CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - Earning its second conference win of the season, the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi volleyball team swept Lamar 25-16, 25-21, and 25-22 Tuesday night at home in the Dugan Wellness Center.
This was the third home game in a row for the Islanders (2-15, 2-1) before they play visitor for the next three matches on the schedule. The win over Lamar (6-8, 0-3) marked the second this season for A&M-Corpus Christi, with both victories being 3-0 sweeps.
A&M-Corpus Christ outhit the Cardinals .234 to .115 with a total of 49 kills. Sophomore
Kyndal Payne led the attack with 15 kills, making this the eighth match this season where she's turned in double-digit kills and third in a row to average 14.66 kills a match in conference play. Senior
Faith Panhans followed her up with nine kills, one shy of a double-double as she racked up 24 assists on the night with freshman
Halle Gibson getting seven assists fo her own. Fellow senior
Carissa Barnes was the match-leader yet again in digs, picking up 21 to mark her seventh match of recording 20-plus digs this season for a 5.15 digs per set average.
"Carissa did an outstanding job controlling our defense and in serve receive. Faith was very confident and really put our attackers in great position to score all night. Kyndal showed what a complete player is with her passing, defense, attack and blocking," said head coach
Steve Greene.
The Islanders led Lamar from start to finish in the opening set, hitting for a .452 mark. A service ace by sophomore
Kayla White extended A&M-Corpus Christi's lead to 11-5 before a kill by sophomore
Leah Stolfus and a back-to-back kills by freshman
Tayah Little got the Islanders up to 14-6. A double-digit lead came at the 17-7 mark for the Islanders off a kill by junior
McKenna Reiswig. The Cardiinals tested A&M-Corpus Christi to get back within eight, but a kill by graduate student
Aurora Carnes won the set point for the Islanders to close out 25-16.
Set two featured a tighter matchup, with Lamar taking its first lead of the match at 5-4 before Stolfus got the Islanders back on top with a pair of kills, a lead that would be challenged but never overturned. Kills by Panhans and Payne kept A&M-Corpus Christi up 12-8 and despite Lamar fighting within one point four times, the Islanders jumped out at 22-16, with Little earning the final point of the set with a kill for the 25-22 second set win.
The third set mimicked the first two, with the Islanders jumping out to a 2-0 lead. Lamar would take just its second lead of the match at 5-4 again and even went up 8-5 before a pair of kills by Panhans and a kill and a block by Payne switched the lead back to A&M-Corpus Christi at the 9-8 mark. The teams would exchange points through the remainder of the set, as it featured 12 tie scores and six lead changes. A kill by junior
Ella Litterell tied the set up at 17-all before a 4-point spurt pulled the Islanders ahead 22-18. Reiswig's sixth kill of the night gave A&M-Corpus Christi its match point and a block by Litterell and Little ended the set 25-22 for the match win.
"I am really proud of our team's effort and focus tonight to start off the match. Lamar did a good job making adjustments. At the end of sets two and three we showed poise and confidence to finish and put ourselves in position to win both sets and the match," said Greene.
Hitting the road for their first away conference matches, the Islanders will make a stop at Northwestern State Thursday night before heading to Texas A&M-Commerce for a Saturday matchup to finish out the second week of conference play.
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