HOUSTON, Texas – Looking to go for the three-peat, the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi beach volleyball team will begin that journey when they first take on No. 8 Nicholls Friday at 9 a.m. at Third Coast Volleyball Club.
The Islanders (24-8) and the Colonels (10-21) will be the opening match of the tournament, with the winner advancing in the winner's bracket to play again at 2 p.m. against the winner of No. 4 San Jose State and No. 5 New Orleans.
The Islanders earned the tournament's No. 1 seed for the third year in a row after securing a repeat of the SLC regular season championship. They have won four championships in the last three years and will be going for their fifth with the chance of winning the conference tournament for the third straight year.
The run has been spearheaded by head coach
Gayle Stammer, who was just recently named SLC Coach of the Year for the third straight season. She has led the Islanders to back-to-back undefeated conference seasons and a national ranking of #20 for four consecutive weeks this year. She is the only coach in the conference to have repeated the honor.
Under Stammer, the Islanders are 33-0 against Southland opponents in regular season matches and are 41-1 all-time including the conference tournament (8-1). They have not dropped a match to a conference member since the 2021 tournament final.
The Islanders recently had a trio of pairs named to the All-Conference Teams, with
Chloe Tome and
Cassie Dodd taking First Team honors for flight two while
Hannah Doyle and
Stephanie Young joined them on the first team at flight three.
Elizabeth Cortez and
Kela Moreno were named to the Second Team for flight five.
Dodd was also named SLC Freshman of the Year. It is the second year in a row that the Islanders took the accolade after now-sophomore
Kristin Bobay won it last year. Bobay has paired with sophomore
Madison Morrow at flight one for the majority of the season.
The championship match is set for Sunday at 2 p.m. and will be streamed live on ESPN+. All matches will be available to follow along with live scoring.
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