The Horns Lose a Heartbreaker in College Station

The Longhorns took their first loss of the season in College Station on Halloween night, losing to the Aggies in a nailbiter 25-19, 25-23, 17-25, 19-25, 15-13. The match set a new attendance record for Texas A&M, replacing the old record set in last year's rivalry match between the two teams. Texas fans traveled with the team, enough to get multiple Texas Fights chants going in Reed Arena.

To be straight with you, this one stings. After a long moment in the locker room following the match, an emotional Jerritt Elliott said "we had some opportunities to win that match, but we made it really difficult on ourselves by the way that we showed up," adding "we didn't execute the level that we can."

Throughout the match, Texas relied upon Torrey Stafford and Abby Vander Wal for most of their offensive production. The outside duo earned 24 and 19 kills, hitting .348 and .389, respectively. In fact, the offense was successful overall in the match. It was the defense that couldn't quite match up with the Aggies' firey offense.

Before the match, I mentioned how critical it was to shut down Logan Lednicky, and for the most part that was done. The All-American earned only 12 kills and hit .154 on the night. But Baylor transfer Kyndal Stowers and Ifenna Cos-Okpalla stole the show. Coach Elliott mentioned the team's struggles in the blocking phase, with the team only posting 4 blocks in the 5-set match. "It's something that we've been working on a lot, but our numbers have not been up to par all year long," but also adding "the block weren't what cost us the match."

It was more about executing in the big moments. Texas had a 22-18 lead in the second set and looked ready to tie the match up at one set a piece. But you could feel the momentum shift in that road environment, and that one slipped away. In the fifth set, Cos-Okpalla was responsible for the kills that won each of A&M's last three points. Elliott gave credit to Cos-Okpalla and to A&M as a whole, saying "sometimes you can be really good, and teams are just better than you. She was better than us there."

But Coach Elliott put it all into a broader context. "The biggest thing is that we stay together," adding that in his 25 years of coaching at Texas, "I've never been part of a team that's gone undefeated on the whole season." The team has no time to dwell on this loss with another marquee matchup set on Sunday @ 12 pm back at home in Gregory gym. The SEC tournament may provide an opportunity to get some revenge on the Aggies. But for now, the focus turns completely towards Kentucky.