{"id":444924,"date":"2026-09-23T07:52:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T07:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/444924\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T07:52:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T07:52:14","slug":"no-16-texas-am-tops-owls-in-nonconference-finale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/444924\/","title":{"rendered":"No. 16 Texas A&M Tops Owls in Nonconference Finale"},"content":{"rendered":"

COLLEGE STATION \u2014 Rice volleyball closed out nonconference play with a 3-0 loss to No. 16 Texas A&M on Tuesday at Reed Arena.<\/p>\n

The Owls (6-6) dropped the sets 25-22, 25-12, 25-19. Rice hit .082, while Texas A&M hit .311.<\/p>\n

Amalia Simmons<\/a> led the Owls with six kills, while Kaia Mateo<\/a> had nine assists. Arissa Smith<\/a> led at the net with four blocks, and Mari Furoyama<\/a> had seven digs.<\/p>\n

HOW IT HAPPENED

\nFirst Set

\nRice had a 5-4 lead before the Aggies tied it. Back-to-back blocks from Smith and Amalia Simmons<\/a> put the Owls up 9-8. Rice led 15-13 at the media timeout. Texas A&M went on a 5-0 run to take an 18-15 lead following the media timeout. Rice called a late timeout in an effort to slow down the Aggies, but Texas A&M held on to take the opening set, 25-22.<\/p>\n

Second Set

\nThe Aggies started fast, and the Owls were unable to slow them down. Rice went on a late tear but was unable to hold off the Aggies, dropping the second set, 25-12.<\/p>\n

Third Set

\nRice scored the first point of the third set with an ace from Gutierrez. She then followed with a kill and an ace for the first three points for the Owls. The two teams traded points back and forth before the Aggies pulled ahead 20-15. Despite a late surge, Rice dropped the final set, 25-19.<\/p>\n

UP NEXT

\nRice will open conference play at home this weekend with East Carolina and UAB. Both matches will be streamed on ESPN+. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COLLEGE STATION \u2014 Rice volleyball closed out nonconference play with a 3-0 loss to No. 16 Texas A&M…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-444924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}