LAS VEGAS, Nev. – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi volleyball team dropped its first match of the Lucky Aces Invitational on Friday evening, starting its time off in Sin City with a straight sets defeat to Hawaii, 17-25, 13-25, 13-25.
 
The Islanders (2-6) could not break the stout defense of the Rainbow Wāhine (7-2) hitting to just a .099 clip with 23 kills and 16 errors on 71 total attacks. Their opponents, on the other hand, caught fire on their own attack with a hitting percentage of .471, tallying 45 kills on 85 attacks while committing only five errors.
 
The most successful Islander on offense was Kenna Buchanan, who led the team in kills with eight while committing just one error on 14 attacks for a hitting percentage of .500. On defense, Brooklyn Jaeger paced the team with 11 total digs, placing her just five away from reaching 1000 for her decorated collegiate career.
 
The opening set of the night ended up being the best one for A&M-Corpus Christi, who worked into a small lead early on after a trio of Hawaii errors and a kill from Kaitlyn Aleshire. A 6-0 run would give the 'Bows a lead that they would continue to extend up to 13-9, but the Islanders responded after this, cutting the deficit back to just two at 17-15 thanks in large part to aces from Jaeger and Ava Hight and some more miscues on the other side. This would be the closest that they would get, however, as Hawaii ripped off a 5-0 run in quick order and used this momentum to secure the first set.
 
After a back and forth start to the second set, the Islanders would fall victim to a pair of big runs from the Wāhine, first surrendering six consecutive points after leveling things up at four apiece and then giving up seven in an eight-point span to go down by a mark of 17-8. A pair of kills from Buchanan helped to close the gap a little bit, but it proved to be too large to overcome before Hawaii reached its 25^th point.
 
In similar fashion to the set that just concluded, A&M-Corpus Christi was forced to dig out of a hole at the beginning of the third, falling behind 13-4 after the 'Bows found another spark with their attack. This deficit continued to climb all the way to a set point at 24-9, at which point the Islanders found their best stretch since the first set, ripping off four points in a row on kills from Buchanan, Ally Saleh, Hadley Burger and Erin Herrmann. While valiant, this fight was not enough to get them back into the match, as Hawaii nipped the comeback effort in the bud with a kill on its fifth set point to wrap things up.
 
The Islanders will now try to get on the board at the Lucky Aces Invitational in their second match of the tournament on Saturday, returning to the Orleans Arena at 4 p.m. CT for a showdown with UCLA.
 
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