Opponent: Arkansas State (0-0)
Date: August 28
Time: 7:30
Location: Reed Arena - College Station, Texas
Streaming: SEC Network +
Stats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/mobile/?id=671262
Invitational Home Page: https://12thman.com/sports/volleyball/2026-tamu-invitational
Game Preview
Howdy my fellow Aggie Volleyball National Championship fans and welcome back to another game thread, that's right two matches on the same day. The Aggies just got done playing against Grand Canyon winning 3 sets to 1 and earning their first win of the 2026 season after capturing the national title in 2025. The Aggies will get their rest before lining up at the net to take on Arkansas State tonight at 7:30, then Cal Poly 7pm on Saturday night.
However, tonight is special and I really hope you can make it out to Reed Arena. I get emotional typing this and I know not many of you will even read this, but later tonight we get to be a part of something magical and special. Tonight before the first serve, we will witness the unveiling of our 2025 national championship banner in the rafters of Reed Arena. It's crazy how one piece of cloth can define what was seen as a historic and legendary run of events but at the same time still not be enough to encapsulate all that was accomplished. Our Aggies reached the mountaintop in dominating and historic fashion, they had an amazing season that ultimately led to the takedown of a 33-0 team, another 1 seed led by the back to back national player of the year, and another 1 seed who had beaten you on your home court months prior. Giants slayed, and a new name atop the collegiate volleyball world. Texas A&M University - your 2025 NCAA Volleyball National Champions. Go enjoy that banner drop. If you watched all 33 matches and 118 sets or if you only saw 1 match and 3 sets, you were part of this run and you deserve to celebrate that banner being dropped. Embrace it, enjoy it, and soak it all in, we are National Champions and that banner not only belongs to Jamie Morrison, his staff, those 17 girls, the university, but to the 12th Man and all of you! Cheers to you my national championship Aggie friends! (Emphatically gives you a Gig'em)
After a rough weekend last time out, how sweet it is to be back at home, in front of the 12th Man, in our home gym. After picking up our first win against Grand Canyon, it's time to keep adding to the win column with a match against Arkansas State, the reigning Sun Belt Champions. Again, they were picked to finish first in the Sun Belt. They did run a 6-2 last year but their setter Erin Madigan, who stands at 6'2, was the preseason conference setter of the year, so we'll see if they run a 5-1 or 6-2 offense. They bring back their top two hitters in 6'0 opposite Addison Collum and 5'8 outside hitter Kaitlin Whitlock. They also bring back their star libero Mia Maloney who is a strong server as well and Haley Glunz, their second best blocker in 2025. It will be their first match, but they are no slouch. They're a tourney team who nearly upset Baylor in round one returning 5 starters and they expect to be back in the tourney and make some noise past the first round.
As for us, I would assume we don't see Kyndal Stowers out there, but she could ultimately be playing. The Aggies should still be the favorites without her, but will need to play their best. The home crowd and home gym will be a bonus, but we'll need to clean up on our errors and poor execution from last weekend. We'll need to bring more pressure from the service line, we'll need to have a more efficient block, we'll need better and quicker sets, we'll need to have less hitting errors and terminate more balls. As the season progresses we'll hopefully see improvement in these areas as our ladies get used to playing with one another and get stronger as we get closer to December. We played 3 good sets against GCU, but faltered in the third. We need to play a lot more cleaner and efficient in all facets.
Like I mentioned before we played Louisville, every game we play we will have a huge target on our back. The reining national champions, the defending national champions, everyone wants that headline or Instagram post saying they took us down. Every single match, that target is there, we will get the best from everyone we like up against. Well let's ruin their plans and show them the standard that is Texas A&M Aggie Volleyball. Let's show them our standard and what the 12th Man is all about. There's levels to this and they aren't coming on our court and leaving with a win. Although this is not a typical group of 5 volleyball team, they are an at large level type squad who will be looking to spoil our banner drop. We're Texas A&M Volleyball and there's a reason that banner is hanging in the rafters… BTHO arkansas state
Date: August 28
Time: 7:30
Location: Reed Arena - College Station, Texas
Streaming: SEC Network +
Stats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/mobile/?id=671262
Invitational Home Page: https://12thman.com/sports/volleyball/2026-tamu-invitational
Game Preview
Howdy my fellow Aggie Volleyball National Championship fans and welcome back to another game thread, that's right two matches on the same day. The Aggies just got done playing against Grand Canyon winning 3 sets to 1 and earning their first win of the 2026 season after capturing the national title in 2025. The Aggies will get their rest before lining up at the net to take on Arkansas State tonight at 7:30, then Cal Poly 7pm on Saturday night.
However, tonight is special and I really hope you can make it out to Reed Arena. I get emotional typing this and I know not many of you will even read this, but later tonight we get to be a part of something magical and special. Tonight before the first serve, we will witness the unveiling of our 2025 national championship banner in the rafters of Reed Arena. It's crazy how one piece of cloth can define what was seen as a historic and legendary run of events but at the same time still not be enough to encapsulate all that was accomplished. Our Aggies reached the mountaintop in dominating and historic fashion, they had an amazing season that ultimately led to the takedown of a 33-0 team, another 1 seed led by the back to back national player of the year, and another 1 seed who had beaten you on your home court months prior. Giants slayed, and a new name atop the collegiate volleyball world. Texas A&M University - your 2025 NCAA Volleyball National Champions. Go enjoy that banner drop. If you watched all 33 matches and 118 sets or if you only saw 1 match and 3 sets, you were part of this run and you deserve to celebrate that banner being dropped. Embrace it, enjoy it, and soak it all in, we are National Champions and that banner not only belongs to Jamie Morrison, his staff, those 17 girls, the university, but to the 12th Man and all of you! Cheers to you my national championship Aggie friends! (Emphatically gives you a Gig'em)
After a rough weekend last time out, how sweet it is to be back at home, in front of the 12th Man, in our home gym. After picking up our first win against Grand Canyon, it's time to keep adding to the win column with a match against Arkansas State, the reigning Sun Belt Champions. Again, they were picked to finish first in the Sun Belt. They did run a 6-2 last year but their setter Erin Madigan, who stands at 6'2, was the preseason conference setter of the year, so we'll see if they run a 5-1 or 6-2 offense. They bring back their top two hitters in 6'0 opposite Addison Collum and 5'8 outside hitter Kaitlin Whitlock. They also bring back their star libero Mia Maloney who is a strong server as well and Haley Glunz, their second best blocker in 2025. It will be their first match, but they are no slouch. They're a tourney team who nearly upset Baylor in round one returning 5 starters and they expect to be back in the tourney and make some noise past the first round.
As for us, I would assume we don't see Kyndal Stowers out there, but she could ultimately be playing. The Aggies should still be the favorites without her, but will need to play their best. The home crowd and home gym will be a bonus, but we'll need to clean up on our errors and poor execution from last weekend. We'll need to bring more pressure from the service line, we'll need to have a more efficient block, we'll need better and quicker sets, we'll need to have less hitting errors and terminate more balls. As the season progresses we'll hopefully see improvement in these areas as our ladies get used to playing with one another and get stronger as we get closer to December. We played 3 good sets against GCU, but faltered in the third. We need to play a lot more cleaner and efficient in all facets.
Like I mentioned before we played Louisville, every game we play we will have a huge target on our back. The reining national champions, the defending national champions, everyone wants that headline or Instagram post saying they took us down. Every single match, that target is there, we will get the best from everyone we like up against. Well let's ruin their plans and show them the standard that is Texas A&M Aggie Volleyball. Let's show them our standard and what the 12th Man is all about. There's levels to this and they aren't coming on our court and leaving with a win. Although this is not a typical group of 5 volleyball team, they are an at large level type squad who will be looking to spoil our banner drop. We're Texas A&M Volleyball and there's a reason that banner is hanging in the rafters… BTHO arkansas state
