Issue date: 9/14/06 Section: Sports

Wade Barker - The Battalion A&M sophomore Lindsey Yon (27) attempts to block a spike from Oklahoma middle blocker Elaine Santos at G. Rollie White Coliseum on Wednesday.

For the first time in its program's history, the University of Oklahoma volleyball team left College Station with a win.

Sooner head coach Santiago Restrepo said the fact that his juniors and seniors had played in G. Rollie White Coliseum before was key to the victory.

"It made a huge difference," Restrepo said. "Two or three years in a row playing in this gym, with that kind of crowd, it definitely helps."

After only their second win in 29 tries against A&M, the Sooners go back to Norman with a 1-0 conference record.

"It's always great to play at a place with so much tradition," said OU head coach Santiago Restrepo. "It's great to win here, it's great to win the first conference (match)."

A&M head coach Laurie Corbelli agreed.

"This group had five people that have been in this gym four times," she said. "I could see it in their warm up; it didn't bother them at all, not at all. Younger teams, it usually does. Whether it's for them or not. So I think it's just somewhat of a maturity thing, too."

All three games were back and forth the whole way, with the Aggies and Sooners trading points until OU was able to pull away near the end of every game to shock the Aggies 30-28, 30-26, 30-28.

Corbelli said her team struggled to find its rhythm in the conference opener.

"Well, we really didn't have a very good game tonight," Corbelli said. "Bottom line, we were out served and out passed. We were really struggling getting our first ball to our setter so that we could get into our system, and I really don't have an answer for it. I can attribute a little to the newness, and the pressure of playing in the Big 12, and wanting to do so well at home and having that as a little bit of a distraction that we just weren't able to overcome. It didn't really look like my team out there today."

Senior Christi Hahn also noticed a difference in the team's play on Wednesday.

"I'm not exactly sure what was different, it was just everything," Hahn said. "We talked about it in the locker room, our play was different, our confidence was different, even just our outlook on the team."

For the Aggies, dropping a game to OU was not the way they wanted to start Big 12 play. Part of the struggle was their inability to break through the Sooners' blocking, something A&M teams have normally been able to do on a regular basis.

"It was an off night for us, it really was a very strange feeling on the court and on the sidelines to watch," Corbelli said. "Sometimes you can't explain it, I don't think they meant for that to happen, but it happened. And I think OU had something to do with it, they were very consistent."

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