Texas A&M volleyball remains unbeaten, sweeps Temple at Reed Arena
Another day, another sweep for Aggie volleyball.
On Friday night, Texas A&M (5-0) began the Texas A&M invitational with a 3-0 victory over Temple (25-10, 25-18, 28-26).
A&M got off to a red-hot start that saw Temple take a timeout after the Aggies jumped out to a 9-2 lead on the first set. The Maroon & White never looked back, as the set concluded with the Aggies crushing the Owls 25-10.
Temple was on the ropes early, as the Owls had a negative hit percentage at -.036, much the antithesis of the Aggies’ at .577.
The overall play in the first set was the cleanest it was for A&M throughout the whole game, as it was the set where they posted the most kills with 16 and the least amount of errors with one.
The second set was far more competitive. The score was tied multiple times, and it was 14-14 at one point. After Owls head coach Linda Hampton-Keith called a timeout at 15-14, the Aggies pulled away and went on a dominant 10-4 run to close out the set at 25-18.
The third set of this game, however, was about as back-and-forth as it gets.
The Aggies were down for the majority of the set, and the Owls were inching closer to a win with a 22-16 advantage.
However, thanks to a timeout from head coach Jamie Morrison, A&M regrouped and stormed back to make it a tie game at 22-22.
Extra points were needed to decide this set, and after the continued back-and-forth play with some great defense sprinkled in, the Aggies put it away with a 28-26 win to seal the 3-0 sweep.
There were a total of six tie scores and three lead changes in the third set.
“It’s nice to be able to know that you were down 22-17 and you came back when you’re in that situation,” Morrison said. “We need to find different ways to win. There’s going to be some teams that are able to shut us down, and we need to shut them down back. There’s going to be teams that hit for a really high efficiency, and we need to go hit for a high efficiency back.”
A&M finished Friday’s match with a total of 37 kills, with 15 of them coming off the hands of junior outside hitter Emily Hellmuth and junior middle blocker Ifenna Cos-Okpalla.
Cos-Okpalla also led the team in points with 12.5 and solo blocks with three.
“Just focusing on the ball less than the people,” she said. “You kind of just have to follow the ball, eventually the ball is going to get to you at some point, it’s just intercepting the ball.”
Junior Ava Underwood, the team’s defensive specialist, says that the team’s versatility is key to their success so far this year.
“I think it’s cool that we can do it all,” Underwood said. “I think that’s a really big testament to our team and how much depth that we have. The fact that we can win in both ways is huge, and so if we just keep trucking with these tools, we’re going to be really, really good.”
A&M continues its busy weekend with the invitational tomorrow, as they take on New Hampshire on Saturday at Reed Arena.
The first serve is scheduled for 5 p.m. CT.