CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas- McNeese volleyball scratched and clawed but fell short here Thursday night in a 3-1 (16-25, 15-25, 28-26, 21-25) Southland Conference loss at league leading Texas A&M-Corpus Christi who remains undefeated in conference play at 6-0.
 
The third-set loss is only the second time this season TAMU-CC loses a set in conference play. Nicholls also picked up a set win over the Islanders last Thursday.    
 
McNeese (9-8, 3-3 SLC) could have easily folded after dropping the first two sets in which the Islanders dominated.
 
McNeese avoided the straight set loss by putting together long rallies and coming up with point saving digs in the third set. The Cowgirls took an early 4-1 lead but TAMU-CC came back to cut the lead to one point.
 
Both teams went on scoring runs throughout the set and the Cowgirls held as much as a 22-18 lead. The Islanders went on a 6-2 run to even the set at 24 apiece. An Aryn Johnson kill gave the Cowgirls a 25-24 lead and one point away from winning the set but TAMU-CC didn't go away that easy as they scored the next two points to take their first lead of the set (26-25).
 
Regan Stiawalt and Nyla Encalade teamed up for a momentum shifting block assists to once again even the set at 26 all. The Cowgirls went to their lone senior in Stiawalt who put down a monstrous kill to put the Cowgirls up 27-26.  On the ensuing play, setter Ceci Harness went to Stiawalt again and she responded with another kill to give McNeese the 28-26 third set win to extend the match.
 
The league's top two hitters in McNeese's Jaylin Gordon and Texas A&M-CC's Rachel Young showed why they lead the league in hitting percent. Gordon led McNeese on the night with a .529 hitting percent on 11 kills, two errors on 17 attempts. Young ended her night with a .650 hitting percent off 13 kills, no errors in 20 attempts.
 
McNeese had three players record double figure kills with Johnson leading McNeese with career and match high 18 kills. Gordon and Macee Krpec both had 11 kills apiece.
 
Kyndal Payne led the Islanders with 14 kills while Young had 13 and led all players with five blocks.
 
 
MATCH NOTES

• TAMU-CC got off to big leads in the first and second set
• McNeese took a 4-1 lead in the third set and held off the Islanders to pick up the win
• Aryn Johnson led all players with a match and career high 18 kills. It's the ninth match she records 10 or more kills and it's the third straight with 10 or more
• Jaylin Gordon led McNeese with a .529 hitting percent with 11 kills, two errors on 17 attempts
• Ceci Harness was credited with 29 assists which makes this 16 of 17 matches this season with double figure assists. It also marks the ninth match this season with 20 or more assists for Harness.
• Lizzy Low continued her streak of 10 or more digs by picking up 26, her second most in a match this season. It also marks the 12^th match with 10 or more digs for Low this season and it's the seventh consecutive match with 10 or more.