University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
2-1
Texas A&M
2-3
Gophers Sweep No. 14 Texas A&M
9/2/2016 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Sept. 2, 2016
The No. 6 University of Minnesota volleyball team defeated No. 14 Texas A&M, 25-18, 25-23, 25-19, tonight in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. With the win, the Golden Gophers improve to 2-1 on the season and swept their first opponent of the 2016 campaign.
As a team, Minnesota outhit the Aggies, .287 to .178 and outblocked them, 16-13. The Aggies led a slight dig advantage, 32-31, and a 42-37 kill lead. Sarah Wilhite led all attackers with 16 kills and hit .464, followed by Alexis Hart with seven and Molly Lohman with five. Lohman also led the Gophers with eight block assists. Samantha Seliger-Swenson added a match-high 34 assists, while Dalianliz Rosado had seven digs.
Minnesota concludes the tournament tomorrow night when it faces No. 16 Florida State at 7 p.m. CT.
Set 1: Minnesota hit .333 in the first set to Texas A&M's .037 to take a 25-18 first set win. Rosado put the Gophers up 6-3 with an ace. A Lohman pushed the lead to 8-5, while Paige Tapp added a kill and gave Minnesota an 11-6 advantage. The Tapp kill forced TAMU to its first timeout of the match. The Gophers added to their lead off a Lohman/Hannah Tapp block at 15-9 and pushed it to 18-10 off a Lohman kill. P Tapp and Hart combined for a block and a 20-12 lead. The Aggies added an ace at 21-15, but the Gophers forced TAMU to two attack errors as TAMU called a timeout. Minnesota finished off the set with two Wilhite kills, her sixth and seventh of the set, for a 25-18 set score.
Set 2: Minnesota went up 2-0 with a 25-23 set win. Tied 11-11, the Gophers went on a 3-0 run with back-to-back kills from H Tapp and a Hart/Lohman block for a 14-11 lead. The run caused Texas A&M to call a timeout, but the Gophers came out of the break and added to their lead as TAMU had an attack error. A P Tapp kill pushed the Gopher lead to 19-15. After a Wilhite kill at 21-16, the Aggies burned their second timeout of the set. H Tapp added Minnesota's lead for a 23-17 lead, but the Aggies went on a 5-0 run and the Gophers called a timeout at 23-21. It broke TAMU's run as the Aggies called a timeout and forced an attack error for a 25-23 win.
Set 3: The Gophers hit .320 en route to the match sweep. Minnesota took the Hart put the Gophers up 9-5 off an ace, while an Aggie attack error put Minnesota up 10-5 to open the third set. Seliger-Swenson later added to the Gopher lead when she delivered her first ace of the match for a 13-9 lead. The Aggies later cut the Gophers' lead to 14-12 off a kill, but Minnesota went on a 3-0 run after an Aggie service error, a Gopher block and a Rosado ace for a 17-12 lead. TAMU called a timeout after the ace and responded with a kill and a sideout. Hart added a kill for Minnesota's 20th point, while a P Tapp/Seliger-Swenson block pushed the score to 21-14. The Aggies pushed back as they cut the Gopher lead to 22-18 as Minnesota called a timeout. The Gophers came out of the break with kills from Wilhite and H Tapp (twice) for the 25-19 final.
