The No. 2 Texas Longhorns (18-0) travel to College Station on Friday for a rivalry match against the No. 9 Texas A&M Aggies (17-3) at Reed Arena in a top-10 volleyball showdown. This is the 102nd Lone
Star Showdown between the two longtime rivals with the Longhorns leading the series 77-24, including a 26-13 away record in College Station. Texas head coach Jerritt Elliott holds a 25-8 record with a 9-6 advantage on the road against A&M. It’s the 10th match against a ranked opponent for the Longhorns and the sixth match against a top-10 opponent.
Currently on a five-game winning streak, the Aggies are now 9-1 in SEC play, its best start since joining the conference in 2012. In a sweep of Ole Miss, senior setter Maddie Waak dished out 45 assists as A&M hit .336, the ninth time the Aggies have surpassed the .300 mark. Senior outside hitter Logan Lednicky moved into sixth place on the school’s all-time kills list in that game as fellow senior outside hitter Emilly Hellmuth recorded her 1,000th career kill. Lednicky has reached double-digit kills in every conference game this season.
So it’s an experienced A&M team that will host Texas looking towards its defense to set the tone — the Aggies lead the SEC in opponent hitting percentage behind senior middle blocker Ifenna Cos-Okpalla, whose 109 total blocks are tied for 13th nationally.
Texas remains one of two undefeated teams left in the country, along with No. 1 Nebraska (20-0). The Longhorns lead the conference in assists per set (13.92) and kills per set (14.97) while pacing the nation in kills per set and ranking second nationally with a .309 hitting percentage.
A winning streak will end in the Lone Star Showdown with first serve at 6:30 p.m. Central on Friday on SEC Network.
