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SMU Sweeps A&M, Champs Fall 0-2
The Mustangs won 27-25, 25-19, 25-20, blocked Texas A&M 13 times and held the champions to .125. Setter Hannah Beauford took match MVP. It is the second time in eleven months that SMU has swept them.
Texas A&M opened its title defense against Louisville on Friday and lost in four. It came back Sunday against SMU, got to 25 in the opening set and lost that anyway, and then managed 19 and 20. The defending national champions are 0-2.
No. 11 SMU swept them 27-25, 25-19, 25-20 at Fiserv Forum, the closing match of the Jeep AVCA First Serve on ESPN2. The last team to sweep Texas A&M was also SMU, on 9 September 2025.
The Mustangs Won It at the Net
SMU put up 42 kills on 93 swings with 14 errors, which is .301, and blocked Texas A&M 13 times. Suli Davis had 15 kills. Favor Anyanwu had seven kills and seven blocks, and Gabi Placide added nine kills and four.
Texas A&M put up 36 kills on 112 swings with 22 errors, which is .125, and blocked SMU seven times. Natalie Ring had 13 kills. Megan Fitch had 10 kills and eight digs, and Kaia Castle added four blocks.
Nineteen swings separate those two lines. Texas A&M took nineteen more attempts than SMU did and finished with six fewer kills, and that is what a 13-block afternoon does to an offense.
The blocks were spread around rather than banked in one player. Anyanwu had seven, Gabi Placide and Natalia Newsome four apiece and Christa Wilburn three, and Wilburn added five kills, six digs and an ace on top of them.
Behind that, Victoria Harris dug 13 balls and Elle Vandeweghe served two aces. Texas A&M's serve produced two all afternoon, one from Gabi Rodriguez and one from Amaré Hernandez.
Hannah Beauford set 33 balls and left with the match MVP award.
This Was Always the Hardest Possible Opening
Both losses came against ranked teams inside a showcase event built to produce exactly this. Louisville was No. 7 when it beat the Aggies 3-1 on Friday, with championship Most Outstanding Player Kyndal Stowers scratched in warmups. SMU was No. 11 on Sunday.
The Mustangs have now beaten Texas A&M three times in three tries, in 2016, in 2025 and again this weekend. Sam Erger's team won 27 matches last season, tied for the most in program history, and reached the first NCAA regional semifinal any SMU side has reached.
Eight of those players came back, four of them regular starters. Anyanwu and Jadyn Livings are AVCA honorable mention All-Americans, Newsome hit .456 last season for a single-season program record, and Wilburn served 47 aces as a freshman for another one.
Nothing about an 0-2 August ends a season, and Texas A&M has played two ranked opponents in three days on a neutral floor with its best hitter unavailable for one of them.
The .125 is the part worth watching.
SMU is 1-0, with a sixth top-ten win in three seasons under Erger and a fourth opening-night win in five.
