DALLAS, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi volleyball team surged late but couldn't overcome LSU who took it 3-0 on day one of the SMU Doubletree Invitational at Moody Coliseum.
The Islanders (5-5) dropped the first two sets before staying in it late with the Tigers () for a 16-16 tie in the third. A&M-Corpus Christi held off match point to get to 21 points, but LSU closed out the 3-0 match win.
Despite the loss, the Islanders notched 25 kills against the SEC team while out-digging them 34 to 28. Junior
Kyndal Payne registered seven kills and five digs while sophomore
Kendall Mahaney led the team with 10 digs. Freshman
Kenna Buchanan converted on six of her 11 kill attempts for a .545 hitting percentage.
Buchanan and sophomore
Rylie Romero also picked up five digs each.
"Kendall did an outstanding job of playing composed in service receive and on defense," said head coach
Steve Greene. "She was a calming force on the courth and gave us chances to get back into the match. Kenna had a tremendous all-around match. She was attacking so quickly and really working off the block and finding space to score."
The first set had junior
Leah Stolfus earn the kill to help an early tie. LSU tried pulling ahead but kills by graduate
Belle Morgan, sophomore
Tayah Little, and sophomore
Rylee Achtzehn kept the Islanders within one at 8-7. Though, the Tigers finally found some room to create some distance as they finished it 25-13.
Payne opened the second set with the kill. The Islanders forced an LSU error to trail just 3-2, but the Tigers pulled out an 11-0 scoring run to take a comfortable lead. Payne added two more kills in set two with Buchanan and Achtzehn each scoring again too, but LSU took it 25-10 for a 2-0 lead in the match.
A pair of kills by Payne kept the third set tied 4-4 before back-to-back kills by sophomore
Brooke Copley gave the Islanders a 6-5 lead. Buchanan hammered another to keep the Islanders on top 7-6, but LSU reversed the lead two points later. The Islanders kept pushing, though, and stayed tied through 16-all following Buchanan's kill. LSU regained the lead once more and kept it for the 25-21 final score and match win.
The Islanders will continue playing in the weekend tournament Saturday at 12 p.m. when they face host SMU. The match will be streamed live on ESPN+.
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