Went back through the match (stress free second time).

Besides the observations above (better passing, and kept service pressure up making life difficult for KU offense)…

1) it was a tale of two OH2s. Nat had 12 kills on 33 swings, most of them blistering. Thigpen had a brutal showing with 1 kill hitting negative .250. Morris and (I think) Castle dominated that side defensively whenever she attacked. They pulled her at one point then put her back in but she looked kind of shell shocked.
2) Deleye and their opposite Gaerte had a solid game as expected. Gaerte actually led KU in digs which is… weird especially with their all American libero on the floor. I couldn't tell if we were intentionally targeting Gaerte on our attacks?
3) between a healthy Deleye (played on torn meniscus last season), Gaerte joining from the portal and Thigpen moving back to her natural OH position I think KU replaced any productivity lost from Hudson graduating. Carr is a really solid, experienced middle, and their libero and setter are some of the best at their position. This is a really good team we just beat in their home that has at least 3 all Americans on the floor.

Time to recharge, put this week behind us and get ready to defend Reed.

FriscoKid said:

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That was a sharp angle to close it out.

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I see what you did there

Often Kansas is referenced as KU and Kentucky as UK.

McInnis said:

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Margo is our setter right? So why was she hanging out at the net on the first point, which she made a great play on. Doesn't the setter usually play behind the line?

Also the announcer said the Aggies made their opponents work hard for sideouts. Someone mentioned that on this thread yesterday. What does that mean?

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We had first serve and for whatever reason, the setter started in zone 2. She is playing front row so needs to help defend/block on the right side. She only defends on the back line if her current rotation location is in the back.

This is the issue with having a short setter because she has to block on the right side. The opponent's best hitters are usually their OH so hits on their left side right into our setter.

As for what the announcer said, more than likely he/she was commenting on our tough serves and very strong block. When your opponent has serve, their mission is to get a "side out" which means to win a point as soon as possible to get the serve back. Since they are receiving the serve, that means they have the first attack and should have the advantage. But if our serve is tough, they can't get a good pass to the setter making it much more difficult to sideout. A good serve combined with a good block makes their work much harder. Good teams side out 75% of the time so if you can make a dent in that, that is a huge advantage. It's one of Morrison's core tenets and why we serve hard (and sometimes have a lot of serve errors) to put that extra pressure.

If you serve hard and get the opponent out of system, their hitting options are limited (usually to their OH) which makes blocking much easier as well.

Extra: FBSO stands for first ball side out. I think that is what the 75% is talking about (though not completely sure). It's what teams strive for on serve receive. When you are on serve receive, you want to immediately turn that first pass into a point and get the serve back. No rallies.

Extra extra: the term "sideout" was more meaningful 20 years ago because you only win points if you are serving. If you can't get a side out, meaning get the serve back, the other team is earning a lot of points while they have the serve.

coloradoag69 said:

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WITHOUT TAKING ANYTHING AWAY FROM OUR TEAM(I wanted to put that in all caps to deter backlash), I wonder if there was any UK hangover from their reverse sweep loss to UT, I think on Friday.

It was very much to our credit that we never gave UK a chance to really believe that they were in control of any of the three games. I don't think they had a lead larger than 2 or 3 points in any game, and that was early. By the middle of all the games, they were behind and had to be in a rather desperate mode mentally.

We really did well.

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My impression is that Jamie's staff is good at identifying and exploiting the opponents' particular weaknesses. So this result may not indicate that A&M has gotten so much better, nor that Kentucky has gotten worse.

I enjoyed series so much I went back and re-watched as well. No real insights as I'm still a volleyball newbie starting last year. But one general observation is I thought the announcers were outstanding and I'm very critical of most sports announcers. If the ladies are as dialed in during next few matches as they were yesterday they will be tough to beat.

SchizoAg said:

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coloradoag69 said:

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WITHOUT TAKING ANYTHING AWAY FROM OUR TEAM(I wanted to put that in all caps to deter backlash), I wonder if there was any UK hangover from their reverse sweep loss to UT, I think on Friday.

It was very much to our credit that we never gave UK a chance to really believe that they were in control of any of the three games. I don't think they had a lead larger than 2 or 3 points in any game, and that was early. By the middle of all the games, they were behind and had to be in a rather desperate mode mentally.

We really did well.

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My impression is that Jamie's staff is good at identifying and exploiting the opponents' particular weaknesses. So this result may not indicate that A&M has gotten so much better, nor that Kentucky has gotten worse.

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True, but Jamie has said his coaching philosophy is to limit the match specific stuff given to the players to 3 or fewer things. He wants the girls to be playing their game, not slowed down thinking about a whole list of situational/match specific stuff.

Things like where to serve on which rotation is a bit different. They have their plan from scouting and then changing that throughout the match. They are constantly communication that kind of stuff to the server before each serve, so not something the girls are having to think through during play.

Staff is constantly communicating with the players between serves. Each coach has a position responsibility and you can watch them come up to the sideline and make in game adjustments as they see something.

This was the first time I've seen this team play this cohesively - a complete and very determined effort. The middles middled, the outside hitters were extremely effective, the defensive effort was impressive (I think Gabi Rodriguez missed ONE ball she was in vicinity of towards the end of the 3rd set). We had Kyndal, Eliza, Kaia, Natalie, and TARYN MORRIS who blocked like a beast ((to me, one of the most effective players on the night defensively -- they could not find their way around her -- in addition to, of course, Sharp)). Margot Manning was just spot on with her setting and offensive management - so quick and so fast to her spots. It seemed to be the first match up in a very long time where the players knew their roles and played like a cohesive team. The match point was indicative of what I mean and what we all saw. Watch how they moved in sync...Gabi with the first dig, Kyndal with the second (up and then back into their zones, hitters with the touch blocks...just really good stuff), and then finally Eliza with the crazy angle kill.

We are finally a healthy team and hopefully this is the beginning of another run...

The back to back digs by Gabi and Kyndal on Deleye on match point was outstanding.

Passing stats:

Kentucky 2.16 (64): Deleye 2.20 (20), Ward 2.20 (20), Thigpen 1.75 (10), Tuozzo 2.56 (9), Watson 2.38 (4)

Texas A&M 2.23 (56): Applegate 2.35 (17), Stowers 2.13 (16), Rodriguez 2.33 (9), Fitch 2.56 (9), Ring 1.63 (4)

funny how a couple of people were saying Applegate was off...yet highest passer on the team during a match against a top 5 team

This past Sunday, ESPN delivered a top-10 all-time women's college volleyball match between @AggieVolleyball & @KentuckyVB on ABC#NCAAWVB pic.twitter.com/96aA2lXS2R

— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) October 28, 2026

volleyball interest is on the up. So glad we have Morrison to carry us with it!

Not bad competing with NFL in that time slot…