CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Taking down UTRGV for the second time this season, the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi volleyball team came away with the 3-1 (26-24, 21-25, 25-21, 25-20) win Thursday night in the Dugan Wellness Center to lengthen a 10-match unbeaten streak and move to 9-0 this year on their home court.
The Islanders (14-8, 9-2 SLC) have won 10 straight, including nine consecutive conference matchups, and takes over sole third place in the Southland standings after creating separation from the Vaqueros (12-9, 8-3 SLC) who entered the night tied. It is the second time this season that A&M-Corpus Christi bested UTRGV in the South Texas Showdown, presented by Rally Credit Union, as the Islanders pull ahead in this year's rivalry 6-4.
It is the first time the Islanders have won back-to-back meetings over the Vaqueros since 2021 and the first-ever time sweeping the season series since the two institutions began the South Texas Showdown in 2016. A&M-Corpus Christi is now 29-25 all-time over UTRGV.
Although it was done in four sets, the one dropped set tonight is just the fourth A&M-Corpus Christi has lost in their last 34 sets played.
"We did an outstanding job making changes in-match and keeping the mental fortitude to come back after dropping a few points here and there," said head coach
Steve Greene. "UTRGV is so well-coached and we knew it would be a tough back-and-forth match. Our defense really stepped up today and Brooklyn, Kayla, Kendall, and Alex did such an amazing job digging the ball. I also couldn't be more proud of Kyndal and Leah as they showed their leadership skills and their ability to take over the match with their play as well."
The defense held the Vaqueros to a .213 hitting clip and was paced by sophomore
Brooklyn Jaeger, the reigning SLC Defensive Player of the Week, in the back row as the libero tallied her career-high and first-ever 20+ dig performance with 22 digs. Senior
Kendall Mahaney then picked up 10 for a double digit defensive night as well.
Senior
Kayla White notably surpassed 1,000 digs in her career in the team's defensive efforts tonight, adding seven to her tally of 1,002 following the reached milestone.
Running the offense to a .279 hitting night was graduate
Alex Hoglund who neared a double-double of 42 assists and nine digs. The Islanders move to 14-1 this season when hitting above .200 as a team.
It is the third straight match that senior
Leah Stolfus went errorless in her offensive attack, tonight recording 11 kills off 27 attempts for the .407 hitting clip. She has hit above .400 in a match 12 times this year including in each of the last five matches now as she climbs her season average to a .354.
Leading the team was senior
Kyndal Payne who hammered in 19 which matches her season-high set twice previous this year. In addition, junior
Tori Arrington matched her career best of 14 kills tonight which she set earlier this year against Jacksonville State. She made just one error for the .371 hitting percentage.
It is the sixth time that Stolfus, Payne, and Arrington all turned in 10+ kills in the same match this year as the team moves to 5-1 on the season when this occurs.
The Islanders will now finish the week on the road, heading to face UIW in a 12 p.m. matchup on Saturday in San Antonio.
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