Tennessee Ties Season-High in Kills, Falls in a Heartbreaker to Texas A&M in Five

Saturday, September 24

College Station, TX

3 PM

University of Tennessee

7-7,1-1SEC

Texas A&M

10-3,2-0SEC

Tennessee

Texas A&M

Tennessee Ties Season-High in Kills, Falls in a Heartbreaker to Texas A&M in Five

September 24, 2022 | Volleyball

Box Score Box Score

BRYAN-COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The Lady Vols volleyball team tied their season-high in kills Saturday but fell in a heartbreaker to Texas A&M in five sets (19-25, 25-23, 25-23, 17-25, 16-18) at Reed Arena.

Tennessee (7-7, 1-1 SEC) hit .276 for the match and scored 60 kills for the third time this season. Attackers Morgahn Fingall and Erykah Lovett led the team with 18 kills – Fingall hit .304 for the match with Lovett swinging at .255 percent.

Redshirt freshman Klaudia Pawlik tallied a career-high eight kills and posted three blocks on Saturday, while setter Natalie Hayward earned her fourth double-double of the season with 47 assists and 10 digs. The senior also added four blocks.

Flower Mound, Texas, native Emily Merrick put down nine kills and freshman middle blocker Keondreya Granberry notched five kills and five total blocks – two solo and three assisted.

For the seventh time in the series and for the fifth time in the last seven matches the Lady Vols and Aggies played to five sets.

Texas A&M (10-3, 2-0 SEC) took the opening set, 25-19, on the back of a .467 hit percentage. Caroline Meuth hit .600 and scored seven kills for the Aggies. For UT, it hit .310 in the frame and spread the wealth around as Fingall and Pawlik put down four kills, with Lovett getting three. Granberry, Hayward and Merrick all notched one kill.

Tennessee bounced back in the second set, winning 25-23. UT out-hit Texas A&M .242 to .154 and received four kills from Merrick and three from Lovett. Granberry notched a pair of kills and posted three of her five blocks in the frame.

The Lady Vols won the third set by the same score – 25-23. They again out-hit the Aggies .205 to .105 and used four kills from Fingall and three from Lovett to take a two-sets-to-one lead in the match.

In the fourth, Texas A&M found its rhythm on offense as it hit .484 and put away 18 kills. Meuth led the Aggies to a 25-17 win as she scored eight kills. On UT's side of the net, Fingall earned nine of its 12 kills in the set.

The fifth set was tight throughout as Tennessee hit .417 with 11 kills to Texas A&M's 13 kills on a .524 hit percentage. The Lady Vols committed just one error in attack, while the Aggies committed two. Both teams scored an ace, but UT suffered three service errors to Texas A&M's two.

Lovett led the Orange & White with seven kills in the frame, while Meuth carried the Aggies to the win, 18-16, on six kills.

Tennessee and Texas A&M were tied six times in the final frame and swapped the lead twice.

UP NEXT
The Lady Vols and Aggies conclude the two-match series on Sunday. The opening serve from Reed Arena is slated for 3 p.m. ET and the match is available to be streamed on SECN+ or through the ESPN app.