-24, 24-30, 30-23) on Sept. 8, 2001, at G. Rollie White Coliseum.

SCOUTING PENN STATE

Penn State cracked the top 5 in the AVCA Top 25 Poll this week, climbing one spot to No. 5 after sweeping UT Martin, Delaware and host West Virginia during the opening weekend in Morgantown, W. Va.
Senior Haleigh Washington, who is hitting a nation-leading .667, was named Most Valuable Player of the tournament, and classmate Simone Lee earned a spot on the all-tournament team.
The Nittany Lions lead the nation in both hitting percentage (.469) and opponent hitting percentage (.004).
All six starters as well as a total of 17 letterwinners return from the 2016 team that went 24-10 and advanced to the regional semifinals before falling to No. 1-seed and conference-foe Nebraska in five sets.
Legendary coach Russ Rose is in his 39th season at the helm of the Penn State volleyball program.

SCOUTING STANFORD

The Cardinal is 3-0 after sweeping Long Beach State, Iowa and Wright State to win the LBSU Invitational last weekend.
Stanford, which led the nation with 3.36 blocks per set last season, averaged 3.67 blocks per set over the opening weekend, with Audriana Fitzmorris leading the team with 1.89 blocks per set.
Kathryn Plummer led the team with 4.11 kills and 5.33 points per set.
The Cardinal return five starters from last season's NCAA championship squad that went 27-7.
Fifth-year opposite Merete Lutz, a three-time All-American who attended Lamar High School in Houston, is the lone senior on the roster, while outside hitter Kathryn Plummer, the AVCA National Freshman of the Year, middle blocker Audriana Fitzmorris, libero Morgan Hentz and setter Jenna Gray begin their sophomore seasons.
The Cardinal is picked to finish second in the Pac-12, behind Washington.
Kevin Hambly is in his first season as head coach at Stanford, having been named the successor to John Dunning, who retired after 32 years in the business. Hambly spent eight seasons as the head coach at Illinois and led the Illini to six NCAA regional appearances and the 2011 national title match, while compiling a 178-86 overall record while in Champaign.

LOOKING FOR AN UPSET

Texas A&M is 1-14 all-time against No. 1-ranked teams, with the one victory being a 3-2 win over Stanford in 1995.
In addition to a 1-1 record against Stanford when the Cardinal were ranked No. 1, A&M is 0-8 against Nebraska, 0-3 against USC, and 0-1 against both UCLA and Texas when those teams were ranked No. 1
A 3-2 win against No. 3 Nebraska on Nov. 20, 1998, in College Station and a 3-1 victory at No. 3 Hawaii on Dec. 9, 1999, in the NCAA sweet 16, are A&M's highest ranked victories in program history.
The last time A&M hosted a No. 1-ranked team was Oct. 7, 2006, when the Aggies took on No. 1 Nebraska at G. Rollie White Coliseum. The Cornhuskers defeated the Aggies, 30-25, 30-24, 30-20, and went on to win the national championship.

TEXAS A&M IN THE NATIONAL/SEC STATS

Hollann Hans, a sophomore outside hitter, recorded six aces in two matches last weekend, including a career-high tying four aces in the sweep against VCU, and is ranked first in the SEC and fourth in the nation with a 1.0 ace per set average. She also is fifth in the SEC and 57th in the nation with 4.67 points per set.
Freshman setter Camille Conner is second in the SEC and 40th in the nation with 11.00 assists per set. The lefty, who is tied for fourth in the SEC and is 16th in the nation with a .500 hitting percentage while averaging 2.17 kills per set, has directed the A&M offense to a league leading 15.00 kills and 13.83 assists per set, which rank 20th and 22nd in the nation, respectively.
Kiara McGee a senior outside hitter, is third in the SEC in both points (4.75) and kills (4.17) per set, ranking 53rd and 54th best in the nation, respectively. She is ninth in the conference and 56th in the nation with a .435 hitting efficiency.
Freshman middle blocker Makena Patterson, named Best Blocker at the Texas A&M Invitational, is tied for sixth in the SEC and is 76th in the nation with 1.33 blocks per set.

ANOTHER CHALLENGING SCHEDULE

Texas A&M is No. 2 in strength of schedule according to VolleyTalk.net's post on Monday. UCLA is rated No. 1 for strength of schedule.
The Aggies are currently scheduled to play six matches against teams ranked in the top six of the Aug. 28 AVCA Top 25 Poll.
Topping the list of A&M's ranked opponents are No. 1 Stanford, No. 3 Florida, who the Aggies will face twice this season during SEC play, No. 4 Texas, No. 5 Penn State and No. 6 Wisconsin.
In addition, A&M will play No. 13 Kentucky twice, as well as Missouri, which is receiving votes and is listed 27th.
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.

UPCOMING SCHEDULE

Texas A&M hits the road for the first time next weekend as the Aggies participate in the HotelRed Invitational at the UW Field House in Madison, Wisconsin.
Texas A&M opens against Lipscomb on Friday, Sept. 8 at 6 p.m. The Bisons are receiving votes in the AVCA Top 25 and are listed 38th.
The Aggies close out the tournament against host Wisconsin on Saturday at 7 p.m. The Badgers are currently ranked sixth in the AVCA poll.
A&M closes out its preconference schedule on Wed., Sept. 13 as the Aggies welcome fourth-ranked Texas to Reed Arena. First serve against the Longhorns is slated for 7 p.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.