CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi beach volleyball team opened up the 2026 Islanders Classic, presented by Fulton Coastcon General Contractors, on a very high note on Friday afternoon, starting its run at its home tournament by securing two tight victories over Cal State Bakersfield and Tarleton State at Water's Edge Park.
The wins continued the strong run of play for the Islanders recently, bringing their winning streak up to 10 matches after they won their final three contests at the Stetson Spring Invitational before then sweeping their way through the Southland Conference Midseason Tournament on their way to a regular season championship. They also placed the hosts in a tie for first place in the tournament after the first day with Pepperdine, whom they will square off against at 10 a.m. on Saturday.
In contrast to how the final tallies looked, the Islanders actually found themselves with their backs against the wall in the opener against the Roadrunners, dropping three-set duals at the No. 2 and 4 positions to fall behind 0-2 overall. They started their climb back in from here, though, first getting on the board at No. 3 when the pair of
Bryce Ranney and
Mille Maxwell-Berthou earned a convincing 21-8, 21-11 win.
A&M-Corpus Christi would then go on to tie things up at No. 5, with
Mia Stevens and
Saskia Hernandez coming up clutch by securing a pair of 21-18 set wins to bring the total up to 2-2. This left the deciding dual up to the top flight, where
Madison Morrow and
Kristin Bobay took the first set home by a decisive mark of 21-7 before then locking down the next one 21-13 to clinch the team's first win of the day.
Riding this momentum into the next match, the Islanders jumped ahead 2-0 over the Texans, starting at No. 4 when Stevens and Hernandez took home their second triumph of the day with a 21-17, 21-17 win and continuing at No. 2 with a tight 21-12, 19-21, 15-8 three-set victory from
Maria Duda Fernandes de Melo and
Millie Olsson. Tarleton managed to extend things after this at No. 3 while facing elimination, but A&M-Corpus Christi locked things down at No. 5 with a 21-17, 21-19 win from
Lizzie Denyer and
Ashlyn Rough, making the result at No. 1 not necessary.
The Islanders saw a very balanced performance from their pairs on the day, with all five earning at least one victory between the two matches. Leading the way with two wins was the group of Stevens and Hernandez, who went a perfect 4-0 in sets throughout the afternoon.
A&M-Corpus Christi will now try to finish out the Islanders Classic strong, kicking off day two against Pepperdine at 10 a.m. before wrapping things up in the final match of the tournament against ULM at 1 p.m. Following this, the team will hold a special Senior Day presentation honoring this year's senior class at around 3 p.m.
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