It was a pretty fun game to watch on TV especially the comeback. It takes a lot of grit for that to happen and to keep the rally going. The setter dumps/hits were effective as well as the middle play on a night when the hitters were a bit off.

That said, I also watched the UCLA vs USC game tonight. I can't wait until this team can play at that level. A lot of power yet consistent play.

Arkansas is terrible and the play of both teams was very average. Glad we won, but a strong club team could beat either. These coaches are in over their head.

That is ridiculous. You can say they are average and it was a terrible match but only maybe one or two club teams could compete with TAMU and that would have to have like 7 or 8 top of the line recruits in the nation on the same team.

Glad to see they won in three games against a conference foe. Also glad they were able to make a comeback and win at the end too. It does at least show some progress. It looks like recruiting has been neglected the last several years, so the current staff will have to build that back.

Been around volleyball as I assume you have a long time and have seen a number of Open level 17 and 18 year old teams that are considerably better and the same size. The difference is these open teams have much better kill %s and ball control. I am not suggesting these teams play at a club level. Yes, these teams have the majority of their kids playing in college somewhere but not all attend elite college programs. They have better coaching in my opinion.

I would put up Munciana club 18 and Minnesota select along with TAV 18 against TAMU and TAMU would win each of those. Not to say the club team would not have some better athletes in certain spots but no way most even open level teams can match the level of college programs in power 5 leagues with certain exceptions
The Aggies would have had 5 top 100 prep volleyball recruits on the roster if not for Kaitlyn Blake medically retiring. OOS play of club level teams doesn't typically match the level of most college teams. Not to mention the average front row of TAMU is 6'2''
We are an average team in the SEC which is the third best conference statistically behind the BIG 10 and PAC 12. But the difference is by a wide margin. And we are likely to finish around 7-8th at best the way we are playing. Could be anywhere from 5th to 11th IMO. Where we end up will be based upon getting significantly better at serve receive, establishing a middle attack and improving our end game significantly. Same troubles we had last year

I would put TAV over the past 5+ years over this team any day and esoecially Ping's team. His 17s are better than the TAV 18s each year other than this past year in Detroit. His front row height is certainly taller than 6'2 as well. We will just have to agree to disagree. And his coaching is light years better than what we have now.

Agree to disagree. Although I think Ping Cao is one of the top five club coaches in America and arguably the top

Ubderstood. Two of my daughters played for him, so I will admit I am biased. . Have a good day and let's hope the Ags play like their capable of today. Gigem!

What TAMU has in their favor is played Wednesday and only three sets. Georgia played a hard fought game against LSU in five on Friday.

This is probably the first of the next two games that will tell us where we really stand. Georgia and LSU were predicted to be three and four in the SEC by many. Georgia has somewhat lived up to expectations but LSU hasn't but is dangerous.

2:00 Sunday here at Reed

Just beat Georgia 3-2. Won first 2 sets lost next two then won the tiebreaker/overtime set 15-9.

Good job ladies.

Nice run in set three to get back into the set before losing it. Glad to get the win in the end

Frustrating end to the 4th set as it was 21-20 Georgia and 2 of their next 4 points were on our service errors.
Great to see the team recover in the 5th set.

Recruiting under the previous coaching staff wasn't poor. But it wasn't elite and to be a sweet 16 level team you need nearly elite recruiting and to find the diamond in the rough and train them up.

The comebacks against Georgia were great however still lost those sets but won the fifth.

I haven't seen a huge change in the team. We have played tight down the stretch last year and this year. What I have seen is a team that looked defeated last season earlier than normal. But the same issue plague this team in terms end of game tightness and suspect ball control and inability to connect with middle fluidly.

That said the new coaching staff hasn't gotten one recruit on this roster yet other than maybe a walk on and the transfer from NC who isn't seeing any real playing time . These are all recruits under the Corbelli's for the most part.
And I think that is where they may shine when they get their recruits. That said we are 2-0 and 9-5. But losses to Missouri State and at least a split against Oklahoma was expected. LSU is a mess right now I hope we can capitalize on that next week

Career high 32 kills for Hans tonight in the five set loss to Florida. First time Florida has lost a set in conference play this season. Stat wise A&M led in almost all team stats except blocks

Lost the first 2 sets, won the next 2, then lost the tiebreaker 15-13 in Florida. The girls got rolling and came close to winning the whole damn thing. Must have been a helluva match. Looks like Bird has them going in the right direction. I believe Florida is one of the two best teams in the SEC if not the best.

You can watch the replay of the match at http://www.espn.com/watch/player?categoryId=1905&id=3437519 .

For those who with cause have wondered whether this team is better than the previous years, this match could be the evidence that volleyball is going in the right direction. Florida is a true powerhouse and we had a legitimate chance to win. At least with respect to hitting power, UF's spikers looked like women playing among girls in terms of size. And yet, we found a way to overcome that physical advantage and bring it down to the last two points.

The real test will be Sunday at South Carolina. How many times have we seen an underdog A&M team almost win only to lay an egg the next game. South Carolina looks to be close to us having lost to Missouri last night 3 - 0 on the road after starting 4 - 0. A win against SC on the road will indicate that Coach Bird has managed to get the program really going.

Great comeback !!!!!

Service errors hurt - 13 - 4 .

Watched most of the game. They didn't "look" over-matched at all compared to last year. I'm liking the general vibe that team is giving off and hoping it translates to a good season.

Serving was definitely a problem especially the critical miss late in the 5th set.

I'm admit that I am no volleyball expert.

I didn't get to watch the match today against South Carolina. However, I did review the box score from today's match. We had 19 service errors in today's match. Hollan Hans is the only player on our team that serves hard. Thus, there is no excuse for any of the other players on our team to have a service error. The way we play defense maybe we should consider just serving underhand and putting the ball in play. I like our chances better under that approach.

During the broadcast they mentioned opposing teams have issues with serving errors when they play at South Carolina. The roof clearance is at the lowest allowable by the rules, and the overall dimensions of the gym messes with the depth perception.

One thing the team started to have success with in the 2nd set is quick setting to the freshman Austin-Roark.

Got ESPNPlus but couldn't get SECPlus even though our game showed - error message on all SEC games.

Same with Soccer ! Calls to ESPN and DirectTv frustrating .

Anybody else have this problem ?

The potential is there but our issues are on our side of the net. Can we get better talent in recruiting? Sure but that can be said for almost all programs except maybe the top 5-10 in the country.

Our issues stem from inability to stop unforced errors on our side of the net. Too many hitting errors and service errors. A poster above said we don't have but one server that serves aggressive. While I disagree slightly because we have girls who put pressure on the opponent beside Hans hard drop serve we also need to correct those. We had 30+ missed serves over the weekend in nine sets. If we are getting the team OOS in a high percentage then ok. But we are not.

I thought by now we would know where we are in conference but not sure yet. Lost to two of the top three and won against two of the bottom three so far who all were expected to be better than they are

Our wins are against teams with a collective record in conference of 4-13 and our losses against teams with a 10-1 record in conference.

I was happy with our level of play against Florida in the two sets I watched late. Hans had a player of the week type performance but probably won't get it simply because a couple of others had great weeks with their teams at least winning one match

It's about a general lack of talent, with one significant exception. I have watched several matches, and I am impressed by the spirit and intensity of the effort. I agree with the previous comment that this team has won matches that would have been losses in years past.

Give the coach time to cycle through LC's crew, and I am confident future results will be much more pleasing. In the meantime, support the team and appreciate every win.

I enjoy watching them play. It's decent volleyball though it isn't super high caliber at this point with all the unforced errors. It'll get better and maybe something will click this year to take them to a higher level.

To suggest we have a lack of talent is bull**** and just plain wrong. We have at least 4 top 100 players that were senior aces list given annually. Would have five if one didn't medically retire a year early

I haven't seen a difference in intensity at all from the last few years. You can see subtle things but it looks like the same team as last year but Hans is getting more kills OOS then last season. Conner has another year under her belt. I think people have to realize a few things about last year
Aiple medically retired leaving a freshman to run the offense a year earlier than expected.
Blake was hobbled the entire season and gutted it out before medically retiring before this season
Ball control was horrid last season. Add a freshman setter and a team built to win the middle for the last five years didnt work.
We played too many freshman at once due to necessity or because they won the job. There will be growing pains when that happens
The schedule was not a winning formula. #1 SOS will cause many programs to have a down year.

And before everyone says I am a Corbelli person I am a TAMU volleyball program. I was critical of the team before and at the same time excited in the same season under this new coaching staff and the old staff.

The problems with last year and this year are issues with ball control at times, a lack of a third offensive weapon per game. (When we win we usually have Hans and two others have above average games with one of those three well above average, when we lose it is due to too many unforced errors and a lack of second or third efficient attack).

Will we be better in the future? I don't know. It will be based upon coaching and more importantly recruiting which is an overnight thing. many of the top 2020 and 2021 recruits have already committed
I hope for improvement each match and see where that leads us this season. There are no givens sans Miss State in the SEC anymore. Third best conference in the nation behind the BIG 10 and PAC 12

It's not the current talent that's the problem, it's the coaching. I agree certain aspects of their play could use some improvement. However, the coaches (one in particular) would rather see which players can run 100 yard gassers the fastest as compared to playing individuals who have successfully played at a high level. I have never seen a Vball player have to run that distance to set/hit/dig a ball, but these coaches made personnel decisions this year based on the aforementioned. They are in over their heads.

Smada93 said:

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It's not the current talent that's the problem, it's the coaching. I agree certain aspects of their play could use some improvement. However, the coaches (one in particular) would rather see which players can run 100 yard gassers the fastest as compared to playing individuals who have successfully played at a high level. I have never seen a Vball player have to run that distance to set/hit/dig a ball, but these coaches made personnel decisions this year based on the aforementioned. They are in over their heads.

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The gassers have been around for a long time. Meaning the previous coaching staff and trainers began the training involving the gassers. The current coaching staff has continued this training and actually have given the training staff more freedom to train the girls before and during the season.
The gasser test has absolutely no bearing on who is playing or not playing, but instead is used as a guideline to asses the teams over all fitness.

natvet said:

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Smada93 said:

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It's not the current talent that's the problem, it's the coaching. I agree certain aspects of their play could use some improvement. However, the coaches (one in particular) would rather see which players can run 100 yard gassers the fastest as compared to playing individuals who have successfully played at a high level. I have never seen a Vball player have to run that distance to set/hit/dig a ball, but these coaches made personnel decisions this year based on the aforementioned. They are in over their heads.

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The gassers have been around for a long time. Meaning the previous coaching staff and trainers began the training involving the gassers. The current coaching staff has continued this training and actually have given the training staff more freedom to train the girls before and during the season.
The gasser test has absolutely no bearing on who is playing or not playing, but instead is used as a guideline to asses the teams over all fitness.

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One girl was cut due to fitness ability under current coaching staff She was a top recruit I am not saying why or what the girl didn't do or if it was justified or not because of "gassers". That is not my call. If the current staff had issue then ok to move on. If she wasn't prepared for this level or they wanted the scholarship for later is fine by me. I wouldn't expect the Corbelli recruits from 2020 and 21 to be gurenteed a spot under the new regime because that stifles the current staff in terms of recruiting. And that is where the new staff will make their presence known in recruiting and coaching their system which may mean their style of recruits

Someone posted a list of commits over the next 2-3 years in another thread. They are pretty much all from Houston with a couple of exceptions. I think part of the problem is we aren't recruiting Texas well. Houston has a couple of good clubs. Dallas has way more talent.