Students have returned to campus and the summer heat has slowly crept down into the low 90s, which means it’s time for Texas A&M volleyball.
The Aggies are entering year two of coach Jamie Morrison’s era in Aggieland. Year one was a fresh start for the program, as the Aggies finished with a 16-12 regular season record and made the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019.
A&M will start its season at the Jaguar Invitational, starting with South Alabama on Friday and McNeese on Saturday. Then, it will head back to College Station for its home opener against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Monday.
The Aggies will stay in College Station for a few weeks for four more matches before going to Cedar Falls, Iowa to take on Northern Iowa on Sept. 19 before closing out pre-conference play in Madison, Wisconsin for matches against No. 3 Wisconsin and Troy on Sept. 21 and Sept. 22.
Six new faces will be dawning for the Maroon and White this season, as Morrison has brought in five players in the transfer portal and one incoming freshman.
The Aggies’ offense will be adding junior outside hitter Taylor Humphrey from Rutgers, junior OH Emily Hellmuth from Pepperdine, freshman OH Amare Hernandez and sophomore setter Maddie Waak from LSU.
Morrison now has two setters he can trust to run the offense in Waak and sophomore S Margot Manning, who had 452 assists and 149 digs in 2023. Waak led the Tigers in 2023 with 801, while also adding 344 digs over the last two seasons.
Humphrey, Hellmuth and Hernandez come in and add to A&M’s hitting group, which already includes junior opposite hitter Logan Lednicky, redshirt sophomore OPP Ital Lopuyo and junior OH Lexi Guinn.
Hellmuth provides experience with 53 starts for the Waves over the last two years. Humphrey and her 498 kills during her two years at Rutgers provide a scoring upside. Also, Humphrey and Hellmuth both offer height on the offensive front, with both players standing in at 6-foot-3.
Hernandez provides depth for A&M’s offense, as she finished her career at McAllen Memorial High School with over 1,500 kills.
The offense will be led by Lednicky, who was picked by SEC coaches to be a 2024 Preseason All-SEC member. Lednicky, after a season-ending injury towards the end of the 2022 season, broke out in 2023 by leading the Aggies in kills with 340 en route to earning 2023 All-SEC Team honors.
For the defense, the transfer additions of junior libero Tatum Thomas from Grand Canyon and junior defensive specialist Ellie Stinson from Northwestern both provide experienced defenders who have found success at their previous programs.
In 2023, Thomas totaled 391 digs and 94 season assists in her sophomore season for the Antelopes. Stinson totaled 498 digs in 2023, which was good for 10th all-time in a single season in the Wildcats’ history.
The focal point of the Aggies’ defense is junior middle blocker Ifenna Cos-Okpalla, who was picked as a Preseason All-SEC Team member after coming off a year where she led A&M in blocks with 151 and led the nation in blocks per set with 1.62.
Another key contributor to A&M’s defense is junior DS Ava Underwood, who should have a bigger role this year after leading the Aggies in digs with 242 and digs per set with 2.72 last season.
If the Aggies want to improve on their 8-10 conference record in 2023 and make a place for themselves at the top of the SEC standings, they are going to have to go through six preseason ranked opponents to do so.
The new format for scheduling in the SEC has A&M set for eight home and eight away matches. Twelve opponents will be faced once and four will be played twice. The two opponents that the Aggies will face twice in 2024 are two of their biggest rivals: No. 1 Texas and LSU.
Last year, the Aggies saw their season come to an end in the first round of the NCAA Tournament with a 3-1 loss against the Longhorns. A&M gets its chance to get revenge on Texas during its SEC opener on Sept. 27 in Reed Arena.
The Longhorns are the back-to-back NCAA champions, with 56 wins in 61 matches over the last two seasons. The team in Austin appears to be the Aggies’ toughest opponent that they will face all season long, as they are currently favored to three-peat in 2024.
On Oct. 13, the Maroon and White go to Baton Rouge, Louisiana for their first matchup against LSU.
Despite LSU having a down year in 2023 with an 11-17 record and a 6-12 conference record, it was still picked to finish ninth in the SEC Preseason Coaches’ Poll. The Aggies should expect a competitive matchup against the Tigers.
Back-to-back matches against No. 11 Florida and No. 19 Arkansas on Oct. 18 and Oct. 20, respectively, will surely test A&M around the midseason mark.
Afterwards, A&M sees Texas in a rematch. The second match between the Aggies and the Longhorns will take place on Oct. 23 in Austin, which marks the first time the Aggies have played the Longhorns in Austin for a regular season match since 2019.
The Maroon and White will continue to go through a gauntlet of talented teams going into November, as they face No. 9 Kentucky on Nov. 8 and No. 15 Tennessee on Nov. 10 in Lexington and Knoxville. The matchup against the Volunteers will be nationally televised on ESPN.
The final preseason ranked SEC opponent that A&M will face is No. 25 Georgia, with the Bulldogs coming into College Station on Nov. 22.
A&M’s final home match of the year will be against LSU on Nov. 24 in Reed Arena.
Although last season was a step in the right direction for the Maroon and White, there are new expectations. SEC coaches predicted that A&M will finish seventh in the conference in the preseason coaches’ poll, a spot higher than where they finished last year and a spot higher than where No. 19 Arkansas is predicted to finish.
If there is a year for A&M to become one of the top volleyball programs in the SEC, it would be 2024. A feeling of continuity with nine returning players combined with a group of six exciting new additions under an acclimated coaching staff is a recipe for potential success.