Volleyball Opens SEC Play At Home Against Texas A&M

			OLE MISS (4-6, 0-0 SEC) vs. TEXAS A&M (8-3, 0-0 SEC) Wednesday, Sept. 21 • 6:30 p.m. CT • Oxford, Miss. Gillom Center
WATCH • LIVE STATS OLE MISS NOTES (PDF) • TEXAS A&M NOTES (PDF) • SEC NOTES (PDF)

RALLY POINTS
• Ole Miss volleyball opens up SEC play at home on Wednesday, hosting Texas A&M at 6:30 p.m. CT.
• Wednesday marks the third time both teams have opened SEC play together. The Aggies won the two meetings in 2012 and 2020.
• The Rebels are 2-3 in SEC openers in the last five years and 1-1 under head coach Kayla Banwarth.
• Banwarth's first match at Ole Miss and as a head coach was against the Aggies two seasons ago.
• Senior Anna Bair currently ranks second in the SEC and 23rd nationally with 4.24 kills per set.
• The Rebels closed out a tough non-conference slate that featured five matches against 2021 NCAA Tournament Teams.
• Ole Miss' offense stacks up as one of the nation's best, ranking seventh in assists per set, 13th in kills per set and 49th in hitting percentage.
• Middle blocker Sasha Ratliff was one of 15 student-athletes named to the Preseason All-SEC Team. She earned all-conference honors last year after a breakout sophomore campaign.
• The 2022 roster features 12 members from last season's NCAA Tournament team, six freshmen and a pair of transfers.

SCOUTING THE AGGIES
Texas A&M rides into Oxford with an 8-3 record on the season. Head coach Laura "Bird" Kuhn and the Aggies have had a strong start to their 2022 campaign, with wins over Hawai'i and #21 Western Kentucky. Two of their losses have come at the hands of top-25 opponents in #6 Pittsburgh and #25 San Diego. Offensively, the Aggies are led by the attacking duo of Carolina Meuth and Logan Lednicky. Meuth leads the team with 3.89 kills per set and is hitting at a .279 clip. Lednicky has shined for the Aggies, claiming two SEC Freshman of the Week honors this season. Setter Elena Karakasi averages 9.47 assists per set and has the team hitting at a .256 attacking percentage. On the defensive side, libero Lauren Hogan leads the team in digs with 133, while the Aggies are registering 2.47 blocks per set as a team.

SERIES HISTORY
Texas A&M leads the series 18-3, however, it's been much closer between the two programs in recent years. Ole Miss earned its first two wins over the Aggies in 2017, and just last year, came out on top in a five set thriller to snap A&M's five match winning streak in the series.

PREVIOUS MEETING
BRYAN-COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The Rebels and the Aggies went down to the wire, but Ole Miss was able to pick up a gritty 3-2 win over Texas A&M inside Reed Arena.

Both teams found themselves in a tight first set. With the match tied at 16, a 4-0 Rebel run shifted the momentum in Ole Miss' favor. The Rebels went on to build up a seven-point lead and capture the opening set 25-18. Set two featured another back-and-forth battle as Ole Miss and Texas A&M found themselves tied at 16. Once again, the Rebels rattled off a little 3-0 run, but this time, the Aggies found an answer. The set remained tied until 27-27 when two straight Bair kills helped seal the set and put the Rebels up 2-0 in the match.

Trying to avoid the sweep, Texas A&M bounced back to take sets three and four, 25-16 and 26-24, respectively, and force a fifth set. In a winner-take-all scenario, Ole Miss used a 4-0 run to take a big 6-3 lead. The Aggie, like they had done all match, fought back to tie things up at 10 all before a 3-1 run highlighted by a Bria Samilton ace gave Ole Miss match point. Bair put the finishing touches on the match, slamming down her 22nd kill of the night to halt the Aggies' comeback and give the Rebels their 13th win of the season.

BATTLE TESTED
Despite an 4-6 start to the 2022 season, the Rebels are gaining valuable experience on the court that will prepare them for conference play and a run in the NCAA Tournament. Ole Miss had one of the tougher opening weekends across the country, hosting #9 Georgia Tech and #17 Illinois for the Ole Miss Invitational. They came up just short of the Yellow Jackets, scoring 24 points or more in all four sets, and fell to Illinois in four sets. The uphill climb continued the following weekend at the Husker Invitational, where they battled with #2 Nebraska. The Rebels picked up their first two victories of 2022 at the Bobcat Invitational and followed it up with another 2-1 weekend at the Jaguar Invitational this past weekend to round out the non-conference slate.

CHASING 1K
Senior Anna Bair has been a staple of the Ole Miss attack each of the past four seasons she's donned a Rebel uniform. The strong-armed St. Louis native has racked up 965 kills in her career and is less than 50 away from the 1,000 milestone mark. On her quest for 1K, Bair is hitting at a .306 clip this season and averaging 4.24 kills per set. A leader on the court, Bair has led the Rebels in kills in all but one match this season and has finished in double-figures nine times.

TEXAS TWO-STEP
The Rebels found their groove last weekend at the Bobcat Invitational in San Marcos, Texas. Ole Miss got back to winning ways, sweeping Sam Houston behind an efficient attack led by Anna Bair and Payton Brgoch. In the nightcap, the Rebs battled the host, Texas State, eating the Cats up in four sets. Bair and Sasha Ratliff each laid down 17 kills, while freshman setter Aly Borellis powered the offense to a .329 hitting percentage with a career-high 51 assists.

PUTTING THE LEAGUE ON NOTICE
Ole Miss junior middle blocker Sasha Ratliff was one of fifteen student-athletes selected to the 2022 Preseason Volleyball All-SEC Team. Ratliff established herself as one of the top middle-blockers in the SEC last season, earning an all-conference nod as well as AVCA All-Region honors. The Atlanta, Georgia, native paced the team with a school record 113 assisted blocks and was one shy of the single-season total block record with 129. Ratliff was also a top offensive contributor, ranking third in the conference and 28th nationally at a .385 hitting clip.

ROOKIES IN THE RANKINGS
Head coach Kayla Banwarth added top talent to the Rebels' 2022 class with the addition of six signees, including multiple Prep Volleyball Top-150 honorees. Five of the six new Rebels received AVCA High School All-America honors their senior year, tied with Florida for the most in the nation.

Aly Borellis makes her way to Oxford as a four-year letterwinner at Notre Dame Preparatory and a member of the Prep Volleyball Top-150 list. A decorated setter out of Rochester, Michigan, Borellis has racked up multiple All-American honors in her high school career, including a pair of PrepVolleyball First Team honors, AAU All-American laurels and 2021 AVCA First Team All-American honors.

Middle blocker Tessa Jones joins the Rebels as a Prep Volleyball Top-150 recruit and 2021 AVCA Honorable Mention High School All-American. In her four-year career at Seton High School in Cleves, Ohio, Jones tallied 606 kills and racked up 144 total blocks.

Outside hitter Shayla Meyer closed out her high school career with over 1,700 kills. The Superior, Nebraska, native was named first team All-Conference three years in a row, found a spot on the C-2 Volleyball All-State first team in 2020 and 2021 AVCA Honorable Mention All-American honors.

Ready for her first season in a Rebel uniform, Vivian Miller comes to campus as a highly touted recruit out of Jupiter, Florida, being named to the Prep Volleyball Top-100, AVCA Phenom List, AVCA Best and Brightest First Team and 2021 AVCA Second Team All-American honors. At Jupiter High School, the outside hitter totaled 500 kills in 154 sets played.

Cammy Niesen, listed as a defensive specialist, hopes to make an impact for the Rebels at the libero position. The 2021 AVCA Second Team High School All-American graduated as the all-time dig leader at Roger Bacon High School, where she led the Miami Valley Conference in digs as a senior. Niesen was also named first team All-District, District Player of the Year and first team All-State in 2020.

Outside hitter Emma Schwieger caps off the freshmen talent. The Bishop Moore Catholic High School grad was tabbed as the No. 5 player and the No. 1 right side in Florida for the class of 2022 and was listed as one of Prep Volleyball's 2022 players to watch.

RATLIFF, WHITE AND BLUE
After establishing herself as one of the top middle-blockers in the SEC last season, Sasha Ratliff received an invitation to the Women's National Team Open Program in Colorado Springs, Colorado, this past February. The junior spent three days training with some of the top athletes in the nation as part of the selection process for the U.S. Women's National Team and the 2022 U.S. Women's Collegiate National Team.

NEW FACES TO THE BENCH
Back on the bench for year two with the Rebels is Brad Creamer; however, when Ole Miss takes the court this season, he'll have a new role with the program: assistant coach. This offseason, Creamer was elevated to assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for the Rebels after assisting them in one of the best seasons in program history. Also added to the staff this offseason was assistant coach Bre Henry, who makes her way to Oxford from Santa Clara University. During her time with the Broncos, Santa Clara produced three AVCA All-Region selections, 12 All-WCC accolades and 10 WCC all-academic nods. Prior to Santa Clara, Henry was a graduate assistant with one of the nation's elite programs at Nebraska alongside Banwarth. Rounding out the new faces is volunteer assistant Douglas Florencio, who just wrapped up his playing career at King University and University of Charleston.

Follow the Rebels on Twitter at @OleMissVB, Facebook at Ole Miss Volleyball, and on Instagram at @olemissvb. You can also follow head coach Kayla Banwarth on Twitter @KaylaBanwarth2.

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Players Mentioned

Anna Bair

Aly Borellis

Payton Brgoch

Tessa Jones

Shayla Meyer

Vivian Miller

Cammy Niesen

Sasha Ratliff

Bria Samilton

Emma Schwieger

The University of Mississippi Athletics