CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Making its way through the conference slate, the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi volleyball team will host a pair of matches this week with UIW at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday and HCU at 6:30p.m. Thursday in the Dugan Wellness Center.
The Islanders (15-8, 10-1 SLC) will be going for the season sweep over both teams after defeating UIW (12-11, 4-7 SLC) 3-0 and HCU (12-11, 7-4 SLC) 3-1 in the top half of the conference schedule. It was the first two wins in A&M-Corpus Christi's current nine-match winning streak, the longest since 2016 when the Islanders won 13 straight.
Tuesday will be a blue out in addition to being "Taco Tuesday," where Taco Palenque will give out 200 free tacos. Thursday will be the team's annual Dig Pink game, inviting fans to wear pink with Radiology Associates presenting a t-shirt giveaway.
"We are really excited about the home crowd with blue out on Tuesday and the Pink Game on Thursday," said head coach
Steve Greene. "UIW is a good point scoring team offensively and HCU is a really good blocking team. We will need to adapt and make changes during each match as they present challenges. I'm thrilled with the level of focus and intensity that we had at practice and am confident we will carry that over into both matches."
The most recent of those nine straight wins came from road matches at McNeese and Lamar last week to begin the second half of the conference schedule. The Islanders defeated the Cowgirls 3-1 and swept Lamar to remain the only team in the league to be unbeaten on the road in SLC play.
The wins have been fueled by strong defensive efforts, as the team has kept the last eight opponents to under a .200 hitting mark. Three have been held to under a .100 including a season-low -.019 at Nicholls.
Leading the defense has been junior
Kayla White with 181 digs for a 4.76/set mark in conference play, which ranks her third in the league. Junior
Kyndal Payne and sophomore
Zoria Heard also record over 100 digs against Southland opponents this year with 118 and 116, respectively.
Through conference play, Payne has registered five double doubles including one in the last two matches. She leads the league in kills per set (4.41) and points per set (4.84) while ranking seventh in hitting percentage (.307). Junior
Leah Stolfus leads that category with a .433 efficiency while sitting fifth in points per set (3.97) and sixth in kills per set (3.46).
Graduate
Belle Morgan has run the offense to a .282 average in SLC play compared to their opponents' .143 mark. Morgan ranks atop the standings in total assists with 465 and assists per set at 12.24. On the whole season, she records over 200 more assists than the second-leading setter.
Only half a game back in the SLC standings, A&M-Corpus Christi ranks first in hitting percentage (.282), assists per set (14.45), kills per set (15.68), opponent hitting percentage, opponent assists (379), opponent assists per set (9.97), opponent kills per set (10.82), and opponent digs per set (14.34).
The Islanders rank fourth nationally for kills per set and seventh in total kills. Morgan ranks 21
st individually in total assists while Payne ranks 26
th overall in total kills.
Stay Social
For more information on Islanders Volleyball, follow the team on Twitter (
@IslandersVB), Instagram (
@islandersvb) and like their Facebook page (
Islanders Volleyball).
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