CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Opening the weekend with a bang in front of its home crowd, the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi volleyball team outlasted Prairie View A&M 3-2 in the Dugan Wellness Center to begin the Islanders Classic, presented by Schlotzsky's.
After going down 1-0 and then 2-1 in the match, the Islanders (5-2) buckled down and outscored the Panthers (3-6) 25-14 in the fourth to force the deciding set five. A&M-Corpus Christi then pressured Prairie View into a negative hitting percentage in the fifth to take it 15-9 for the match victory.
Four Islanders turned in double figure kills, with junior
Kyndal Payne leading the match at 19 for a .447 hitting mark. Sophomore
Tayah Little and junior
Leah Stolfus each hammered down 13 while sophomore
Rylee Achtzehn turned in 11 for her career-high as an Islander. Little denied the Panthers four times, as the Islanders outblocked their opponent 11 to four.
The service line also played a massive role in the match, as the Islanders aced the Panthers 11 times while only allowing Prairie View to score three times off the serve. Junior
Kayla White dropped in the match-high of three aces while also being perfect in reception. She picked up 19 digs as Payne followed with 12 for the double-double.
Errors costed both teams early points in the first before the teams became squared at 8-8 following the kill by Payne. A five-point burst came out of the Islanders as the solo block by sophomore
Tori Arrington made it a 13-9 score, though, the Panthers responded to tie it back up at 15. The teams fought it out but the Panthers ended up on top of a tight 26-24 opening set.
Down 1-0 in the match, A&M-Corpus Christi didn't falter and took better control in the second. Three early kills by Payne got the Islanders up 5-2 before her service ace made it 9-4. The Islanders kept it rolling as the three-man block by Achtzehn, Stolfus, and Arrington capped a 5-0 scoring run for a 14-6 lead. The sneak-attack by sophomore
Rylie Romero and two Prairie View errors handed the Islanders a 25-17 set two to even the match.
A pair of kills by Achtzehn gave the Islanders a 13-10 advantage in the third before the teams rallied back-and-forth to a 15-15 tie. Another ace by Payne had A&M-Corpus Christi up 17-15, but the Panthers found momentum and reversed the lead through the end to take it 25-20.
Needing to square things up again, the Islanders took over 3-2 off the attack by Arrington in the fourth and never let up. Freshman
Kenna Buchanan served thrice in a row and recorded her first ace of the set to extend A&M-Corpus Christi's lead to 9-4. Up 15-7, Achtzehn showed her arm and earned the Islanders four of their next six points before Buchanan dropped in her second ace for a 21-12 lead. The kill by graduate
Morgan Smith topped things off as the Islanders took set four 25-14 to even the match once again.
Prairie View struck first in the final set, but the kill by Stolfus gave the Islanders the ball as Romero served for the next straight points to take a 6-2 lead in the shortened set. Little attacked twice and scored twice to make it 9-5 before White aced the Panthers to get the Islanders to 10. A&M-Corpus Christi applied the pressure and outlasted Prairie View in pivotal rallies late to finally conclude its home opener with a 15-9 set five and 3-2 match victory.
The Islanders will look to carry momentum from the win into their next two home matches. They will next face Weber State Friday at 5 p.m. before closing out the weekend with a rematch against UTRGV Saturday at 6:30 p.m. for three matches in three days. The face-off with the Vaqueros will count towards the South Texas Showdown, presented by Rally Credit Union.
Tournament tickets are available for purchase
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click here.
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