EDINBURG, Texas - A marathon game between the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi volleyball team and UTRGV ended in a 3-2 (25-23, 24-26, 31-33, 25-17, 15-9) favor of the Vanqueros Tuesday night at the UTRGV Fieldhouse.
The match was part of the South Texas Showdown, presented by NavyArmy Community Credit Union. The Vanqueros (3-1) take a 1-0 lead in volleyball over the Islanders (0-4), with the next match in the competition set for Sept. 6 in Corpus Christi. The Showdown is currently tied 3-3 between the institutions.
A&M-Corpus Christi beat out UTRGV in set two 26-24 and set three 33-31, but the Vanqueros were able to take sets one, four and five for the deciding victory. The first three sets were consecutively decided by just two-points.
"It was a really fun and exciting match," said head coach
Steve Greene. "There was really strong effort from both teams and it was a back-and-fourth match that was very mentally and physically challenging."
Sophomore
Kyndal Payne and senior
Faith Panhans each put up a double-double night, with Payne registering 16 kills and 17 digs while Panhans was two kills away from a triple-double with 58 assists, 12 digs and eight kills. Senior
Carissa Barnes picked up the match-high of 30 digs to take her season total to 99. Barnes now averages 6.19 digs per set.
Sophomore
Leah Stolfus, freshman
Tayah Little and freshman
Nadia Chwialkowski all totaled double-digit kills. Stolfus earned 16 kills for a .533 attack percentage, a team-high, while Little and Chwialkowski got 15 and 12, respectively. As a team, the Islanders got a season-high 78 kills for a .273 attack percentage and 73 assists.
"Leah and Tayah played amazing in the middle tonight. They were so efficient scoring and really worked hard to block against a challenging group from UTRGV," Greene said. "Faith really kept us in the match and distributed the offense well while Kyndal, Carissa and [sophomore]
Kayla White were stalwarts on defense."
Despite an early 8-2 lead in set one for the Vanqueros, the Islanders closed the gap by going on a six-point run to tie it 9-9 with the help of two kills by Stolfus. After exchanging the lead, three straight kills from junior
Ella Litterell put the Islanders on top of set one at 18-16 and didn't let it up until four kills by UTRGV's Sarah Cruz put the Vanqueros on top for the 25-23 win in set one.
The Islanders took advantage of eight UTRGV errors in set two to tie the match up 1-1 with the 26-24 win. Set two featured eight ties including at 24-24 with A&M-Corpus Christi earning the final two points of the set.
Chwialkowski got seven of her 12 kills on the night in set three alone to push the Islanders to a 33-31 victory over the Vanqueros to lead the match 2-1. Set point was met by both teams as the last 18 points featured eight ties and seven lead-changes, with the decision ultimately going A&M-Corpus Christi's way after earning the final three straight points of the set.
A 16-12 lead by the Vanqueros was never given up in set four as UTRGV was able to even the playing field back up at 2-2 with a 25-17 score. Set five began tight as well with a 6-6 tie after a pair of kills by Stolfus but the final frame had UTRGV reach 15 points first for a 3-2 match win.
"We would've loved to win, but we put in everything we had and played great. I'm very proud of the team and look forward to continued improvements," said Greene.
A&M-Corpus Christi will host Sam Houston, SMU and Indiana in the Islanders Classic, presented by Schlotzcky's, on Friday and Saturday. The Islanders' first match of the tournament and home opener is set for Friday at 6:30 p.m. CT against the Bearkats.
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