Aggie volleyball opens spring slate with a four-set win over South Carolina

After a three-month hiatus, Texas A&M volleyball returned to the court and did so in style, defeating South Carolina in four sets. Setter Camille Conner spread the ball around, tallying 38 assists, as three Aggies registered double-digit kills.

Video courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics.

Scoring Summary

Set One: Texas A&M - 25, South Carolina - 20. A&M, 1-0.
Set Two: Texas A&M - 25, South Carolina - 22. A&M, 2-0.
Set Three: South Carolina - 25, Texas A&M - 16. A&M, 2-1.
Set Four: Texas A&M - 25, South Carolina - 16. A&M, 3-1.

Statistical Leaders

Kills: Kyla Manning (USC) - 15
• A&M high: Morgan Christon - 13
Hitting Percentage: London Austin-Roark (A&M) - .471 (10 kills on 17 attacks)
• USC high: Ellie Ruprich - .375 (7 kills on 16 attacks)
Digs: Camilla Covas (USC) - 14
• A&M high: Morgan Christon (A&M) - 10
Assists: Mallory Dixon (USC) - 45
• A&M high: Camille Conner - 38
Blocks: McKenzie Moorman (USC) & Ellie Ruprich (USC) - 4
• A&M high: Lauren Davis, London Austin-Roark & Mallory Talbert - 3
Service Aces: Mallory Talbert (A&M) & Mallory Dixon (USC) - 5

Release from Texas A&M Athletics:

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The Texas A&M volleyball team opened the spring portion of its 2020-21 season with a strong 3-1 victory (25-20, 25-22, 16-25, 25-16) over the South Carolina Gamecocks on Wednesday at the Carolina Volleyball Center.

The victory upped the Aggies’ record to 5-4 and snapped a four-game losing streak, the Gamecocks fell to 9-4. It was the Aggies’ first victory since beating Ole Miss on Oct. 23.

After the Gamecocks pulled to 2-1 with a 25-16 third set victory, the Aggies closed out the match with a torrid performance in the fourth set. The Aggies never trailed in the fourth and led by at least five points after grabbing a 14-9 lead as they cruised to a 25-16 set victory to grab the win.

After not seeing any competition for nearly three months, the Aggies came out on fire in the first two sets against the Gamecocks. In the first set, the Aggies trailed just twice – at 0-1 and 7-8 – and enjoyed at least a two-point lead after 14-13. In the second, the Aggies faced down adversity that saw the Gamecocks control much of the set. With the set tied at 22-22, the Aggies received a crucial kill from sophomore Morgan Christon and then Christon served out the game for a 25-22 win. 

Christon posted a team-high 13 kills and was one of three Aggies with double-digit kills. Also tallying 10-plus kills was sophomore Lauren Davis with 12 and junior London Austin-Roark with 10. Christon also chipped in 10 digs and senior Camille Conner led the way with 38 assists.

The Aggies will try to complete the road sweep over the Gamecocks with a 6 p.m. matchup on Thursday.

TEXAS A&M QUOTES

Head Coach Laura “Bird” Kuhn

On the thought process behind tonight’s lineup…

“We’ve had a lot of time. I think the time was necessary, and this whole preseason has been way more natural. I know basketball is going on and it was January, but it felt way more like a regular preseason. We had way more time to compete. The competitive chemistry in the locker room has been awesome, and everyone who played earned their spot. Our players gained a lot of confidence knowing that they earned their spots.”

On Morgan Christon’s improvement since the fall…

“I think that with her it’s always going to be about consistency. Playing six rotations, she was able to make a lot of really smart plays, even while she was in the back row. It’s going to be about growth, and she’s going to continue to learn about her power, because she has a cannon for an arm. It’s about learning when you need to absolutely bury a ball or figuring out when you need to keep yourself in it to get the ball back and possibly get a better set up.”

On the feeling in the locker room after the win…

“I think it’s always good to start off with a win. It’s a great foundation and a building block for us to improve off of, but we have to continue learning from things. The third set tonight, you never want to fall behind like we did as a coach, but we showed an excellent response back in the fourth. That’s telling, but our biggest challenge is going to be coming right back tomorrow. We have to come right back at it. This is a good [South Carolina] team, so we have to execute just as well, if not better than we did tonight.”

Senior setter Camille Conner

On the team’s performance in the first spring match… 

“It was an awesome feeling getting the win tonight. We did have a different lineup and a different look out there, and it was exciting to play that first set. It was so cool to see how everyone worked together. I think we made a lot of really good adjustments late in the third set, and that really provided the spark for our team. We were really able to get some momentum there and come away with the win.” 

On the importance of distributing the ball evenly…

“That’s a big thing that we work on in our gym. We absolutely love to get the pins involved and our middle blockers involved in the offense as evenly as possible. We try our best to get them into different positions on the court in order to set them up to be successful. I think our hitters did an excellent job of that tonight.”

Junior middle blocker London Austin-Roark

On how the team prepared following the long break…

“I feel like we work on creating a game-like environment in practice a lot, so it felt pretty natural going in. I think that everybody is always ready to play their role, do their part and help further our team. We take everything point-by-point, so even when we make a mistake, we do our best to learn from them and move on. We’re treating this like a whole new season and said that we’re starting from the beginning. We’re going to learn from our mistakes in our last four games of the fall and move forward.” 

On producing momentum in the fourth set…

“We talk a lot about momentum in our gym, and I think that our ability to respond late in the third set gave us momentum to take forward into the fourth set. We took that energy of grinding and fighting back, and took that into the fourth set to get the win. I feel like we did really well, even though we could have done a better job responding in that third set, we really got back to fighting with each other to battle back into that game.”

Next: Thursday, February 11 at South Carolina. First-serve: 6:00 p.m. CT. Television: SEC Network+