CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Winning two matches already this week, the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi volleyball team will close out the week with a road matchup at Nicholls at 11 a.m. Saturday.
The Islanders (17-8, 12-1 SLC) swept both UIW and HCU at home this week to extend their winning streak to 11, the longest since 2016 when they won 13 in a row. The win over HCU featured A&M-Corpus Christi's largest crowd of the year with 1,021 in attendance.
A win at Nicholls (3-20, 1-12 SLC) this weekend would continue to have A&M-Corpus Christi be the only team in the league to be undefeated on the road in conference play this year. The match will be the first of the remaining five left on the regular season schedule, as the Islanders will have the chance to become tied for first place in the standings. They are currently half a game behind Southeastern, who has a bye Saturday.
The Islanders have swept five of their last six opponents, only dropping one set in the span of three weeks. They have kept every Southland team to under a .220 hitting percentage this year. Leading that steadfast defense has been junior
Kayla White who is averaging 4.93 digs per set in league play, the third best mark in the conference. Junior
Kyndal Payne nears the top-10 with a 3.30 digs/set mark.
On the other end, the Islanders have hit above .300 in the last two matches and seven times in SLC play. Graduate
Belle Morgan, a four-time SLC Setter of the Week, has led every conference match in assists while running the offense to its league-leading .290 average.
Morgan records a conference-best 12.48 assists per set in SLC play and 10.59 overall. She has 919 total assists on the year, which is over 200 more than the next assist-leader in the league.
Payne leads the Southland in kills pet set (4.42) and points per set (4.86). She is coming off a 19-kill, 12-dig double-double against HCU, her sixth double-double of the year. She is hitting a .317 against Southland opponents which is better than her last year's mark of a .309.
Junior
Leah Stolfus remains the most efficient hitter in the league with a .430 attack percentage. She leads all middle blockers with 3.44 kills per set and 3.98 points per set.
As a team, the Islanders are leading the conference in points per set (19.00), hitting percentage, assists per set (14.66), kills (696), and kills per set (15.82). They are the only team to average over 15 kills per set.
The Islanders are 21-1 all-time over the Colonels and have not lost a match to them since 2008. In the first meeting between the teams this year, A&M-Corpus Christi swept Nicholls 3-0 at home where head coach
Steve Greene earned his 126
th program win to become the program's most winning head coach.
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