HOUSTON, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi volleyball team dropped both games on day two of the Adidas Invitational, dropping to Rice 3-0 in the first match and then being edged out 3-2 by Brown to end the day at Tudor Fieldhouse.
Game One – Rice 3, A&M-Corpus Christi 0
A&M-Corpus Christi's (0-11) defense kept the hosting Rice Owls (7-1) to their lowest kills earned in a match this season at 39. Senior
Carissa Barnes picked up nine digs while sophomore
Kyndal Payne got five along with three receptions.
Payne and junior McKenna Resiwig each tallied seven kills for the Islanders. Freshman
Tayah Little hit for .571, earning four kills off seven attacks.
Rice jumped out to a 9-3 lead in set one, but the Islanders earned seven of the next ten points with kills by Payne and graduate student
Aurora Carnes to bring it to a close 12-10 score. The teams exchanged points before the Owls were able to close out 25-20.
The Islanders kept set two tight at six-all until the Owls took a 13-7 lead A&M-Corpus Christi could not make up. Despite getting a match-high 15 kills in this set, the Islanders fell to Rice 25-17 in the second.
Another early lead for Rice came in the third set that they kept comfortably up to the 20-11 mark. The Islanders fought back to force several Rice errors and with a pair of kills by freshman
Nadia Chwialkowski, A&M-Corpus Christi brought the score within four at 23-19. A service error on the Owls gave the Islanders their 20
th point of the set, but Rice got the last two points to close out the match with a 25-20 set win.
Game Two – Brown, A&M-Corpus Christi
Payne turned in a match and season-high 23 kills against Brown (3-4), with freshman
Nadia Chwialkowski getting her season-high 14 kills right behind Payne. Panhans turned in her third double-double performance of the season, garnering 12 kills and 54 assists.
The Islanders pulled out to a 4-1 lead against the Bears in set one off an opening kill by Payne. The Bears would tie it up at 8-all and pull ahead to a 15-11 lead before the Islanders tied it back up at 15 off a kill by Stolfus. From that point, there would be eight tied scores as the set went to extra points ending A&M-Corpus Christi's way with the 26-24 win.
Set two had the Islanders out in front for the majority of the game, outhitting the Bears .308 to .171. A kill by Little gave the Islanders their largest lead of the match at the 16-8 mark. A&M-Corpus Christi didn't let Brown within four points the rest of the way, taking set two 25-19 to go up 2-0.
The third set mimicked the first, featuring 11 tie scores with no bigger than a four-point lead difference as it was a battle to the finish. Five kills apiece by Payne and Chwialkowski paced the offense for the Islanders this set, but Brown was able to force a fourth set with the 25-23 edge.
The Bears led the whole fourth set in a win or go home situation, outhitting the Islanders .484 to .212 to win 25-19 and forcing a fifth set.
In the first-to-15 set five, the Bears came out fighting, taking a 5-4 lead they never gave up to win 15-10 in a comeback match victory.
The Islanders will close out the non-conference next weekend at the Wildcat Classic hosted by Arizona before opening conference play Sept. 22 at home against New Orleans.
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