Texas A&M's final home weekend begins with 3-1 win over Georgia
Down go the Dawgs.
On Friday night, Texas A&M (17-7, 8-6) continued conference play with a 3-1 win against the Georgia Bulldogs at Reed Arena (18-25, 25-20, 25-19, 25-18).
“I look around in some of the matches, and I try to have a moment of gratitude for every match,” said A&M head coach Jamie Morrison. “To the overall 12th Man, thank you for coming in and falling in love with this team.”
The Aggies captured the momentum early in the first set, scoring three out of the first four points by capitalizing on Georgia errors. Combined with four blocks and a flurry of attacks by the A&M front line, the home side built a four-point lead midway through the first set.
Then, the momentum shifted in the Bulldogs' favor, with Georgia taking a 21-17 lead and ultimately winning the opening set 25-18.
A&M held a sub-par hitting percentage of .148 with 18 kills. Conversely, Georgia’s hitting percentage of .200 was enough to take the early lead.
The Aggie cold streak continued to open the second. They gave up the first three points but evened the score at 6-5 and then maintained their lead throughout the first half. Georgia called a timeout after a 3-0 scoring run extended A&M’s lead to 11-7.
Morrison’s squad maintained its lead throughout the second, leading 20-16 before Georgia called another timeout. A flurry of offensive and defensive mistakes gave the Bulldogs a 3-0 run and closed the gap to 21-20.
However, back-to-back Aggie blocks gave them the two points needed to secure the second set 25-20.
Both teams played the penultimate set on nearly equal footing and were tied 15-15 at one point.
A strong offensive showing and errors from the opposite side of the net meant the Aggies led 21-16. Georgia called timeout after a 4-0 scoring run, but to no avail. Margot Manning took her fifth serve in a row; Georgia returned, and Morgan Perkins went up for a block to seal the 5-0 scoring streak.
The Aggies won set three 25-19 with the hot hand.
Set four was primed to be one of the best of the night.
The Aggies had finally found their groove vs. a Georgia team fighting to stay alive. Just as the fallacy says, ride the hot hand. A 6-1 scoring run for A&M gave Morrison & Co. an early 14-10 lead.
Reed Arena erupted into cheers as Logan Lednicky ended the game with a spike from the right side of the net to seal the fourth 25-18. The victory marked the Aggies' ninth home win of the year.
“You got one more chance on Sunday,” Morrison said. “Hopefully, knock on wood, if things go really well, maybe we host the first couple of rounds here.
Ifenna Cos-Okpalla tied A&M’s program record for blocks in a match with 13.
“I was kind of just taking what I was seeing,” said Cos-Okpalla. “My opposite right here and my outside are always talking to me and, like, telling me where they were going, so it kind of helped make things easier in my head.”
Lednicky also hit 250 career blocks, and Friday's 15 kills put her at No. 15 on the all-time list at Texas A&M.
“We practice that a lot, just in the gym every day,” said Lednicky. “Just hitting independent hands, being able to visualize where the ball is going to go and get up and press. I think we all did a very good job at that today.”
The Ags finish the weekend on Sunday when they take on LSU to close out the home slate.
The first serve is scheduled for 2 p.m. CT.