A tune-up is in order for the Ags.
No. 15 Texas A&M volleyball welcomes Stephen F. Austin to Reed Arena on Tuesday night after an optimistic week against two top-10 foes.
A&M split their two games against No. 4 Stanford and No. 6 Wisconsin, showing much-improved play in their decisive 3-1 win over the Cardinals.
“We're in a different spot with our program,” head coach Jamie Morrison said on Monday. “I told our team, they were disappointed that we didn't beat both of those teams, and that's just proof that we're good, and that's proof that we believe that we're good.”
The Aggies saw an upgrade in hitting percentage, hitting a season-high .344 against Stanford, a notable .105 points above their season average.
“Whenever you have a young team, it's like you have these peaks, and you have these valleys of how they start to even out with time,” Morrison said. “I think you're kind of seeing that across the board right now.”
The return of senior outside hitter Kyndal Stowers has paid dividends for the Aggies as a whole, with her already ranking fourth on the team in kills and third in digs, even after missing the first five games of the season.
Emerging as a contributor to the A&M offense has been junior middle blocker Kaia Castle. The Ohio State transfer set a career high in kills with 19 in the match against Wisconsin, hitting at a staggering .576 clip.
Even with vast improvements in play, work still needs to be done.
The Aggies have shown struggles serving the ball this season, combining for 12 service errors over their last two matches.
“I think if you go back to some of those service errors, they're not aggressive in any way, shape or form,” Morrison said. “We want to make people earn points. But at the same time, we play this game where you have this thin line between aggressive and safe, and you've got to make sure you're straddling it every single match.”
A&M will get a perfect opportunity to clean things up against SFA before yet another ranked matchup in No. 20 Creighton.
SFA is coming off of a strong 2025 campaign, going 23-8 and winning the Southland Conference Tournament for a berth in the NCAA Tournament.
The Ladyjacks wrapped up their 2025 season at Reed Arena, falling to TCU in three sets.
The Aggies will be just the second Power Four team SFA has played this season, falling to Cal in a three-set battle.
Overall, SFA holds a 4-5 record and has been outhit .197 to .232.
For A&M, this match will be all about fine-tuning as non-conference play comes to a close.
“The thing that is scary is this group has a lot of room to improve,” Morrison said. “We're continuing to do that every single day. We talked about pushing in the race that it's going to be to the end of this season.”
First serve is slated for 6 p.m. CT.
