Thanks for the great writeups !

Wow, making Hawaii travel to Texas? That's a surprise!

I've been waiting for an A&M/Hawaii matchup for a long time.

26-1 and no national seed?

Very awesome to see the ladies win!!!!!!

quote:

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26-1 and no national seed?

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RPI of 26 will do that to you.

Able to beat a pesky, slightly undersized TAMU-Corpus squad in the second match after a thrilling 5 set affair with TCU and Hawaii.

Ashlie Reasor from the RS had a career night as did Gabby Litwin playing middle back. By far Litwin's best performance I have witnessed this year...many digs to target passes for the most part fairly crisp. Reasor was the go to girl for the Aggies when our middles struggled against a defense set up to stop the middle attack. We hit some balls that their libero in middle back dug quite well. Both middle back defense looked good on both sides of the net (we got caught in zone one with off speed shots from their outsides, similar to Florida State early in the year). I thought that the libero for CC was really well positioned and made some great digs followed by our Nettles and Litwin doing the same.

Angela Lowak coming back from injury got a couple of kills in the first set and a dig or two in the third set. I was hoping we could set her in the middle back for match point but CC hit it into the net not to give the opportunity to do so. It was so great to see her play and get a chance to contribute to the team effort beside more than a leadership role like she has been for the past few weeks since she went down against Florida State. McGee had 11 kills on the outside.

I thought our middles looked a little off last night...we didn't run middle as much when Reasor was on the front row maybe by design or maybe just because we were feeding the hot hand. But when we did run middle I didn't think the attacks were as fluid or crisp as the last few matches. We will need to establish the middle against Hawaii.

TCU had a great gameplan against Hawaii and shut down their RS potential AA in the first part of the match and if they had been able to stop the middles for Hawaii in the later sets or their outside didn't get injured I think TCU wins the match in 4. If we can stop the RS and our middles play like they did all year I think we match up better in defense and setting and I have not been impressed with Hawaii passing out outside attack so far in match play and practice observation. TCU served them hard and flat, something we do with Sullivan , Nettles and Litwin.

On a side note....in the state of Texas it has been t.u. then a drop off before us then a drop off before the next program. I think the way we played this year the gap between us and Texas has closed but also the gap between us and other programs in Texas had closed as well. TCU first year coach Jill Kramer has them prepared and if she gets depth over the next couple of recruiting classes I look for them to move up steadily toward the top of Texas as well as SMU who played Purdue point for point in the first round until a meltdown in middle of set four

Thanks for the detailed report, Wicked. I've seen and appreciated all of your posts this season.

Thanks for the kind words...tonight should be a battle!!!!

Colorado Ag? You in Colorado ?

I have always liked the former coach of the Colorado team since her days at Tulane and they played here at TAMU during Katrina...I think something happened internal in the program rather than based upon results for her to get fired

Thanks for the write up, Wicked.

For Texas A&M to have "closed the gap" between them and Texas, there has to have been a few S16s, EEs, and FFs for A&M.

That hasn't come close to happening.

Yes, Wicked, I am now retired in northwest Colorado - in Steamboat Springs. It's a great place to be. I have lived in the Pittsburgh area and in Corvallis, OR since leaving school. My wife and I liked to ski and the outdoor life, so we moved to Colorado about 8 years ago.

I'm sorry, but I'm not familiar with the Colorado coach you mentioned. As I said, our move was for retirement.

Thanks to the internet and Ag posters like you who help us novices, I can stay pretty much on top of all the Aggie sports.

Wicked Good Ag

Please email me at kirbyms@yahoo.com

I have a question for you.

Blue Bell...email sent

Colorado Ag, my wife has wanted to move there for some time now...may have to pull the trigger and look for a job in that area



More of a season assessment coming in the next day but what a season for Aggie VB

"Hawaii had, in our eyes, a flawless night," A&M coach Laurie Corbelli said. "Even though it stings, we will always be proud of the things we accomplished this season."


"And Savanah (Hawaii LIBERO) dug (all) that came at her. Maybe her numbers weren't a career-high but it was her best performance of the season. I gave her a hug and said that I'm super proud of her, that this is what champions do. This is how we have to play to keep advancing."

The two above quotes are a microcosm of the match and Aggie season. Hawaii deserved it, executed better that night. If we had played them the way they played against TCU the night before I think we are moving on to the Sweet 16 in Des Moines.


The quote of LC saying they "will always be proud of the things we accomplished this season" is exactly how I feel about this team. I wish they had gotten a better second round draw than Hawaii because this season they deserved to be playing the second weekend of play. Hawaii is a coaches poll #5-7 seed the entire season but because of the conference they play in RPI will suffer and they don't really leave the island outside of conference play. Hell with those views and crowds why would they.

We overcame injuries to outsides, middles and setters during the season. We played the toughest preseason schedule I can remember. We got seeded in the NCAA tourney. We hosted a subregional. We were outright SEC CHAMPIONS. We had some of the greatest chemistry on a team I have witnessed from afar and not been a part of personally. We have the SEC Player of the Year, Coach of the Year, and in most to me the greatest duo of middles in the SEC. A magical season which I will remember for quite a while. And we return all starters from conference play but one middle, albeit one who shoes will be hard to fill.

Moving forward to the 2016 season...would love to see the same type of schedule next season.

I think we are set at setter, middle 1 and libero for the coming season. I see Jazzmin Babers moving into Sullivan's slot and Kaitlyn Blake moving into Jazzmin;s slot as middles. The reasoning is simple. Babers had improved tremendously in attacks behind the setter which are the hardest to defend. Blake has shown the ability to hit in front of the setter similar to Babers her sophomore year. Ashlie Reasor should be our RS next season and needs to improve defensively and hit the line shot consistently like she did against TAMU CC. Awesome attack which if can be done well opens up a larger percentage of the court because they wont key in on her same attack angle. With both outsides coming back we need to see a bit more depth at that position. We have no true OH1 on the squad, we have OH2's . We need someone who can attack hard and pass and play defense and minimize errors when out of system. McGee hits a heavy ball and is scary when she sees the block. Harder to see when set is coming from off the net or someone who is not the setter or a combination of both. She will improve her passing and defense over the spring I would think. If not Litwin did a great job playing back row, but that doesn't leave us a back row attack option when out of system like many of the top programs have at least one either on the right or from middle back. Hardesty keeps balls in system, hits different shots and passes well but doesn't hit hard. Put all their strengths together and we have a great OH1.

Right Back defense for Reasor changed a lot over the season. Would like to see this become a mainstay of one person who truly wins the spot. And find one player who can give us a serve like the RS from Hawaii or others who we have faced and we are in good shape again. We have a very capable backup setter, who I hope gets some additional sets this next season if simply to rest Aiple's back. Kaysie's enthusiasm is contagious.

I have seen a couple of our recruits play before and might during club season unless they come in early in Spring like a larger percentage of players under Corbelli's do. If they come in early I will have to set aside some time to see a spring match or two. I can see incoming freshman Hollan Hans from CC come into the role that Kaitlyn Blake performed for us this past season .... Resident utility player.

Loved this team this season, deserved everything they got this season and even deserved more but was not meant to be.

Coach Corbelli named AVCA South Region Coach of the Year and three players named to South Region team

Stephanie Aiple S
Jazzmin Babers M
Shelby Sullivan M

I know you have to be on the region list to be eligible of 1st-3rd team AA honors.

I think if you don't make 1-3rd team AA you are Honorable Mention AA.

First selection will come out later and major awards have heavy emphasis on NCAA tourney run by their selective teams.

Congrats, will continue to follow as the process continues

I think Babers and Aiple have chances...not so sure about Sullivan for 1-3rd team

Thanks again, Wicked. Looking forward to more reports as news surfaces.

I will be interested to see how Hawaii does this weekend. I wonder whether they returned home and then have to fly to Des Moines on Thursday, or whether they stayed somewhere in the US. If they returned, that would be the second awful 4 time zone eastward trip on consecutive weekends. I think their lackluster win versus TCU was at least partially due to that travel schedule.

Given that I have no other real favorite team left, I'll adopt the Wahines for the rest of the tournament!

They stayed in College Station until today sometime

Fwiw, Hawaii just swept penn state.

Swept the crown jewel of college volleyball
Previous champions the past 8 years
2014
Penn State (36-3)
Russ Rose
3-0
BYU
Oklahoma City
2013
Penn State (34-2)
Russ Rose
3-1
Wisconsin
Seattle
2012
Texas (29-4)
Jerritt Elliott
3-0
Oregon
Louisville
2011
UCLA (29-6)
Michael Sealy
3-1
Illinois
San Antonio, Texas
2010
Penn State (32-5)
Russ Rose
3-0
California
UMKC
2009
Penn State (38-0)
Russ Rose
3-2
Texas
South Florida
2008
Penn State (38-0)
Russ Rose
3-0
Stanford
Nebraska
2007
Penn State (34-2)
Russ Rose
3-2
Stanford
Sacramento State

Hawaii fans on a volleyball message board are saying the past two matches are the best they have played in 3 years....against us and two time defending champ Penn State

Texas advances to their 10th straight Elite Eight tonight

Here's to the Wahines.

It looks like we got beat by a team on a roll.

They play Minnesota this afternoon our time.

Florida won in 5 sets, They play tu today.