Aggies alive. We win set 3 by 25-21.

They need to spend time learning how to serve

That was our worst effort of the season. Thoughts

1. We are frontrunners. Other than the fifth set against Wright State we have shown no ability to comeback and fight during a set. We get tentative and make mistake after mistake. Not as much the case while we are leading and tend to play looser and better overall. We have to show fight when down. It seems that every time we get down we cant comeback and sustain. We got down in the fourth set against TCU i think and made a comeback to get back in the set and promptly gave it all back and it was over. We play scared when down 9-10 points and dont swing away and tip. That wont work against top 15-25 teams or better

2. Hogan had a horrid passing match. Someone said earlier that Underwood earned it but I didnt see wnaything Underwood did to earn it more so that Hogan might have lost it. She and Muoneke passed terribly for the match, and when Underwood became the libero we had to put in the person that probably was the worst passer tonight for the second worst passer so it wasnt much better. You should not have your libero be the target in serve recive and that was evident from the beginning of the match then when she was taken out that went a Muoneke and it started all over again. Scouting report was dead on balls accurate. That said both of them are better than they were tonight and hopefully will bounce back because both of the girls need to be on the court in some capacity. I was a bit surprised in the fourth set with Hogan not having played that we didnt have her serve for Cos. I dont think it really would have mattered in the grand scheme of things but to leave a middle in when you have a DS that can play/serve for her down quite a few points would have been a time to sub her in. Cos served for an error giving them match point.

3. Our block wasnt ready for the accurate passing and tempo of attack and thus the block that has been so good this season wasnt effective at all. Front row block didnt close and the back row wasnt in position to defend with the gaps that were created.

4. As others have said serving was bad too may errors. Passing was worse IMO because it sets up our offense and the setters were running around trying to get a decent set out of a poor pass and when we had actually had a freeball we could not terminate at a level you should.either because we made a wrong choice or our hitters were worried about

5. Our block coverage was terrible We looked as if we were watching our hitters take swings thinking no way they get blocked and we did a lot. Houston had twice as many blocks and some could have been picked up if we had been paying attention and in the right spots to cover our hitters. I think that comes down to us for most of the season having our pins be terminal (meaning ending the play) Mainly that is a kill but lately it has been kills and errors combined...we tend to end a lot of plays from our pins but the last two matches the ending of plays hasnt always been for points (erros have been way up in the two losses)

6. I usually point out positives in a match to go with the negatives but i didnt see any tonight that are things we can build on. If you look at the stats in set 3 vs the other sets you will see a huge difference in play but when it is only one set of four the last two matches it is got to change

Regroup and come to battle Liberty on Friday at noon. Chance to see how Liberty is against Houston tomorrow at 5 at Reed but the things Libery might be able to do shouldnt be the focus. The focus needs to be controlling what happens on our side of the net.

I saw them prepping in the parking lot. A big pile of new red shirts with each pledge grabbing one. Body paint. For some reason I kind of enjoy this.

And tonight is the annual UT frat appearance at Texas A&M volleyball. pic.twitter.com/Am2bG2wX8p

— 𝕋𝕣𝕒𝕧𝕚𝕤 𝕃. 𝔹𝕣𝕠𝕨𝕟 (@Travis_L_Brown) September 13, 2023

Ag4eva95 said:

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She technically was playing 6 rotations last year on a badly coached team. She took way too many swings and it led to injury. But she didn't look excited out there, something did seem off

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She is very hard on helself on the court she shows those emotions on her face. She had the most errors on the team and in a match for her this season hitting negative. Shehas had error filled games but usually hit enough kills to overcome...tonight not so much.

Right now she has a heavy arm and hits cross all the time. She is very effective when on because whe can hit all sorts of level of angles with that hard cross shot. She needs to develop and push deep down the line and line attack but when on she is one of the top RS's in the country. She just has to be on and sometimes set location helps and seeing the block.

I just think that our worst first contact match we have had is a direct correlation to having 90% of our hitting errors coming from the pins ...set location wasnt ideal based upon the pass and we pressed way to hard last night and didnt play loose like we do when we are ahead and it showed in all facets of the match to a VERY GOOD TEAM

With Ledinecky though, she's looked a little uncomfortable all year. I know she's coming off an injury. The last two matches she just hasn't been seeing the court. Looks like she's swinging blindly because she can't read the block. While UH has good offensive pins, they aren't known for their blocking. Logan hit straight into their block, her numbers could have been much worse last night. Also the same thing with TCU. No way Parra should have been stuffing her.

I look forward to when the light switch turns on for Ledinecky.

Ags win in 3 as they should vs Liberty. Don't think I noticed anything out of the ordinary. Hitting efficiency high. 11 blocks. Good amount of playing time for Molly and Brooke. Was hoping to see Lexi more.

Same issues: 11 service errors, passes were ok but not outstanding which led to so-so sets.

Is it just me or is Lednicky not hitting down the line as much this year?

We have finished non conference and enter conference play on Wednesday at home against Mississippi State.

We finsihed a very respectible 8-2, While our schedule I feel was more of a RPI thing playing top teams from various smaller conferences none of the opponents were slouches with many of them having some upsets in their own right.

We looked to me the worst against Houston, a very good team who dismantled us at the serve receive game and was able to run a smooth and very effective offense based upon their transition game.

Looking at the numbers we are hitting a very respectible .280 in the season and lead the SEC in opponent hitting percentage at .137. While we have not played top level teams like Kentucky and Florida do annually we have done great at the front line of defense with Cos and any of our RS blocks looking great at times.

Most people have said our service game isnt great and while i agree we have made about 3 service errors per set while not being the most agreesive team. We are only being aced less then 1.5 per set but i dont think that tells the best story because we have been scrambling a lot after first contact. When we can be in system we can look very good offensively but it is honestly hit or miss. We have more aces then our opponents but i wouldnt say we are winning the serve pass game for the season.

The passing game is completely separate from the defensive game and I think we do a good job when the block is ready defensively. But when a team stays in system like Houston did because of their ability to hit well in system we looked below average

Going forward I hope we can get more swings out of the middle to open up even more our pin hitters who are hitting quite well overall with some individual sub par performances in specific sets/matches but very solid overall. We dont rely on two players this year which will pay makor dividends down the road

Looking at confernece play I think we are in the second group or tier of the SEC. Kentucky who doesnt have a solid record but has played an incredible schedule and Florida are the two at the top with Florida looking the best overall

Us LSU Tennessee Arkansas and Auburn all being right behind those two. Arkansas would be at the top of Tier 2 IMO and could be the third team in Tier 1 honestly.

Common Opponents

Four SEC teams have played common opponents to TAMU

LSU got swept by Northern Iowa and we swept them
Tennessee beat Loyola Chicago 3-1 and we came back to win in the fifth set 3-2
Georgia lost to TCU 0-3 and we did as well but 1-3
Kentucky defeated Houston 3-1 and as stated we lost 1-3 at home


The SEC season starts at 7:00 Wednesday at Reed. Cmon on out and support