Islanders Resume SLC Play with Home Weekend against Nicholls, UNO; Senior Day Saturday

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CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The first-place Texas A&M-Corpus Christi women's volleyball program will host Nicholls at 6:30 p.m. Thursday and New Orleans at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Dugan Wellness Center.
 
Saturday's match will be Senior Day. A&M-Corpus Christi (12-9, 8-1 SLC) will have a special ceremony prior to the match to honor Julia Carter, Sam Dumity, Angel Felan, Montez Uigaese and Rachel Young.
 
The Islanders are in first-place by one match over HBU. They'll be looking to complete season sweeps over Nicholls (9-11, 2-6 SLC) and UNO (1-16, 1-8 SLC) after winning the first meetings on the road.
 
Junior libero Carissa Barnes continues to lead the nation in digs per set. She averages 6.44 per frame, which is 0.66 ahead of the second ranked student-athlete Becca Fernandez from Murray State (5.78 d/s). Barnes also leads the conference in aces per set (0.38).
 
Freshman Kyndal Payne has come on strong as of late and ranks second in the league in kills per set (3.29). She's coming off a 17-kill performance against UTRGV, which was one shy of her prior match of 18 kills in four sets at HBU that matched a career-high. Payne has notched double-figures in kills in eight of the last nine matches.
 
Also ranked top-five in the SLC individually are junior Faith Panhans and Young. Panhans is third in assists (9.37 a/s) and Young is fourth in hitting percentage (.304). Panhans has recorded back-to-back double-doubles.
 
Nicholls has started to heat up and is coming off back-to-back wins over Northwestern State and Southeastern. Aaliyah Burras ranks third in the league in hitting percentage (.306), fourth in aces (.32 a/s) and top-10 in blocks (.89).
 
UNO heads to HBU on Thursday before coming to Corpus Christi. The Privateers are looking to snap an eight-match skid. Trinity Jackson is the team's leading attacker with 2.78 kills per set, which ranks seventh in the conference.
 
The Islanders are 17-1 all-time against Nicholls and have won 15 in a row. They are 9-1 all-time against the Privateers and have won nine straight.
 
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