CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi volleyball team gave its home fans something to cheer about in its return to the Dugan Wellness Center on Saturday afternoon, coming through when it mattered most and knocking off McNeese by a final set count of 3-1 (25-23, 25-21, 21-25, 25-18).
The Islanders (4-9, 2-0 SLC) picked up their second straight victory to open conference play by continuing its recent success on offense, posting a hitting percentage of .309 for their second-highest total in a match this season behind only the .343 mark that they reached against Tarleton State on September 12. They also committed just 14 errors on the attack for their second fewest in a four- or five-set match while also racking up nine aces on the service line.
This strong attack was no more evident than in the opening set, when A&M-Corpus Christi blitzed the Cowgirls (4-9, 0-2 SLC) to the tune of a .452 hitting percentage with 16 kills and just two errors in 31 total attacks. Even despite this, though, the Islanders found themselves needing to mount a comeback, falling behind by four at the media timeout thanks to a five-point McNeese run and finding themselves still down 23-20 near the end of the set. A service error helped them get serve back at this point, and they did not waste it, ripping off four more points in a row on an ace from
Madison Morrow and kills from
Erin Herrmann and
Hadley Burger to complete the climb and go ahead a set early.
The next set ended up being the closest of the four on the day, with the two playing to 14 different ties while jockeying for position throughout the entirety. Neither ended up going ahead by more than two points until the very end of the period, when like before, the Islanders found a spark in the clutch to pull away late. This time, it ended up coming with the score tied at 21, with the hosts again getting serve back on an error and capitalizing with back-to-back kills from
Tatum Mason to wrap things up.
Now up 2-0 overall, A&M-Corpus Christi was unable to conclude the day in straight sets, as the Cowgirls put together their best showing of the afternoon by hitting .375 while holding the blue and green to a match-low .159. The third set started out in back-and forth fashion but quickly saw McNeese start to create some distance, eventually peaking at a five-point advantage just after the media timeout. Another ace from Morrow and kills by Buchanan, Burger and
Kaitlyn Aleshire helped cut the deficit to three, but it would not get any closer than that until the end of the set.
Fresh off their first set loss, the Islanders came out rejuvenated in the fourth, starting things off with a four-point run on kills from Van Der Werff and Buchanan and an ace from Aleshire after conceding the first point and continuing to build its lead from there. This culminated in the longest run of the season, when the team ripped off eight points in a row to turn what was a four-point advantage into 12 to essentially put the match out of reach. Buchanan started out this stretch with back-to-back kills, which was then followed by two aces from
Ava Hight, a kill from Burger and finally a kill and a solo block from Herrman on consecutive points to put on the exclamation point. McNeese did rip off six points in a row right after to make the final score look closer, but it ended up being too late, with A&M-Corpus Christi locking things up at 25-18.
In a match full of standout performances for the Islanders, it was
Kenna Buchanan who led the way, setting her new career-high with 19 kills on a nice .353 hitting percentage while also chipping in nine digs on defense. She was joined in double figures by two other teammates, with Mason having the next highest total with 11 and Burger following right behind with 10. The duo of Van Der Werff and Hight ran the offense with 31 and 18 assists respectively, and
Brooklyn Jaeger held down the back line with a match-high 19 digs, which helped move her into eighth place all-time in program history with 1,057 for her career.
The Islanders will now try to keep their nice start to conference play going in a pair of home matches next week, first hosting Houston Christian on Thursday at 11:30 a.m. for the team's annual Education Day.
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