Stephanie Puckett, sophmore outside hitter, serves as a member of the Sooner squad during the Boomer/Sooner volleyball scrimmage Saturday morning in the McCasland Field House. Zach Butler/The Daily

Trading points late in the fifth set with Texas A&M, the OU volleyball team held an 8-7 advantage on Sept. 21 in the two squads meeting in College Station, Texas.

An OU service error knotted the match at eight points each and the Sooners surrendered control to the Aggies, who proceeded to capitalize on three Sooner attack errors and add four kills to down OU in five sets by a 15-8 count.

“I think they definitely got away with a win that should have been ours,” said redshirt sophomore middle blocker Francie Ekwerekwu. “They’re going to come here and see what we have in store for them.”

The Sooners will attempt to exact their revenge from the late September showdown when they host Texas A&M tonight at McCasland Field House.

First serve is set for 7 and the first 250 fans in attendance will receive an OU volleyball can koozie.

In the midst of a three-match home stand, the Sooners (11-14, 7-10 Big 12) can increase their odds of an NCAA Tournament berth with a victory tonight, which would vault them over the Aggies (12-14, 7-9 Big 12) in the conference standings.

With only one week remaining in OU’s 2008 campaign, freshman outside hitter Caitlin Higgins said the squad is driven by the mentality that they need to win out.

“We have three conference games left, so I think we have the urgency to win them all if we want to go to the postseason,” Higgins said.

Much easier said than done, the Sooners face no slouch in the visiting Aggies, who will ride recent victories over Baylor and potent Big 12 squad Iowa State into this evening’s matchup.

However, prior to those two victories, the Aggies dropped a hotly contested five-set decision to No. 3 Nebraska.

The Aggies’ recent swagger doesn’t phase Higgins, whose score to settle with the Aggies has been several years in the making.

“I personally really want to beat Texas A&M,” Higgins said. “Growing up in Texas, they were considered a huge rival for me and if we play the way we did [against Kansas], we’ll get a win.”

Heading into this evening’s matchup, the Sooners’ only home losses have come at the hands of teams once ranked in the top 25.

The Sooners kept that trend alive against Kansas last Wednesday, as they overwhelmed the Jayhawks en route to a 3-1 victory (25-13, 25-13, 22-25, 25-20) at McCasland Field House.

The Sooners (11-14, 7-10 Big 12) opened their three-match home stand in style, blitzing the Jayhawks (12-13, 6-10 Big 12) from the opening serve and holding them to a .000 hitting clip through two sets.

“That’s part of being at home,” head coach Santiago Restrepo said. “When you are that young, you feel much more at ease … The home court advantage for any team in the Big 12 is huge.”

Junior outsider hitter Bridget Laplante led the offense for the third consecutive match, registering a match-high 14 kills, while Higgins and Ekwerekwu added 12 each.

Freshman setter Brianne Barker landed her sixth-straight double-double (15th overall) with 46 assists and 12 digs.

“We’ve been working hard in practice this week,” Laplante said. “We’ve been gelling really well; our second team has been testing our first team and I think it’s been showing.”

Following the Aggies, the Sooners will host Iowa State in the squad’s home finale on Saturday at 3 p.m.