CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – For the second November in a row, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi volleyball heads to Conway, Ark., for the Southland Conference Tournament. As they were in 2015, the Islanders are the top seed at the tournament and enter the weekend after a second straight undefeated season in Southland play.
The Islanders (21-7, 16-0) dropped just seven sets to conference opponents this season, one-less than in the 2015 title season. In the opening round, the Blue and Green will face the eight seed McNeese at 4 p.m. Friday afternoon.
SETTING THE FIELD
While the Islanders ran away with the top spot in the regular season standings, the rest of the seeding came down to the final weekend of the season.
Stephen F. Austin will top the other side of the bracket as the two seed while 3-seed Sam Houston State, 6-seed Northwestern State and 7-seed Southeastern Louisiana will join the Ladyjacks.
Along with McNeese, Houston Baptist and Central Arkansas fill out the Islanders' half of the bracket as the fourth and fifth seeds, respectively.
SOUTHLAND AWARDS SWEEP
The Islanders brought home five individual awards as the Southland Conference announced the All-Southland teams for 2016.
Brittany Gilpin was named the Player of the Year, becoming the first Islander to win the award.
Kate Klepetka and
Kristyn Nicholson repeated their titles of Libero and Setter of the Year, respectively. Finally,
Madi Fitzsimmons was named Newcomer of the Year.
Head coach
Steve Greene was also named the Katrinka Jo Crawford Coach of the Year after leading the Islanders to a 16-0 conference mark in his first season.
Senior
Morgan Carlson joined Gilpin, Klepetka and Nicholson on the All-Southland First Team while Fitzsimmons earned Second Team honors.
FIRST ROUND MATCHUP
The Islanders open the tournament against the Cowgirls of McNeese Friday afternoon. The Blue and Green swept McNeese 25-13, 25-16, 25-13 back on November 3 in Corpus Christi.
Brittany Gilpin led all scorers with 11 kills while Carlson and Fitzsimmons added nine apiece. Defensively,
Kate Klepetka racked up 21 digs in the three sets.
McNeese was paced by Rae Myers who produced seven of the Cowgirls' 24 kills on the day. Libero Bridget Justis had 19 digs for McNeese. The Cowgirls hit just .088, committing 15 errors in the Islander victory.
HOW TO WATCH
The first two rounds of the tournament will be carried on the Southland Digital Network, available at
www.Southland.org or on
www.GoIslanders.com.
The championship match will be carried on ESPN3 on Sunday afternoon.
