NATCHITOCHES, La. – Behind a strong offensive performance and an ever-improving defense, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi rolled to its third-straight sweep to open Southland play, defeating Northwestern State 25-21, 25-16, 25-16.
Brittany Gilpin powered an Islanders attack that finished the match hitting .340 Thursday night. The junior knocked down 11 kills to lead the Blue and Green over the Demons. Gilpin finished the night hitting .500 from the outside.
"I thought we really played well," said head coach
Steve Greene. "Northwestern State is a really good team and they've been playing well lately. We came out and did a few new things on our side, made adjustments throughout the match and really improved. If you look at our numbers, we improved set-to-set. It was a really complete game and the team was really into it."
The set-to-set improvement was evident. In the first set, the Islanders (8-6, 3-0) hit .237 as a team with seven errors. From there, A&M-Corpus Christi committed just five combined errors in the next two sets, hitting .357 and .456 in the second and third, respectively.
On the defensive side, the Islanders reflected the offensive improvement by stifling Northwestern State (8-11, 3-1) to .000 hitting in the final set. The Blue and Green produced five of its nine blocks in the final set led by a trio of block assists from
Madeleine Doud.
ACE, ACE ACE
In the second set,
Kristyn Nicholson achieved a match-changing and all-but unprecedented feat. The setter stepped to the service line and rolled off five consecutive aces. Two serves later, she added ace number six, turning an 8-7 Islander lead into a 16-7 advantage.
"I've never really done anything like that before," said Nicholson. "I was just thinking 'go hard, go hard and keep it in' the first couple of serves and then I realized if I kept the pressure on, they were going to make mistakes."
SPREAD OFFENSE
While her serving was impressive, Nicholson was equally masterful in her setting Thursday night. The junior kept the Islander attack balanced, with four Islanders notching at least six kills.
• Gilpin led the way with her 11 kills and hit .500 on the outside.
•
Morgan Carlson and
Mallory Moran provided another eight kills apiece with Moran hitting a season-best .375.
• Madison Fitzsimmons added six kills in the middle, hitting .455.
Eight different Islanders recorded a kill in the victory.
"When everyone is on in a match, the other team doesn't really know how to defend it," said Gilpin of the balanced Islander attack. "They expect one person to be on the whole match, but when you have all three offensive players going, it really keeps the defense off-balanced.
DOMINATED DEMONS
In what's become a hallmark for A&M-Corpus Christi, the Islanders shutdown the Northwestern State attack, limiting the Demons to .101 hitting.
Libero
Kate Klepetka rolled up 13 digs while defensive specialist added another 11. At the net, seven different Islanders jumped on blocks. Doud led the way with five block assists, while Madison Fitzsimmons had a solo and three block assists and Gilpin sent four Demon attacks back.
SATURDAY SHOWDOWN
The Islanders now travel to Central Arkansas for a Saturday matchup with the Sugar Bears at 12 p.m.
