Eagle Staff Report
Texas A&M upset Louisiana State on the Tigers' home court last year in the second round of the NCAA volleyball tournament.
When the two teams met again Saturday in the Texas A&M Invitational, LSU was ready.
The 23rd-ranked Tigers took advantage of the Aggies' offensive struggles and took the title in the two-day event with a 25-9, 25-7, 25-22 victory at Reed Arena. LSU outhit A&M .389-.081 while improving to 3-0, and the Aggies fell to 1-2.
"LSU really came at us hard with their serving and it put a lot of pressure on our passers, which as a result really takes you out of your middle attack," A&M coach Laurie Corbelli said. "It made us have to go to one hitter most of the time. We were out of system with our first two sets more than 90 percent of the time, and it is very difficult to win a match when you are out of system that much."
After being blown out in the opening set, the Aggies were within 18-15 in the second before the Tigers pulled away with a five-point run. LSU held its biggest lead of the third set at 19-13 when A&M began to rally.
An LSU error and consecutive kills by A&M's Kelsey Black and Allie Freiwald made it 19-16. The Tigers then committed another attack error and called a timeout.
Junior right-side hitter Elise Hendrickson, a transfer from Arizona who was making her A&M debut, added an ace before LSU scored three unanswered points to go up 21-18. The Aggies answered with a run of their own and took a 22-21 lead, forcing LSU to burn its final timeout.
After the stoppage, the Tigers got back-to-back kills by Angela Bensend before Michelle Williams made it match point with her 12th kill. An A&M attack error ended the match.
Corbelli wasn't entirely upset with her team's performance.
"[The Tigers] have a lot of athletes and a lot of experience together," she said. "We are still building that part this season, and we have nowhere to go but up. We saw just bits and pieces of every part of our game, and it's not huge but its details, little plays, part of plays that need to be changed by individual players that will eventually turn into looking a lot like the pace that LSU runs.
"We have our work cut out for us, and that is the exciting part for me. We have the athletes. We have the talent. We know what we need to do, and now it's just a matter of figuring that out and practicing it."
Bensend led all players with 14 kills as the Tigers posted 44 kills to A&M's 26. The Aggies' Tori Mellinger had a match-high 13 digs.
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NOTES -- The most valuable player in the tournament was LSU's Williams. The rest of the all-tournament team was Taylor Akana, Siena; Bensend, LSU; Black, A&M; Hannah Clancy, Pacific; Svenja Engelhardt, Pacific; and Lauren Waclawczyk, LSU. ... In Saturday's other game, Pacific (2-1) beat Siena (0-3) 25-12, 25-16, 25-15. ... A&M returns to action Wednesday against Sam Houston State at Reed Arena. First serve is set for 6:30 p.m.
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