Aggie volleyball team rallies to beat Bears

Down 2-1 and needing to win a five-set match for the first time in six attempts, the Aggies came out swinging.

Texas A&M scored the first seven points of the fourth set and never slowed down, winning 40 of the final 60 points to beat Baylor 25-20, 22-25, 19-25, 25-15, 15-5 on Wednesday night in Big 12 volleyball action.

Baylor was 2-0 at Reed Arena and had won three straight five-set matches against the Aggies (12-3, 1-1). The Bears (11-6, 0-3) appeared to be headed to another road victory after outscoring the Aggies 36-23 from the middle of the second set to the end of the third set.

This time the Aggies turned it around with four players each scoring a point to start the fourth game. The rest of the team followed suit, both during the points and after with their energy on the court.

"Last year you could look at the team and realize we were all a little tight," A&M's Kelsey Black said last season's loss to Baylor. "This year when we came out, we focused not on a defensive attitude but an offensive attitude. It was big just to go at them full force, full speed from the beginning."

And the Aggies' finish had their coach breathing a sigh of relief.

"We needed this win really badly," A&M head coach Laurie Corbelli said. "Many times we put pressure on ourselves to get it done, to get it done in three, to get it done now, and we just don't allow ourselves to make errors and be human and mess up. We want it so badly."

The Aggies didn't have to worry about mistakes in the final two sets. Setter Allie Sawatzky easily found the open attacker, which allowed A&M to hit .370 over the final two sets while Baylor hit just .040.

Sawatzky's attacking prowess also helped the Aggie attack. The 6-foot-2 sophomore finished with 11 kills, better than all of Baylor's attackers except middle blocker Briana Tolbert who had one more.

Sawatzky often directed the ball to the corners and at times made the Bears pay for their overpasses, by pounding it to the floor.

"I feel like when we have me as an attacker I open up my options for the other hitters and give them a better chance because the blockers are wondering what is happening," said Sawatzky. "I noticed they were shifting and everyone in the back row was telling me what holes were open. They do a really good job of that.

Sawatzky shared her 46 assists mainly among four attackers, led by Black with 17. Middle blocker Lindsey Miller and right-side hitter Alisia Kastmo each had 13 kills, five and six respectively in the comeback. For Miller it was a season high. Kastmo nearly doubled her attack percentage from the end of the third set on. She finished with a .391 percentage, .070 better than anyone else in the match with double-figure kills.

"I credit assistant coach Steve Greene because he's just been working with her and Allie a lot figuring out what they need to get that connection going," Corbelli said. "Alisia is the type that needs the ball a lot. Whether she is getting kills or not, when she gets the ball a lot she stays into it."

It wasn't all about hitting though that kept the Aggies' spirits high despite facing the possibility of another five-set loss.

The Aggies had 85 digs to the Bears' 64. Black led a contingent of five Aggies in double figures with 26. Junior libero Megan Pendergast had 17, but her best effort wasn't registered on the stat sheet.

In the fourth set, with the Aggies trying to keep the pressure on from their quick start, Pendergast sprinted back to the corner to retrieve a ball, took a healthy swing while diving to the ground and hit the ball with topspin toward the net. The ball clipped the net and fell over. A&M eventually won the point and went up 14-4.

"I was chasing the ball and barely got it up and I see Megan coming like a locomotive so I said 'I've got to get out of the way,' and the ball goes over the net," Black said. "I just remember thinking I don't care if we win or lose this point that's the best thing I've ever seen. It put us that extra step ahead and got them to the point where what can we do, what is going to work."

A&M's Tori Mellinger, Sarah Grace and Sawatzky, who had her first triple-double, all reached double figures in digs. Grace's 12 digs was her high at A&M. She played at Baylor as a freshman.

The fifth set started the same as the fourth with Kastmo finding the floor with an attack and then a dink. Miller followed with a kill and Sawatzky and Black reversed roles, when Black, from the side, set Sawatzky for a kill in the middle.

Kastmo had a run of seven serves, the fifth of which caused a bad pass and an easy kill for Miller. Miller also had two blocks in the final set, and Kastmo and Elise Hendrickson combined to block Adri Nora for the match winner.

A&M had 11 blocks to Baylor's seven.

A&M will play host to Kansas State (13-3, 2-0) at 6:30 p.m. Saturday.

It's so challenging in the Big 12 these days with such even playing field," Corbelli said. "You have to protect your home, that is so important."