CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – 361 days ago, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi volleyball clinched its first-ever Southland Conference regular season championship. Thursday night, the Islanders doubled-down, bringing a second consecutive regular season title to the 361 with a dominating sweep of McNeese 25-13, 25-16, 25-13.
"It's a really good feeling," said first year head coach
Steve Greene. "We've been working really hard and plugging away over the past few weeks. To go 13-0 and clinch the conference with three matches left is a testament to the resiliency of the team and their competitive fire to get the first of our three major goals."
There was offense aplenty as the Islanders (18-7, 13-0) hit .324 as a club. It was the seventh time the Blue and Green topped the .300 plateau on the season as senior
Morgan Carlson continued her blistering run, hitting .471 for the second consecutive match. The right side has hit .471 or better with at least nine kills in each of the past five matches.
"Carl is a great leader, obviously," said Greene. "When she's play like she has been the last week or so, it just adds another element of our offense that is really tough to defend. What's great about her is that she was fighting a bit of an injury early in the year, but stepped up her passing and blocking. Now she's back attacking 100-percent and she's really tough to stop."
Brittany Gilpin and Madison Fitzsimmons had equally electric performances offensively, knocking down 11 and nine kills, respectively. For Gilpin, the 11 kills continue an incredible season, marking her 11th double-digit performance in 13 conference matches. The former middle turned outside hitter is also hitting a remarkable .314 in conference play.
Fitzsimmons' offensive assault on the league carried right into Thursday night's contest as she hit .467. Now at .388 during conference play, she will likely top the league in hitting following the win.
Of course, there was defensive domination as well. The Blue and Green silenced McNeese (9-18, 5-8) all night long as the Cowgirls hit a paltry .088 on the evening. It was a big time return to form for an Islanders' defense that allowed UIW to hit above .300 on Tuesday night.
Kate Klepetka flashed across the court to rack up 21 digs in the three sets. Meanwhile, the block rejected four McNeese attacks, but forced another 11 errors as the Cowgirls attempted to hit over and around the imposing Islanders. Nine different Islanders notched a dig as A&M-Corpus Christi produced yet another shutdown defensive performance.
BACK TO BACK
After breaking through in 2015, the Islanders have continued their reign over the Southland Conference in 2016. Dating back to November 8, 2014, the Islanders have not lost a regular season conference match, a streak of 31 consecutive wins.
"This is an awesome senior year," said Carlson. "I really couldn't ask for anything better. I love the girls to death and I just want to keep building this program so that every year is like this. I want these freshman to have four rings so I think we're still building and I'm trying to leave a legacy."
In nearly identical fashion, the Islanders clinched the 2016 Southland regular season title at home, in match 13 of season. Both were commanding sweeps.
The Islanders' back-to-back regular season titles mark just the sixth time a school has accomplished the feat in the Southland's 34 years of volleyball. The Blue and Green is the first to repeat since Central Arkansas won two straight in 2009-10.
NOT DONE YET
While the Islanders will celebrate the title tonight, make no mistake about it, they have their eyes set on bigger goals.
"Our whole thing was trying to get our newcomers a ring," said Klepetka. "It's not for us, it's for this whole team. Our angle is always the NCAA's, now that we've clinched with three matches to play, it's time to move on to bigger and better things."
The Islanders will return to Dugan Wellness Center for the final home match of the regular season Saturday at 1 p.m. A&M-Corpus Christi will also recognize Carlson and Klepetka in senior day festivities at the match.
