Despite 17 kills from junior Nakeyta Clair and a double-double from freshman Lexi Thompson, the Ole Miss Volleyball team was unable to knock off Texas A&M on the road, falling 3-1 (25-19, 16-25, 23-25, 18-25) here Sunday at Reed Arena.
Clair finished the day with a .405 hitting percentage for her 21st match above .300. She also added four blocks. Thompson posted her seventh double-double with 13 kills and 14 digs.
Sophomore setter Aubrey Edie finished the day with 53 assists and set the single season record with 1037. She also went over 2,000 for her career.
Errors plagued the Rebels as they finished with 25 to go with five service errors. Ole Miss hit .232 to A&M’s .303.
“I was really proud of the way that we played in the first set, we controlled the match offensively, and our serve-receive was spot on,” head coach Steven McRoberts said.. Aubrey did a good job of feeding our hitters. In the second set we just became a little too error prone and that fed into Texas A&M’s momentum. They did a good job the whole match of just not making errors. We doubled their errors in the match and still had a chance to go up 2-1, so that’s disappointing.”
In a back and forth first set, the Rebels went on a 3-0 run to break a 17-17 tie and force A&M to call timeout. A 5-2 run closed out the set for the Rebels 25-19. Clair hit .556 in the first set with 5 kills, and Laporte had 4 kills.
The second set began much like the first with both teams trading points. However, at 7-7, the Aggies went on a 4-0 run to take an 11-7 lead. Ole Miss got as close one (13-14), but A&M answered with an 11-3 run to close out the set 25-16 and even the match. The Rebels hit just .086 in the set after .333 in the first.
Set three, both teams continued to battle back and forth until A&M went on a 6-2 run to take a 20-16 lead. The Rebels closed to one (21-22) on a service error, but the Aggies won two straight to grab their first set point at 24-21. The Rebels fought off two set points, before Aggie Angela Lowak got the kill to clinch the set 25-23.
With momentum on the Aggies’ side, they built a 10-7 lead and never looked back. The Rebels could not answer, falling further behind, 21-16, before the Aggies closed it out 25-18.
The Rebels return home to host No. 17 Kentucky Friday, Nov. 14 at 6:30 p.m., at the Gillom Sports Center.
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—Ole Miss Sports Information