CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi volleyball team turned in its season-best hitting with a .383 mark in the 25-9, 25-17, and 25-17 sweep over UIW Saturday in front of the biggest home crowd of the season at the Dugan Wellness Center.
"What a great crowd today! The band was amazing and the combination of a home crowd and the band and our announcer really helped fire up our team," said head coach
Steve Greene.
The Islanders (5-16, 5-2) recorded their fifth conference win after taking down UIW (3-14, 2-5) in straight sets, leading the match in every category including 47 kills compared to 26 by the Cardinals. Sophomore
Kyndal Payne led the match once again with 15 kills and turned in her fourth consecutive double-double as she also picked up 10 digs. Junior
Ella Litterell and sophomore
Leah Stolfus added eight kills each with senior
Faith Panhans getting 5 kills and 28 assists.
"Our team was really mentally focused to start the match and I'm really proud of the preparation they put in. We had outstanding performances from so many players today and that's a testament to how talented we are and how good we can be when we are focused and put in the mental preparation to compete at a high level. Our offense was firing on all cylinders today and that is a reflection of our attackers' confidence as well as the quality setting by Faith and [freshman
Halle Gibson] throughout the match," said Greene.
Leading the blocking game was Stolfus as she got two solo blocks and assisted in two more. Payne was a part of two blocks and Panhans and freshman
Tayah Little played a role in one each. Little also added three kills and two digs to her season totals.
Senior
Carissa Barnes led the match with 16 digs and tied the match-high of service aces at two, with freshman
Zoria Heard being the other player to earn two. Heard recorded eight digs and even earned a kill from the back row.
The Islanders completely dominated the first set, going up to a 9-1 lead that only grew. The Cardinals followed up an ace by Barnes that took the Islanders to a 19-8 with a kill to reach nine points, but the A&M-Corpus Christi wouldn't give up another, as a kill by Litterell and an ace by Heard helped a 6-0 run to the end for the 25-9 win.
UIW came out fighting in the second, going up 3-0 before a 4-point spurt courtesy of kills by Payne, Stolfus and junior
McKenna Reiswig gave the Islanders a lead that was tied but never overturned. An ace by Stolfus had A&M-Corpus Christi doubled-up on UIW 12-6. A kill by graduate student
Aurora Carnes followed by an ace by Barnes put the Islanders at set point up 24-15 before a kill by Gibson closed out the second 25-17 for a 2-0 advantage for A&M-Corpus Christi.
The third set started out similar to the second with the Cardinals jumping out first 2-0. The set featured the most back-and-forth of the match, with UIW maintaining a lead through the 12-11 mark. This didn't last long as the Islanders gained momentum with a 3-0 run followed by a 7-0 run that featured kills by Payne, Stolfus and Litterell along with an ace by sophomore
Kayla White for a 21-13 lead. The Cardinals managed four more points but a kill by sophomore
Morgan Baese won the match for the Islanders after the 25-17 set three win.
A&M-Corpus Christi will remain at home for its next two conference matches, welcoming HCU (14-6, 6-1) Thursday night at 6:30 p.m. before hosting Nicholls (4-15, 1-6) next Saturday at 1 p.m. Both matches will be streamed on ESPN+.
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