11/27/02
Texas A&M 3, Texas 1
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| Mira Topic |
COLLEGE STATION, Texas
-- The University of Texas volleyball team dropped its final regular
season match to Texas A&M, 1-3 (30-23, 25-30, 29-31, 27-30) with
1,765 fans attending the match at G. Rollie White Coliseum on Wednesday
night.
Texas (22-8, 13-7 Big 12) hit for .303 for the match while Texas A&M
(19-9, 11-8 Big 12) had a .280 hitting percentage. It marks the first
match of the season in which the Longhorns hit over .300 and lost the
match.
Despite the loss, it was a good night for the Longhorns. Sophomore Mira
Topic (Kastela Kambelovac, Croatia/Vladimir Nazor) crossed over the
1,000 career kill plateau with 21 kills tonight while fellow sophomore
Kathy Hahn (Leander, Texas/Leander) set career highs for kills and fewest
attacking errors in a match. Hahn's previous high was 25 against Kansas
State on Nov. 4, 2000 and finished the evening with 27 kills on 38 attempts
with one error for a .684 hitting percentage. Topic added 15 kills for
her 11th double-double of the year and 29th of her career. Junior libero
Stacy Millichap (Woodside, Calif./UCLA) tied her career high of 20 digs
for the fourth time this season. Freshman Caron Blotch (Franklin, Ind./Franklin)
had 66 assists for the match, breaking her career-high of 60 she set
against Missouri on Oct. 26.
Sophomore Bethany Howden (Austin, Texas/Westlake) was the other Longhorn
with double-figures in the kills column with 14. Sophomore LaTonya Coates
(Bangor, Mich./Bangor Public) tallied 10 digs.
"I was happy with our performance in game one," said Texas
head coach Jerritt Elliott. "Now it is time for our team to regroup
and focus. We had a good season at 22-8, but everyone starts at 0-0
in the NCAA Tournament. I thought that Kathy Hahn had a phenomenal performance
and looked like a first-team All-American tonight."
Texas fought with the Aggies point by point in game one before pulling
away with a 30-24 win. The Longhorns hit .400 for the game with Hahn
and Topic tallying six kills each. Hahn was a perfect six for six in
attacks while Coates also did not make an error in her five attempts.
The first game saw 13 ties and eight lead changes. Texas grabbed the
lead for good at 15-14 off of an ace by Coates.
Texas hit .279 compared to A&M's .423 hitting percentage in the
second game as A&M won the game, 30-25. UT pulled out to an early
3-1 lead before the Aggies came back to take the lead at 12-6. The Horns
rallied back and closed the gap to 18-20. Texas A&M scored the last
eight of ten points off of kills. Hahn continued to be flawless on the
attack, putting down five kills on eight attempts.
After the break, the Aggies hurried out to a 3-8 lead before Texas attempted
to come back in game three. The Longhorns caught up at 18-all and expanded
their lead to 27-23 at one point. A&M came back using a combination
of Aggie kills and Longhorn errors to the final tie of 29-29. Back to
back attacking errors sealed the Longhorn fate, falling in game three
31-29.
The Aggies carried the momentum from the come from behind win in game
three to take game four, 30-27, by taking the lead early and not letting
go. Texas came within a point at 21-22 on a kill by Hahn. A&M responded
with a kill by senior A.D. Achilefu, who played her final home match
tonight. Texas made two costly service errors in the final nine points
of the match.
Texas will wait to receive its bid to the 2002 NCAA Tournament. Selections
will be announced on Sunday, Dec. 1 at 8 p.m. Central and fans can watch
the selection show on ESPNEWS. The ESPNEWS selection announcement can
be found on DirecTV at channel 207 and on Dish Network at channel 142.
In addition, some cable systems carry the ESPNEWS signal. Tournament
brackets will be made available after the announcement at www.ncaasports.com.
