GAME DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NCAA VOLLEYBALL TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND
Matchup: #6 Texas A&M (19-7) vs #11 Colorado State (20-10)
Date: December 6
Time: 5:30 central time
Location: Tempe, Arizona - Arizona State University
Watch: ESPN+
Stats:
https://12thman.com/sidearmstats/wvball/summaryGentlemen get your shoe shining materials out, ladies get your most elegant heels… ITS TIME TO GO DANCING! Today, our fightin' Texas Aggie Volleyball team will play in the 2024 NCAA Volleyball Tournament.
Our ladies finished the year 19-7, 10-6 and 5th in SEC play to earn a 6 seed. They are headed to Arizona State for a first round matchup against 11 seed Colorado State who finished the year 20-10 and Mountain West Champions.
Colorado State obviously plays in a weaker conference but they were tested in non conference, they picked up losses to Florida, Michigan State, Northern Colorado, Oregon, Notre Dame, Colorado, before dropping 4 matches in conference play. They are led by Mountain West Player of the Year 6'0 Opposite Hitter Malaya Jones who was 4TH in the entire country in kills! Who averages over 18 kills a match! She has a powerful arm and their entire offense runs through her! Their setter Emery Herman was 8th in the country in assists. They have veteran solid middles.
Their offense is one dimensional and our block will be key to this game, as well as serving them out of system! Not just Ifenna and Morgan in the middle, but Hellmuth/Humphrey as well as Waak and Lednicky need to be present and strong at the net defensively. I saw a YouTube video where an analyst said that Colorado State has struggled against lefty opposite hitters, so HELLO LOGAN LEDNICKY!
We are riding a 4 game winning streak where we have played efficient and with a versatile attack! Serving and serve receive will be of the utmost important! Clean first passes and I think we should be able to run our offense smoothly! Lednicky should have a field day, tournaments like these are where your stars shine! I expect our middles to have a great day as well offensively! They won't be ready for Cos-Okpalla and Perkins hard swings in the middle! I hope our serving game is on today, we don't need a perfect serving game, a couple girls with multiple aces and collectively in single digit serving errors and we should be okay!
However, anything can happen! We saw multiple upsets in the first round including a 5 seed go down! So we will have to be at the top of our game to advance to the round of 32 in a potential matchup with the winner of host 4 seed Arizona State or 13 seed New Hampshire! It's gonna be a battle later on this evening and they won't go down easily! Don't expect a sweep or easy matchup based on seeding! It's anyone's match but my money is with the ladies in maroon and white! Gig'em and BTHO Colorado State!