Photo Courtesy Bradley Widding
CONWAY, Ark. – It's one of the most prominent sayings in sports, "defense wins championships", but it generally holds true and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi seems to be following the formula as a strong block once again keyed a semifinal sweep of McNeese State 25-19, 25-19, 25-18.
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For the second straight day inside the Farris Center, the Islanders halted their opposition's attack with double-digit blocks. The blue and green totaled 10 blocks, led by the devastating duo of Morgan Carlson and Madeleine Doud who controlled the net with seven and six blocks, respectively.
"It's so big to have a good block and we've been working so hard on it in practice," said head coach Tony Graystone. "We were actually taking about it in the lockerroom and we literally spend 30-40 percent of our practices on blocking, but this is why we do it. This is how you win big matches, this is how you win playoff matches. You have to have a presence at the net and this makes two days in a row we've shown up."
The 10-block performance on Saturday followed a 13-block outing in the quarterfinals, marking the first time all season the Islanders registered double-digit rejections in back-to-back matches.
Each of the three sets were tightly contested well into the middle points, but each time McNeese State threatened, the Islanders had an answer. The Cowgirls most threatening moment came in the first set, as McNeese leveled the match at 19-19. The blue and green answered with six straight points as senior Ivy Baresh served out the match.
BALANCE BRINGS SUCCESS
Five Islanders finished Saturday's semifinal with five or more kills, led by seniors Baresh and Kelsee Felux. A&M-Corpus Christi owned the top three kill totals in the match, as the Islanders outhit the Cowgirls .219 to .103.
• Baresh led the match with 10 kills, her 19th match in double figures and eighth such occurrence in the past nine matches.
• Felux ended her first match in this season's Southland Tournament with nine kills, her best tally since the Oct. 24 match at McNeese State.
• Morgan Carlson had another solid match on the right with eight kills and another seven block assists.
• Middles Brittany Gilpin and Doud combined for 10 kills and nine blocks as the sophomores continued to dominate the net.
"Kelsee had a real quiet nine kills. I was a little surprised on the stat sheet, but she played a very good match," said Graystone. "The last time we played McNeese we had this kind of balance, so we knew once we had the ball control we could get everyone involved."
BLOCK PATTERN
Not only has the Southland Tournament produced the first back-to-back double-digit block outings for the Islanders, but both matches have also ended on Islanders' send backs.
• Friday's quarterfinal ended when Carlson and Gilpin rejected Southeastern Louisiana's Brooke Balser.
• A trio of Islanders, Doud, Carlson and Baresh leapt above the net to deny the Cowgirls' Amber Fryer.
ANOTHER FIRST
In a season full of first, it's only fitting the Islanders continue to add to the list. Saturday's semifinal win is the first for A&M-Corpus Christi and thereby sends the Islanders to their first Southland Championship match in program history.
"We were saying before the match that we have a chance to do two huge accomplishments for this program: one to get to 30 wins and two to get to our first championship match," said Graystone. "It's certainly great to see those goals accomplished and now we can get after it tomorrow."
The Islanders will go for the Southland Conference Championship and an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. against No. 6-seed Houston Baptist.
