A&M volleyball beats Kansas

  • Posted: Monday, October 31, 2011 7:00 a.m.
  • Text size: A A A

Eagle Staff Report
The stat sheet and the set scores may have indicated Texas A&M's volleyball victory over Kansas was accomplished with little stress.

But A&M coach Laurie Corbelli wasn't without her concerns in a 25-21, 25-20, 24-26, 25-20 victory on Sunday at Reed Arena.

Kansas, despite trailing 19-15 in every set, made a late run at the Aggies each time, extending play by thwarting two match points before winning the third game.

In the fourth set, A&M's all-Big 12 performer Kelsey Black went down for a dig with Megan Pendergast and stayed on the floor, grabbing her left arm.

"I've seen that move before when two diggers go for the ball, and I've seen what can happen when you jam your arm underneath someone," said Corbelli. "We were really lucky. I've seen some season-ending injuries from that. That's what I was really worried about. Kansas coming back was also a worry, but when I saw her grimace, I was really concerned that it was going to be worse than that."

Black stayed down for a short while and then had her arm looked at by a trainer, but stayed in the match.

Kansas took an early 7-4 lead in the fourth set, carrying over some momentum from winning four of the last five points in the previous set.

Kills from six separate players and consecutive service aces by Alicia Kastmo put A&M back on track and allowed the Aggies to improve their record to 17-5 overall and 6-3 in the Big 12.

Kansas fell to 13-10 and 1-9.

"Win No. 17 feels really good. Being in the top half (tied for third) of the Big 12 is a great feeling," Corbelli said. "It has been a battle; every match has been a battle and this one was no different. I guess I would just say that I felt like today was a little choppy based on how we have been practicing and performing in training, and it's my job to figure out why and fix it, because it wasn't quite as smooth as we've been playing."

A&M won the statistical battle with 68 kills to KU's 50 and 71 digs to 56. Kansas did outblock A&M 11-7.

The Aggies had double-doubles by Tori Mellinger (12 kills 13 digs), Black (17 and 12) and setter Allie Sawatzky (13 kills and 47 assists).

Lindsey Miller gave the Aggies four players with at least 10 kills.

"That's definitely when our team is at our best, when we have all of our attackers doing well," said Mellinger. "I think us being so multidimensional is what helps us a lot. They were focused on blocking Lindsey and she still got 10 kills because she's a multi-dimensional player."

Libero Megan Pendergast tied a season high with 22 digs and defensive specialist Sarah Grace (10) gave A&M four players with double-digit digs.

A&M ends a three-game homestand on Wednesday against Texas Tech.

Notice about comments: The Eagle is proud to offer our users enhanced commenting features. You can now build user‐to‐user connections, follow friend's recent posts, add an avatar that fits your personality, and more. If you have posted here before you'll need to sign up again and if you've never posted start now by signing up!