University of Tennessee Athletics
TEXAS A&M DEFEATS WINTHROP, 3-0
December 03, 2004 | Volleyball
Dec. 3, 2004
The 18th-ranked Texas A&M volleyball team used a balanced attack to sweep Winthrop, 30-26, 30-23, 30-25, Friday night in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at the University of Tennessee's Stokely Athletics Center in Knoxville. The Aggies (19-8) will meet No. 12-seed Tennessee (31-2) on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. (CST) with a trip to the Sweet 16 on the line.
2004 NCAA VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
FIRST ROUND MATCH: Winthrop vs. Texas A&M
Dec. 3 * Stokely Athletics Center * Knoxville, Tenn.
Texas A&M Coach Laurie Corbelli
"We're really pleased with our performance. We physically have very strong blocking, and given that, we thought we might catch a few more blocks than we did. Having Melissa (Munsch) back helped the comfort level for everybody and made everyone more familiar, and that helped a lot. We started strong, and then we had a letdown with some errors, but I felt the team kept fighting back.
"We want great athletes in our program that can be versatile and hit various sets. Just having the speed and the verticals that these guys have is helpful. I felt like we scouted them well, and the team carried through the game plan very well. We wanted to stay balanced and spread our offense out, yet we wanted to stay real quick."
Texas A&M Senior Middle Blocker Melissa Munsch
"It was really exciting (on returning after sitting out due to injury recently). We've got a great team, and it's fun to be out there. Just the excitement and the love of the game, you can tell it really shows up out there."
Texas A&M Junior Middle Blocker Kendra Felder
"I think Kari (Kelley) did a great job of distributing it to where the ball could get to every hitter, so they weren't necessarily on me every time. Also, our passing was wonderful. I think we did a great job with that too."
Winthrop Coach Joel McCartney
"We obviously want to congratulate a great Texas A&M team. They did a really nice job at the net, which is what they do best. A big offensive team - I thought we held their block, and we were able to use their block. Our scouting report was showing that they were an incredibly strong blocking team, and I am very pleased that we held them to just five blocks on the match.
"But they hit .371 for the match, and their key players Laura Jones and Melissa Munsch, particularly, hitting .462 and .577 was just not something that our defense was able to handle, although we were prepared to handle. We essentially didn't ball control very well, but I wouldn't want to take anything away from a very nice Aggie team.
"I thought our lack of ball control is what took us out of this match. A&M did what they needed to do from a serve receive, one swing, side out, kind of firepower game, and we were willing to concede those things. If Jones was going to take a big bang, or really anybody for that matter, and we had two solidified blockers on that and they were going to score around that - we were willing to concede that. What we weren't willing to concede is when they're serving the ball in play and we're just simply not getting into systems to our setter to be able to set anybody in our offense.
"We thought that we were half the time out of systems, and most of that, I thought, was most of our own doing. We're willing to be out of systems if they're taking big rips, but we're not willing to be out of systems when they are just serving balls in seams that we need to be passing into our setter.
"I will say that Felder (Kendra) was a pleasant surprise for their team. In the scouting report, she certainly was a solid starter for them, but not a key go-to player, and she did a great job hitting .500 tonight and getting 20 swings. She was kind of the third dimension of that offense."
Winthrop Junior Outside Hitter Mary Hock
"Like coach said, we weren't able to ball control to take them out of their systems. We were expecting them to have big hitters, and that's what they came with. We did the best we could...they're a good team."
2004 NCAA VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
FIRST ROUND MATCH: Winthrop vs. Texas A&M
Dec. 3 * Stokely Athletics Center * Knoxville, Tenn.
Winthrop Notes
- With the loss, Winthrop falls to 31-4 on the season and 0-4 all-time in NCAA Tournament play
- The Eagles' victory total is a school record
- Winthrop made its third consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament, earning the automatic bid by winning the Big South Conference Tournament
- After winning 20 straight matches, WU closed out the 2004 campaign with back-to-back 3-0 setbacks
- The other came at the hands of Georgia Tech in Atlanta on Nov. 26
- The 2004 Big South Player of the Year, junior outside hitter Mary Hock, added to her school-record kill total, registering eight tonight to wrap up the campaign with 1,564
- Sophomore setter Emily Heckl rang up 37 assists vs. Texas A&M, winding up with a Winthrop season-record 1,683 in 2004
- With the win, Texas A&M moves to 19-8 on the campaign
- The Aggies improved to 20-15 all-time in NCAA Tournament play
- Texas A&M is making its 12th-consecutive at-large appearance in the NCAA field and its 16th trip ever
- A&M has never lost an NCAA first-round match in Laurie Corbelli's 12 years as head coach at A&M, going 11-0
- The 3-0 victory over Winthrop is the Aggies' 10th sweep of the season
- Senior defensive specialist Lindsay Frantz recorded her 11th double-figure dig match, tallying11
- Texas A&M entered the match with WU ranked 12th in the nation in blocks per game (3.17 bpg) and out-blocked its opponent for the 22nd time in 27 contests
