Texas A&M learned a lot about itself in it's two matches to open the season.
Unfortunately for them some of the the lessons learned cost the Aggie volleyball team a down-to-the-wire loss Friday at Reed Arena in the Texas A&M Invitational.
After cruising to a 3-0 sweep of Siena on Friday morning, the Aggies fell 15-12 in the fifth set to Pacific.
"Rally score certainly does magnify mistakes, especially in short 12-minute games of 15 points." said Texas A&M coach Laurie Corbelli. "But when we were down 7-10, had a timeout and came back and tied it up, I thought we had the momentum," Corbelli said. "We were in a good rotation. We called a play and we got stopped on that play and then when we got aced I saw that it stressed out our team a lot."
Pacific added a rare block and after Lindsey Miller kept the Aggies in it with a kill, Chelsea Ringel's serve sailed just long.
The game scores were 28-26, 23-25, 25-16, 19-25 and 15-12.
Corbelli blamed her defense for being in the predicament of having to win the fifth set to win the match.
"To only have 42 digs in a five-set match is very poor," Corbelli said. "That was one of the biggest differences even though we did block better, they outdug us by so many that it was the difference."
The Tigers, who lost in four sets to LSU earlier in the day, had 61 digs, led by libero Rebekah Torres with 18.
Pacific and A&M traded sets, with the Tigers winning the first, which the Aggies led 20-17 before losing six straight points.
A&M recovered in time to extend the first set and had a set point, but Svenja Engelhardt found the floor with a kill and put Pacific up with a dink that found the floor. Allie Sawatzky and Lindsey Miller kept Engelhardt from making it three points in a row with a block.
Another successful dink by Engelhardt and a Kelsey Black attack error put Pacific up 1-0.
"I thought we were in set one, we were ahead but we end up making so many errors we gave it away. I thought we should have been up two sets to none at the break," Corbelli said. "It just can't matter how inexperienced we are and young we are, we have to find a way to win that set."
Black and Alisia Kastmo led A&M in kills with 22 and nine respectively, but it wasn't enough to counter Samantha Misa's 20 and Englehardt's 21 kills.
"Their setter [Hannah Clancy] did a nice job of when out of system she put them in a good situation," Corbelli said. "No. 2 [Misa] that .279 hitting percentage, she stood out. When they needed her to get a kill, she got a kill."
The day did have it's positive moments for the Aggies, who have had to replace four starters, including their top three hitters from last year's Sweet 16 team.
Black, who will have to play a big role in filling the void of four-year starters Sarah Ammerman and Mary Batis having graduated, got off to a terrific start.
She had 14 kills and an attack percentage of .423 in the Aggies 25-11, 25-21, 25-12 victory.
"It's exciting just to finally be out there and feel like it's my time and Chelsea's [Ringel] time to do what we've been trained to do for two or three years," Black said. "Of course you have those nerves going into it, but as soon as you have that first ball you are comfortable, you know what you're doing. It's really exciting to be out there in that position."
Siena jumped out to a 6-2 lead, forcing a timeout by Corbelli. From that point, A&M outscored Siena 23-5 to win the first set.
"I just saw that we needed to take a deep breath altogether and regroup, not that we accomplished that by what we said, I think that it was just necessary to stop the other team's momentum, make a few points," Corbelli said. "I know they take whatever we say very much to heart and they try very hard to execute right away."
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