CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Completing the feat of going untouched on its home court this season, the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi volleyball team posted a 3-1 (28-30, 25-15, 25-18, 25-16) revenge win over UIW Saturday in the Dugan Wellness Center to also secure the No. 2 seed for next week's Southland Conference Tournament.
It moved the Islanders (17-10, 12-4 SLC) to 11-0 at home this year, their second-ever undefeated home season and first since the program went 14-0 in the Dugan in 2015. The win also locked up the second seed for A&M-Corpus Christi as they end atop the gold division, a new addition to the conference rankings for volleyball this year. The winners of the black and gold divisions automatically get the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds for the conference tournament.
Southeastern will be the No. 1 seed after winning the regular season and the black division, with SFA heading into the tournament as the No. 3 seed after finishing second in the black division.
More information on this year's volleyball division and seeding can be found
here.
The Islanders recorded 30 more kills and 20 more digs than the Cardinals (16-10, 9-7 SLC) en route to the victory, with their 79 kills marking a season-high for the team. Their previous best was 75, which also came against UIW this year exactly two weeks ago.
It capped an emotional Senior Day, where nine seniors were honored in a special pregame ceremony. Particularly showing out in her final home match as an Islander was senior
Kyndal Payne who came away with the 21-kill, 24-dig double-double.
Payne delivered the final kill of the match to end the regular season, which bookends a full circle moment as she opened her college career in 2021 with the team's first recorded kill that season against Arizona State on August 27.
It marks Payne's third 20+ kill performance this year while she also set her new career high of 24 digs which topped her 22 at Northwestern State on Oct. 5, 2023. It is the second 20-20 double-double of her career, and first since that same match last season against the Lady Demons.
Also setting a career high today was senior
Tori Arrington who led all hitters with 23 kills with just two errors for the .467 hitting clip. She nearly topped her previous best by 10 kills, when she recorded 14 kills earlier this season against Jacksonville State.
Adding to the team's season-high of 79 kills were fellow seniors
Rylee Achtzehn (15) and
Leah Stolfus (13) both in double figures. They also both hit above .375 individually, helping the team to a .361 percentage as a whole.
Running that offense was graduate
Alex Hoglund who turned in a career high of her own of 67 assists through just four sets, topping her 54 recorded at UTRGV back in October. The Islanders finish the regular season 17-3 this year when hitting above .200 and 14-1 when recording more kills than their opponent.
Defensively, redshirt freshman
Brooklyn Jaeger recorded her third 20+ dig performance of the year with her career high of 29 digs to lead the match. She is on a 10-match streak of recording double figure digs.
The Islanders will now look to facing No. 7 Lamar in the quarterfinals of the 2024 SLC Championships next Friday at 1 p.m. in Hammond, Louisiana.
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