A&M volleyball pulls off reverse sweep to beat Mizzou in five sets
That’s how you get your first conference win of the season.
After a heartbreaking defeat earlier this weekend, Texas A&M went toe-to-toe against Missouri at Reed Arena on Sunday afternoon. The Aggies came away with a win via a reverse sweep over the Tigers to land their first conference victory, 3-2 (17-25, 20-25, 25-23, 25-21, 15-12).
Coming into this game, both teams had nine wins on the year, and Missouri had beaten LSU in their SEC opener 3-0 on Friday.
A&M looked to start Sunday’s match off hot out after falling to Texas on Friday, and they did just that by starting the game’s opening set with a 5-0 lead.
Kills from A&M’s stars, junior middle blocker Ifenna Cos-Okpalla and junior opposite Logan Lednicky, got it going for the Aggies early.
Acting like the 9-3 team they are, Missouri was not complacent.
Despite being in the hole early, the Tigers evened the score at 11-11, and they went on their own five-point run to make it 15-11. Missouri also tacked on four service aces to take the lead.
A&M head coach Jamie Morrison called a timeout to get the Aggies back in order, and the Aggies finally scored to make it 16-12. However, the Tigers kept their composure and expanded the lead to 21-14, with some of Missouri’s key kills coming from graduate middle blocker Colleen Finney and graduate outside hitter Mychael Vernon.
Sloppy play with many miscues plagued A&M in the first frame, and Missouri was able to take it 25-17 as a result.
Mizzou’s seven service aces and the Aggies’ four service errors were the main difference in this portion of the match, and the Tigers were able to rebound soundly after the early deficit with a .522 hitting percentage.
The Tigers continued hot in the second set, jumping out to a 7-2 lead. A&M kept it competitive, and later, the Maroon & White continued to apply pressure to make it a one-point game for much of the second.
But as the Longhorns did on multiple occasions Friday, the Tigers pulled away. Missouri went on an 8-3 run to close it out and take the 2-0 advantage.
While the Tigers took the first two sets of the match, the Aggies stayed in it.
The third began with the A&M taking a 5-4 lead, with points coming off kills from junior setter Maddie Waak and junior outside hitter Emily Hellmuth.
Hellmuth would end up leading the team with a season-high 19 kills on the day.
“I started off a little slow,” Hellmuth said. “Eventually, I just got to the point where I’m like, ‘You know what? I’m just going to jump higher and hit harder than them.’”
Missouri shut out the crowd noise and grabbed an 8-7 lead after some substitutions by head coach Dawn Sullivan, and the Tigers took a commanding 19-14 lead after they put down eight kills for their next 11 points.
But as Aggies say, you’ve never seen ‘em quit.
With Missouri up 22-16, A&M erupted for five straight points to make it 22-21. The Tigers got another point from senior right side hitter Jordan Iliff that made it 23-21, but the Aggies scored four straight points to win the third set 25-23.
The nail in the coffin was a kill from redshirt sophomore opposite hitter Ital Lopuyo.
It was pure energy and electricity in set four, with each team trading their fair share of blows.
The teams continued to trade points aplenty, and it was eventually knotted at 15-15 until a block from Lopuyo finally gave them the lead back at 16-15.
With a late lead intact, it was finally the Aggies’ turn to put the pedal to the metal and pull away in a set. The Tigers never saw the lead again.
A&M put the finishing touch on the fourth set with a kill from junior outside hitter Brooke Jeffrey for the 25-21 win.
The Maroon & White began the fifth and final stanza with a bang as the Aggies jumped out to a 3-0 lead with kills from Morgan Perkins and Lednicky. A&M had all the momentum and then some, and it was clearly rattling Missouri.
“It was an amazing feeling, especially after Texas,” Perkins said.
However, the Tigers stayed alive and made it a 10-10 set thanks to some kills from Vernon.
However, it was too little, too late.
The Aggies scored five of the game’s last seven points, and they claimed the 15-12 win off a service ace from junior defensive specialist Ava Underwood.
It was a game that the team will remember for a long time, and it is also a program milestone. The win was A&M’s first reverse sweep over an opponent since 2015.
“We find ways to win,” Morrison said. “Pretty much every single player on our team touched the floor tonight to help us win in some way, shape, or form.”
Next up is A&M’s first SEC road trip of the season to Auburn on Sunday, Oct. 6.
First serve is set for 2 p.m. Ct.