Minnesota Falls to Texas A&M in the Billiken Invitational

The University of Minnesota volleyball team (1-2) fell to Texas A&M (5-1) in four games by scores of 22-30, 30-24, 31-29, 30-25 in its final match of the Billiken Invitational at the Baumann-Eberhardt Center on Saturday, Sept. 2. Minnesota finished 1-2 in the tournament, while Texas A&M was 2-1.

Sophomore Katie Vatterrodt (Bloomington, Minn.) was named to the All-Tournament team for Minnesota.

LSU won the tournament with a 3-0 record, while St. Louis was 0-3.

Jessy Jones (Naperville, (Ill.) led the way with 15 kills and five blocks on the night, while Kyla Roehrig (Papillion, Neb.) had 15 kills and three blocks.

Senior Meredith Nelson (St. Croix Falls, Wis.) finished with 14 kills, five digs and two blocks. Vatterrodt also had 12 kills for the Golden Gophers, while Meghan Cumpston (Red Bluff, Calif.) had a double-double with 11 kills and 10 digs.

Sophomore setter Rachel Hartmann (St. Charles, Ill.) had a career-high 62 assists on the night with four digs and two blocks. Krista Chin (Wheeling, Ill.) also had a career-high 11 digs, while Christine Tan (Palm Harbor, Fla.) had her third straight double-figure total in digs with 10.

Minnesota was outhit .239 to .213, but narrowly edged Texas A&M in kills 67 to 66. The Golden Gophers also edged the Aggies in blocks 9.0-to-8.0. Texas A&M outdug Minnesota 56 to 50, and had six service aces to one for the Golden Gophers.

Minnesota jumped out to an early 9-7 lead, and expanded to 12-7 with three straight points. Texas A&M scored the next two points to cut the lead to 12-9, but the Golden Gophers answered with four of the next five points to move ahead 16-10. The Aggies scored six of the next nine points to cut the Golden Gopher lead to 19-16.

Nelson broke up the string of Aggie points with a kill to give Minnesota a 20-16 lead. Roehrig followed with a kill, and after another Golden Gopher point Jones delivered a kill finish off a run of four straight Minnesota points. Texas A&M cut the lead to 23-17, but Minnesota answered with back-to-back points finished off by a Jones kill to move ahead 25-17.

Texas A&M scored three of the next four points to cut the Minnesota lead to 26-20. Vatterrodt delivered back-to-back kills to give the Golden Gophers a 28-20 lead. The Aggies scored to make it 28-21, but Nelson delivered a kill to make it game point. Following a Texas A&M point, Vatterrodt delivered a kill to give Minnesota the first game 30-22.

The Golden Gophers outhit the Aggies.419 to .209, and had 20 kills to Texas A&M’s 15. Minnesota committed just two errors in the game, as Nelson, Roehrig and Vatterrodt led a balanced effort with five kills each in the first game.

Minnesota fell behind in game two 12-10, but Nelson got a run going for Minnesota with a kill. Following another Golden Gopher point, Jones delivered a kill to give the Golden Gophers a 13-12 lead. Roehrig delivered back-to-back kills, and then a solo block to give Minnesota a 16-12 lead. Jones followed with a kill to finish the 7-0 run to give the Golden Gophers 17-12 lead.

Texas A&M immediately responded with a 9-0 run of its own to take a 21-17 lead. Minnesota scored three of the next four points to cut it to 22-20. However, the Aggies came right back with four straight points to take a 26-20 lead. Texas A&M retained that cushion as the Aggies won game two 30-24.

The Aggies limited Minnesota a .024 hitting percentage, and hit .200 in the game. Texas A&M had 15 kills to 14 for the Golden Gophers, and held a slight blocking advantage of 4.0-to-3.0 in the game.

Texas A&M jumped out to a 14-7 lead in game one, but Minnesota clawed back into the game with six of the next seven points to cut the lead to 15-13. The Golden Gophers trimmed the lead down to 17-16, before Texas A&M answered with consecutive points to move ahead 19-16. The Aggies pushed their lead to 22-18, before Minnesota answered with consecutive points to cut the Texas A&M lead to 22-20. The Aggies scored four of the next five points to take a 26-21 lead.

Minnesota cut the lead to 27-24, and Nelson delivered a kill to make it 27-25. Nelson and Hartmann combined on a block to cut the lead to one at 27-26. Following a Golden Gopher service error, Vatterrodt delivered a kill and Roehrig followed with solo block to tie the game for the first time at 28. Texas A&M pushed it to game point at 29-28, but Nelson delivered a kill to tie it at 29. The Aggies scored the next two points to take game three 31-29 to take 2-1 lead in the match.

The Aggies had 19 kills to 17 for Minnesota in the game, however the Golden Gophers outhit Texas A&M .227 to .195 in the game. Minnesota also had six blocks to one for the Aggies. Cumpston had five kills in the game, while Jones had four.

Minnesota jumped out to an early 12-11 lead, but Texas A&M scored the next three points to take a 14-12 lead. Cumpston followed with a kill, and the Golden Gophers followed with a pair of points to move ahead 15-14. The two teams exchanged four leads until Texas A&M moved ahead 20-19. From that point, the Aggies scored three of the next four points to move ahead 23-20. Texas A&M pushed the lead out 26-22, before Vatterrodt and Jones delivered back-to-back kills to cut the lead to 26-24.

Texas A&M answered by rattling off three straight points to push it to match point at 29-24. Minnesota fought off one match point, but the Aggies put away the match by winning the next point to win in four games.

Texas A&M was led by Mary Batis who had a double-double with 21 kills and 12 digs. Christi Hahn hit .406 (17-4-32) with 17 kills, while Lindsey Yon had 18 kills and 19 digs for the Aggies. Setter Meghan Kainz finished with 58 assist on the night for Texas A&M.

Minnesota will return to action next when it plays in the Ameritas Players Challenge in Lincoln, Neb. The Golden Gophers will face Cal Poly in its first match of the tournament on Friday, Sept. 8 at 5 p.m. Minnesota will face No. 12 Louisville on Saturday, Sept. 9 at 4:30 p.m. The Golden Gophers will finish up the tournament at No. 1 Nebraska on Sunday, Sept. 10 at 2 p.m.