BEAUMONT, Texas – Texas A&M-Corpus Christi finished off its magical regular season with a perfect 16-0 record in Southland Conference play and a 28-4 mark overall after knocking off Lamar behind the strength of 20 kills from Ivy Baresh.
RELATED: Box Score (xml) | Box Score (pdf) | Southland Bracket
The Islanders defeated the home standing Cardinals 25-21, 24-26, 25-15, 25-21, to run their winning streak to a whopping 18 matches, with the last loss coming nearly two months ago.
"Lamar really pushed us today and it took everything we had to get the victory," said head coach Tony Graystone. After they stole the second set from us, we were really on our heels and very quiet during the intermission. Yet, we came out strong in the third set and found a surge at the end of the fourth to put it away."
Baresh, one of the Islanders four seniors, capped her regular season play exactly as one would expect. Her 20 kills led the match and fell just one kill shy of her career record. With her third kill of the day, Baresh moved into second place on the Islanders career kill list, behind only Brianna Brink.
Behind Baresh, sophomore Kirstee McGarva also fell just one shy of her career high in kills with 10 on the day. McGarva led the Islanders with a .350 hitting percentage in the match.
"Ivy and Kirstee both had great matches and gave us 30 kills," said Graystone, "but it was Morgan Carlson and all of our blockers coming alive in the last two sets that got us the win."
SPEAKING OF CARLSON
After a somewhat quiet opening two sets, Carlson erupted in the final two sets Saturday. The junior right side knocked down nine of her 14 kills over the third and fourth frames, playing a major role in the Islanders victory. Carlson also provided the final kill of the match, to send the Islanders to 16-0 in Southland action.
BLOCKED AWAY
After piling up their highest block total since 2012 Thursday night at Sam Houston State, the Islanders needed a couple of sets to get the block rolling Saturday.
• The Islanders had just two blocks after the first two sets Saturday. That changed in a hurry as the blue and green finished with nine on the match.
• Four Islanders claimed solo blocks, the most since a 2013 victory over New Orleans.
KLEPETKA CRUSHES RECORD
• Libero Kate Klepetka has broken yet another record as the sophomore now has the most digs in a season with 634.
• Klepetka surpassed Micah Nolan's record of 620 with her 11th dig of the match.
• Averaging 6.10 digs per set, Klepetka will also set a new single season record in that category.
THE NEXT GOAL
After completing the perfect Southland season and claiming the regular season championship, the Islanders will turn their attention to the a new set of goals beginning with the Southland Tournament next weekend in Conway, Ark.
"I'm so proud of this team and it's been fun watching their confidence grow week by week and their game get better and better," said Graystone. "It's really difficult to go 16-0 and I'm so appreciative of what they've put into this season so it could all happen. Now we can set a whole new set of goals and get after next weekend."
The Islanders will open the championship at 11 a.m. on Friday morning against either Sam Houston State, Southeastern Louisiana or New Orleans. The bracket will be finalized later this evening after the conclusion of matches across the league. Check www.GoIslanders.com and follow @IslandersVB for up to date information on the Southland Volleyball Championship.
