COLOMBIA, South Carolina – The Texas A&M volleyball team opened the spring part of its 2020-21 season with a strong 3-1 win (25-20, 25-22, 16-25, 25-16) on the South Carolina Gamecocks on Wednesday at the Carolina Volleyball Center.
The victory increased the Aggies record to 5-4 and broke a four-game losing streak, Gamecocks dropped to 9-4. It was the Aggies’ first victory since defeating Ole Miss on October 23.
After the Gamecocks reached 2-1 with a 25-16 win in the third set, the Aggies ended the match with a torrid performance in the fourth set. The Aggies never lost in fourth place and led by at least five points after winning a 14-9 lead, while crossing for a 25-16 set win to grab the win.
After not seeing any competition for nearly three months, the Aggies caught fire in the first two sets against the Gamecocks. In the first set, the Aggies lost only twice – at 0-1 and 7-8 – and enjoyed an advantage of at least two points after 14-13. In the second, the Aggies faced adversities that saw the Gamecocks control much of the group. With the set tied at 22-22, the Aggies received a crucial second-year death from Morgan Christon, and then Christon pulled out for a 25-22 win.
Christon posted a total of 13 deaths on the team and was one of three Aggies with double-digit deaths. Also with more than 10 deaths was Lauren Davis, sophomore, with 12, and London Austin-Roark, with 10. Christon also scored 10 digs and senior Camille Conner led the way with 38 assists.
The Aggies will try to complete the sweep of the road over the Gamecocks with a 6 pm showdown on Thursday.
A&M TEXT QUOTES
Head coach Laura “Bird” Kuhn
About the thought process behind tonight’s schedule …
“We had a lot of time. I think the time was necessary, and this whole pre-season was much more natural. I know that basketball is happening and it was January, but it felt more like a normal preseason. We had a lot more time to compete. The competitive chemistry in the locker room has been incredible, and everyone who played won their place. Our players have gained a lot of confidence knowing that they have won their seats. “
About Morgan Christon’s improvement since the fall …
“I think it will always be a matter of consistency. Playing six spins, she was able to make a lot of really smart moves, even when she was in the back row. It will be about growth and she will continue to learn about her power, because she has a cannon in her arm. It’s about learning when you absolutely need to dunk a ball or finding out when you need to stay inside to get the ball back and possibly get a better set up. “
About the feeling in the locker room after the victory …
“I always think it is good to start with a victory. It’s a great foundation and a building block for us to improve, but we have to keep learning from things. In the third set of tonight, you never want to be left behind as we did as a coach, but we made an excellent response in the fourth. This is revealing, but our biggest challenge will return tomorrow. We have to get back to that immediately. This is a good [South Carolina] team, so we have to perform as well, if not better than we did tonight. “
Senior Setter Camille Conner
On the performance of the team in the first match of spring …
“It was an incredible feeling to win tonight. We had a different formation and a different look, and it was exciting to play that first set. It was so cool to see how everyone worked together. I think we made a lot of really good adjustments at the end of the third set, and that really gave the spark to our team. We were really able to get some momentum there and we won. “
On the importance of distributing the ball evenly …
“It is a great thing that we work at our academy. We absolutely love to involve the pins and our middle blockers in the attack in the most uniform way possible. We do our best to put them in different positions on the court for them to be successful. I think our hitters did an excellent job tonight. “
Junior blocker London Austin-Roark
About how the team prepared after the long break …
“I feel that we worked hard to create a game-like environment in practice, so it was very natural to enter. I think everyone is always ready to play their part, do their part and help our team. We take everything from point to point, so even when we make a mistake, we do our best to learn from them and move on. We are treating this as a new season and we said that we are starting from the beginning. Let’s learn from our mistakes in our last four games in the fall and move on. “
Producing momentum in the fourth set …
“We talked a lot about the momentum in our academy and I think that our ability to respond at the end of the third set gave us the momentum to move on to the fourth set. We took that energy to grind and fight, and we took that to the fourth set to get the victory. I think we did very well, even though we could have responded better in that third set, we really went back to fighting with each other to get back in the game ”.