CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - For its first win of the season, the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi volleyball program swept New Orleans 25-19, 25-10 and 25-10 to open its Southland Conference slate Thursday night in front of an electric home crowd at the Dugan Wellness Center.
Aside from an early tie in set two, the Islanders (1-14, 1-0) led the Privateers (6-7, 0-1) the whole match, beating out New Orleans by 15 points in both the second and third sets. As a team, A&M-Corpus Christi hit for a season-best .304 with sophomore
Kyndal Payne leading the attack with 13 kills while senior
Faith Panhans, sophomore
Leah Stolfus and sophomore
Morgan Baese all turned in seven. Senior
Carissa Barnes picked up the match-high 22 digs for a 7.33 digs per set average while freshman
Zoria Heard and sophomore
Kayla White collected eight and six, respectively.
Defending at the net, Payne earned two solo blocks as well as Stolfus who led the match with six total. Not only did Payne record the match-high in kills, she also garnered 10 digs to turn in her third double-double of the season in the three-set match.
"I am really proud of the total team effort tonight," said head coach
Steve Greene. "Everyone contributed and I am really happy with the result to help build our confidence for our team. Kyndal was exceptional tonight. She is an amazing leader and teammate and really showcased her all-around game with a double-double in just a three-set match. She is a joy to coach and I really enjoyed seeing her take over that match."
Payne got seven of her kills in set one alone, which helped the Islanders to a 17-9 lead in the opening set. Kills by Baese and freshman
Halle Gibson had A&M-Corpus Christi doubled-up on New Orleans at the 20-10 mark before the Privateers fought back to make this the closest set of the night. New Orleans even came within four points at 23-19 before another kill by Gibson and the set-winning kill by junior
McKenna Reiswig put the Islanders up 1-0.
Set two featured a 2-all score, the only tie of the night, before a 4-0 scoring run gave A&M-Corpus Christi a lead that was never challenged. Back-to-back blocks by freshman
Tayah Little and Stolfus closed out a 25-10 set win for the Islanders, who saw themselves heading to set three with the 2-0 upper hand.
A&M-Corpus Christi's 4.19 hitting percentage in set three set the tone early, with the Islanders only making two errors off 31 attempts. A pair of kills each on the visiting side by Irene Kitson and Courtney Roundtree, who led the New Orleans offense, were not enough as seven different Islanders earned a kill in set three to aid in yet another 25-10 final set score to secure the first match victory of the season for the Islanders.
The Islanders will look to take the momentum into Saturday, staying at home to host Southeastern (11-3, 1-1) in game two of Southland play. A&M-Corpus Christi leads 17-2 in the all-time record over the Lady Lions, who dropped their first conference matchup in a close road-match to HCU (9-5, 1-0).
"Winning is difficult. It takes hard work, consistency, holding others to a high standard and doing that for an entire season is what it takes to be a championship level team. Saturday will be a big challenge as Southeastern has some very talented players in all positions. We are looking to build off of our performance tonight and continue to improve," said Greene.
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