COMMERCE, Texas – Extending its win streak to five matches, the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi volleyball team took a 3-1 decision against Texas A&M-Commerce at the Field House on Saturday.
A&M-Corpus Christi (11-8, 6-1 SLC) got out to a quick start and easily won the first two sets 25-11 and 25-16. A&M-Commerce (8-12, 4-3 SLC) put up more of a fight in the third and pulled out a 25-23 win despite the Islanders staving off set point three times. Though, they got back to their earlier rhythm and dominated the fourth 25-14 for the match win.
The Islanders have now won five conference matches in a row, four of which have come on the road. They have yet to drop a road conference match this year.
"We were very focused on each and every point in the first two sets," said head coach
Steve Greene. "Commerce really started to push back and play well in set three, but I am very proud of our team and how they handled that. The leadership and intensity really came alive again at the end of set three and into set four."
The defense stepped up big to keep the Lions to a season-low .092 hitting percentage. The Islanders were paced by junior
Kayla White who covered the floor for the match-high 21 digs while sophomore
Zoria Heard picked up 15.
Also in double digits for digs were sophomore
Kendall Mahaney and junior
Kyndal Payne who added 11 each to aid in the team's total of 73. The team's defensive performance comes right after the Islanders recorded 106 digs in the 3-2 win at Northwestern State on Thursday, five shy of breaking the program record.
At the net, graduate
Belle Morgan, Stolfus, and sophomore
Tayah Little all recorded three blocks as the Islanders out-blocked the Lions seven to six.
"Our defense was outstanding today. [Assistant coach]
Kristin Watson has been working diligently this week to get our defenders to make improvements and it showed today. Kayla, Zoria, Kendall, and Kyndal were outstanding today and really showed what defensive efforts and anticipation can do to change the outcome of a match,.
"[Assistant coach]
Julia Carter has been helping our blockers to set up our team defense and we made some great plays in that area today too," said Greene.
On the other end, the offense hit above .300 for the third time in SLC play this year with a .301 off 60 kills. Juniors Payne and
Leah Stolfus led the match with 17 and 16 kills, respectively, as Payne earned the her eighth double-double of the year. Sophomore
Rylee Achtzehn and junior
Morgan Baese both got in on the action with eight kills.
Graduate
Belle Morgan ran the offense once again to the .301 clip, dishing out 51 of the team's 58 assists. It was her fifth match of the year recording over 50 assists as she continued her streak of being the assists-leader in every conference match.
The Islanders also applied pressure at the service line, dropping in nine aces against the Lions. It was the most aces in a conference match this year by A&M-Corpus Christi. Heard led the match with a career-high of four.
"Our serving was a big different maker today, too. We had key runs of points that really sparked our team," Greene said.
In conference play, the Islanders now lead the league in points per set (18.80), hitting percentage (.277), kills per set (16.08), assists per set (14.88), and digs per set (19.00). They are tied for first in opponent hitting percentage (.157) and rank second in opponent kills per set at 11.20 and opponent assists per set at 10.32.
The Islanders will continue conference play next week at home when they host New Orleans and Nicholls in the Dugan Wellness Center. Thursday's match against the Privateers will start at 6:30 p.m. while Saturday will feature a 1 p.m. matchup with the Colonels.
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