No. 17 Volleyball Gears Up for Ranked Road Test at No. 21 Vanderbilt

No. 17 Texas A&M travels to Nashville to take on No. 21 Vanderbilt at Memorial Gym Friday evening, with first serve set for 7 p.m.
Kaia Castle earned her first career SEC weekly honor, as she was named Defensive Player of the Week after recording 17 blocks across the Aggies’ last two matches.
The Maroon & White prepare for only their third meeting with Vanderbilt, holding a perfect 2-0 record against the Commodores.

NASHVILLE – The No. 17 Texas A&M volleyball team gears up for a pair of road contests, opening in the Music City where they face No. 21 Vanderbilt Friday evening with a first serve set for 7 p.m.

The Aggies prepare for their 12^th ranked matchup of the season after splitting a pair of contests against ranked opponents over the weekend. Texas A&M secured a top-10 victory with an upset over then-No. 6 Tennessee at Reed Arena, 3-1, before falling to then-No. 14 Texas in the Cotton Holdings Lone Star Showdown Sunday afternoon, 3-0.

Kaia Castle earned her first SEC weekly honor following a pair of standout performances against ranked opponents. The junior middle blocker tallied a total of 17 blocks, including a season high 12 versus Tennessee and five against Texas. Her 12 blocks mark the most by an Aggie this season and after the contest with the Longhorns, she’s stuffed five-or-more swings seven times this year.

Natalie Ring accumulated 28 kills over the weekend, helping record her 200^th kill as an Aggie. The senior outside hitter turned in a season-high 18 kills against the Lady Vols before adding 10 against the Longhorns. Ring has now recorded double-digit kills in 14 matches this season.

Texas A&M prepares for only its third meeting with Vanderbilt, holding a perfect 2-0 record against the Commodores. The programs met twice last season, with the Maroon & White earning sweeps in both matchups, first during the regular season at Reed Arena and again in the quarterfinals at the SEC Tournament in Savannah.

STREAMING

Friday’s 7 p.m. match with be broadcast on SECN+.

Preview: Jamie Morrison

The team came to me and said both matches matter, which is nice to have them say. We have obviously a match at Vanderbilt. We've never played at that space, it's an interesting arena and an interesting space that we get to go play. And so we have to figure out a new challenge on that. Then we turn around and go to Missouri, where I haven't been to since year one. Two tough road matches, two tough places to play in their own ways. And we're excited for the challenge.

-- Jamie Morrison

Preview: Gabi Rodriguez, Kaia Castle

When we're at home, we have the 12th Man and so many of them come out to support us. But obviously when you're on the road, you have just as many people cheering against you and you have to create your own energy. So I think it's a really good test for what will come later on in the tournament, and just give us an opportunity to work on creating our own energy and reducing our errors.

-- Kaia Castle