Texas A&M volleyball improves to 4-0 with Friday sweep of Texas State
As Reed begins to rock, the Aggies are officially on a roll.
Texas A&M volleyball (4-0) remained unbeaten on Friday night as the Maroon & White once again earned a sweep, downing in-state rival Texas State (3-2), 3-0 (25-13, 26-24, 25-19).
Beyond being undefeated, the Aggies have won 12 of the 13 sets they've played.
The non-conference draw drew the fourth-largest crowd in program history as 3,361 turned out to see Jamie Morrison & Co. continue their hot start.
"This is starting to become what I envisioned," the A&M head coach said postgame. "Our goal is to keep bringing people and get them to fall in love with our girls and the game of volleyball. It's headed there, and I couldn't be more excited."
Excitement aside, Morrison wouldn't call it a "hot start."
Instead, it's just another step along the path of surpassing the success of his debut season in 2023.
"It's the product of a lot of work," Morrison said. "We're a year-and-a-half in. Our staff is really good at teaching the game of volleyball, and I always say talent takes time. It's not something that happens overnight. Our girls have bought into that. They've gotten better every single day.
"We're doing the right things, and that leads to results. There is no shortcut to that."
Doing the work on Friday, Logan Lednicky led with 19 kills. Taylor Humphrey joined her in double figures with 10.
Reigning SEC Setter of the Week Maddie Waak tallied 38 assists.
Ifenna Cos-Okpalla was in on four of A&M's seven blocks and showed her strength on a first-set kill that ricocheted off a Bobcat and struck the underside of the center-hung scoreboard.
"I thought it was a really good win," Lednicky said. "Coming in here, having Reed packed with as many students as we did was super fun and just putting on a show for them."
A&M's strength and height overwhelmed the Bobcats as they hit a mediocre .169.
Bookending the match, the first and third sets closely resembled each other due to Aggie dominance.
The Ags had more first-set kills (17) than Texas State points (13), with the Bobcats hitting in the red at -.115 in the frame.
Similarly, A&M built a quick 7-2 lead in the third, and the advantage never shrunk below four.
Texas State battled in the second, forcing Morrison to call a timeout with A&M trailing 13-8.
"I thought we came out a little bit sloppy, and during one of the timeouts, we just talked about that," Morrison said. "Similar to previous matches, I liked that we stayed one point at a time.
"I didn't have much doubt that we were going to win at the end of that because we've done a really good job staying focused on this point and what I need to do to win it."
Down 16-9, the Aggies rallied back to pull even at 22-22 on an MJ McCurdy attack error.
Even at 24-24 and Lednicky behind the service line, claimed back-to-back points and sealed the set on an impressive Humphrey kill.
"It's only my second game playing for (A&M), but I have played against, and the crowd at Reed is unbeatable," said Waak, an LSU transfer. "When you put that many people in the stands, it's a hard place to play."
A year ago, A&M won its first seven matches and ultimately reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019.
With the Bobcats out of the way, Morrison's squad figures to have a great chance at equaling such a start, if not surpassing it.
Next weekend, Temple, New Hampshire and Louisiana come to Aggieland.
Those Eagles, Wildcats and Ragin' Cajuns have combined for a 7-7 record. Further, A&M was 8-1 against non-power conference opponents in 2023.
"We've got three days of practice, and we need to continue to get better because the SEC is coming," Morrison said. "We have a grind ahead of us, so it's again one match at a time, one day at a time, one practice at a time, one idea at a time that we're trying to learn. That will be the message starting on Monday when we get back into practice."
The Texas A&M Invitational awaits, beginning next Friday.
Expect Morrison's current roll to keep rocking.
