Opponent: south carolina (7-4, 0-1)
Aggie Record: (7-5, 0-0)
Aggie Rank: 16
Date: September 27
Time: 2:30
Location: The Beautiful Reed Arena - College Station, Texas
Streaming: SEC +
Tickets: https://12thmanfoundation.evenue.net/event/VB26/VB06
Live Stats: https://stats.statbroadcast.com/mobile/?id=671258
Match Preview
It's time. Conference play is here. The new look defending champions have gone through non conference and finished with a 7-5 record. Lots and lots of new faces, adversity faced, lessons learned. Now it's time, to take on our SEC foes and pick up some wins. Sunday afternoon the Aggies will host the South Carolina Gamecocks to open up 2026 conference play.
For those just tuning into conference play, the Aggies entered the 2026 season with 8 new players while having to replace almost their entire starting rotation. To smoothen that transition the Aggies only scheduled one of the toughest non conference schedules in the country with 3 top ten teams and 4 more ranked teams. This caused early problems for the rebuilt Aggies, who also faced injury problems early on. Our Aggies are battle tested and will go against a very top heavy SEC conference with little depth in the bottom half.
The Aggies have looked to 6'2 sophomore Kirra Musgrove to orchestrate the offense at the setter position. It took a couple games but she ultimately took over the position as has been progressing each match. She has some great weapons to set too. Atop that discussion is 2025 National Championship MVP Kyndal Stowers on the outside. Also on the outside she has options in Natalie Ring and Megan Fitch. On the opposite side she has fellow sophomore Taryn Morris who has had some really strong matches trying to fill Logan Lednicky's shoes. In the middle position she has transfers Eliza Sharp and Kaia Castle with Sharp well on her way to an all American accolade.
However, Sharp has been battling an injury and Castle missed last game to an illness so injuries are a concern for the SEC opener. Addi Applegate also missed last match as well. The Aggies plugged in Lufe Adedeji and Djurdja Stanojevic at the middle position and the Aggies didn't skip a beat. The young middles showed out and dominated in the matchup against Rice. We also saw some great play from Taryn Morris and Megan Fitch and the usual and now expected play from Gabi Rodriguez.
The 15 game conference schedule begins with a 3 game home stand in front of the best fans in the conference. South Carolina comes into town at 7-4 after losing its SEC opener in 5 sets to Georgia Wednesday night. They have only 3 other wins against power 4 teams, but neither of those wins were against 2025 tournament teams. South Carolina showed their fight against Georgia. They run a 6-2 offense with setters Kiana Dinn and Jillian Bohannon. So they will feature their hitters up front. Their go to options as of late are Ceci Vance, Olivia Borgman, and right side Elise Marchal. They also have two strong middles they love to set. Their passing is shaky so we must serve tough.
The trio of Sharp, Castle, and Applegate are all game time decisions, although I believe the latter 2 have a strong chance at seeing the court. With or without, we will be favored, but must play with intensity and bring it every set. I want to see some tough serving, tough blocking, great digs, great sets, and some powerful swings! Let's BTHO south carolina get this win streak to 4 and start SEC play 1-0!
Aggie Record: (7-5, 0-0)
Aggie Rank: 16
Date: September 27
Time: 2:30
Location: The Beautiful Reed Arena - College Station, Texas
Streaming: SEC +
Tickets: https://12thmanfoundation.evenue.net/event/VB26/VB06
Live Stats: https://stats.statbroadcast.com/mobile/?id=671258
Match Preview
It's time. Conference play is here. The new look defending champions have gone through non conference and finished with a 7-5 record. Lots and lots of new faces, adversity faced, lessons learned. Now it's time, to take on our SEC foes and pick up some wins. Sunday afternoon the Aggies will host the South Carolina Gamecocks to open up 2026 conference play.
For those just tuning into conference play, the Aggies entered the 2026 season with 8 new players while having to replace almost their entire starting rotation. To smoothen that transition the Aggies only scheduled one of the toughest non conference schedules in the country with 3 top ten teams and 4 more ranked teams. This caused early problems for the rebuilt Aggies, who also faced injury problems early on. Our Aggies are battle tested and will go against a very top heavy SEC conference with little depth in the bottom half.
The Aggies have looked to 6'2 sophomore Kirra Musgrove to orchestrate the offense at the setter position. It took a couple games but she ultimately took over the position as has been progressing each match. She has some great weapons to set too. Atop that discussion is 2025 National Championship MVP Kyndal Stowers on the outside. Also on the outside she has options in Natalie Ring and Megan Fitch. On the opposite side she has fellow sophomore Taryn Morris who has had some really strong matches trying to fill Logan Lednicky's shoes. In the middle position she has transfers Eliza Sharp and Kaia Castle with Sharp well on her way to an all American accolade.
However, Sharp has been battling an injury and Castle missed last game to an illness so injuries are a concern for the SEC opener. Addi Applegate also missed last match as well. The Aggies plugged in Lufe Adedeji and Djurdja Stanojevic at the middle position and the Aggies didn't skip a beat. The young middles showed out and dominated in the matchup against Rice. We also saw some great play from Taryn Morris and Megan Fitch and the usual and now expected play from Gabi Rodriguez.
The 15 game conference schedule begins with a 3 game home stand in front of the best fans in the conference. South Carolina comes into town at 7-4 after losing its SEC opener in 5 sets to Georgia Wednesday night. They have only 3 other wins against power 4 teams, but neither of those wins were against 2025 tournament teams. South Carolina showed their fight against Georgia. They run a 6-2 offense with setters Kiana Dinn and Jillian Bohannon. So they will feature their hitters up front. Their go to options as of late are Ceci Vance, Olivia Borgman, and right side Elise Marchal. They also have two strong middles they love to set. Their passing is shaky so we must serve tough.
The trio of Sharp, Castle, and Applegate are all game time decisions, although I believe the latter 2 have a strong chance at seeing the court. With or without, we will be favored, but must play with intensity and bring it every set. I want to see some tough serving, tough blocking, great digs, great sets, and some powerful swings! Let's BTHO south carolina get this win streak to 4 and start SEC play 1-0!
