Sophomore Mary Batis goes for a kill in the third match Wednesday night against Kansas.

Aggies sweep Kansas

By: Clif Turner

Posted: 10/25/07

Texas A&M's sophomore duo of Sarah Ammerman and Mary Batis led the Aggie offensive attack Wednesday night in a three-game sweep of the Kansas Jayhawks 30-25, 30-27, 30-21. A&M improved to 17-6 on the season with a 6-6 mark in conference play while Kansas dropped to 10-12 for the year and 3-9 in the Big 12. The Jayhawks have lost four matches in a row including seven of their last eight while the Aggies have won four straight and five of their last six.

A&M fell behind early in game one as Kansas led by as many as six points in the frame before the Aggies closed in to tie and eventually take the lead on a 10-2 run behind the serves from Batis and junior Kelsey Bryant. The Jayhawks would get to within two points late at 27-25 before a kill from Bryant and a pair of kills from senior Kelly Stanton sealed the game for A&M.

The action went back and forth for much of the second game as the two squads were tied nine times. The frame's last deadlock came late at 25-25 and the Aggies pieced together a 5-2 run to take a two-game lead into the intermission.

In game three, A&M never trailed thanks to the help of opening with an 8-3 run. Kansas fought back to tie the game at 17-17 before the Aggies rattled off four points in a row to pull away. The Jayhawks tried to threaten once more by pulling to within four points at 24-20 but A&M answered by closing the game and the match on a 6-1 run that was anchored by a service ace from Bryant along with a pair of attack errors by the Jayhawks.

Ammerman and Batis combined for 29 of the Aggies' 52 kills and half of the team's 50 digs. Stanton led the squad with an individual hitting percentage of .562 and A&M hit for .308 as a team.

Kansas was led by efforts from senior Emily Brown who had 11 kills and senior Natalie Uhart who had an individual hitting percentage of .500. Freshman Melissa Manda led the Jayhawks with 16 digs as the team hit for a collective .176.

A&M entered the match ranked third in the league in aces a game, fourth in hitting percentage and digs a game, and fifth in kills and assists a game, in 12 conference matches.

"It's a great feeling to have another Big 12 win," said A&M Head Coach Laurie Corbelli. "You just can't take any Big 12 match at all lightly so we can appreciate that even though we did struggle at times, I felt, particularly on our blocking we made some good adjustments and we were able to stay calm and composed and get the victory."