Fall in Five

DALLAS – After fighting back from a 2-0 deficit, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi fell two points short in the fifth set of a back-and-forth affair with Mississippi State.
 
Corpus Christi (1-1) struggled out of the gate, dropping a tight first set 23-25 before Mississippi State (2-0) capitalized on the momentum with a 25-12 second. Jelena Vujcin led the Bulldogs with 23 kills, a match high, while hitting .400.
 
SIMON SAYS
 
Freshman Chloe Simon led the Islanders to a 25-19 fourth set victory to knot the match at 2-2, flooring 6 of her team-high 14 kills in the set. Simon's 14 kills followed a nine-kill day in the season opener as the rookie came out of the gates swinging.
 
In just 19 swings, Simon posted her 14 kills and committed just two errors. The stellar performance for the freshman hitting a team-best .632.
 
THE COMEBACK
 
After the slow start, the Islanders found their footing by grinding out a defensive battle in the third set. The Blue and Green allowed the Bulldogs to hit just .107, forcing nine errors to start the rally.
 
The lockdown defensively bought enough time for the attack to hit its stride as the Simon-led onslaught hit .406 in the fourth set. The Islanders also posted their best sideout percentage of the match at 75-percent.
 
Brittany Gilpin, Rachel Young and Mallory Moran each added three kills in the 25-19 frame.
 
With the match tied at 2-2, the Islanders found themselves in a hole in the fifth set and nearly climbed out, but Vujcin sealed the deal with her 23rd kill of the match.
 
INSIDE NUMBERS
 
>> Four Islanders recorded double-digit digs led by a career-high 23 from Madison Woods
>> Camryn Tucker added 13 while Kristyn Nicholson and Moran added 11 each
>> Simon and Gilpin were the only two Islanders with double-digit kills
 
SMU SATURDAY
 
The Islanders return to action Saturday in the finale of the SMU Invitational. Corpus Christi will face the host Mustangs at 2:30 p.m. and the match will be streamed for free on smumustangs.com