LAKE CHARLES—McNeese volleyball struggled on offense but had its chances here Thursday night in trying to hand Texas A&M-Corpus Christi its first Southland Conference loss of the season but the Islanders prevailed 3-0 (23-25, 18-25, 22-25) to remain undefeated at 8-0 in league play and improved to 12-7 on the year. The loss drops the Cowgirls to 4-4 in the SLC and 10-9 overall.
 
McNeese opened the match by taking an 11-5 lead behind five straight off the serve of Baylee Laskoskie. During the 5-0 run Kendall Glueck and Aryn Johnson picked up two kills apiece along with an ace by Laskoskie.
 
The Cowgirls extended their lead to 14-8 on a Regan Stiawalt kill but the Islanders put together a scoring run of their own by outscoring McNeese 7-2 to pull to within one point (16-15). McNeese continued to hold a slim lead until the Islanders tied the set at 22 apiece on a Montez Uigaese kill. TAMU-CC took its first lead of the set on a Faith Panhans ace but a service error tied the set at 23 all.
 
Another Montez kill put the Islanders up 24-23 before Kyndal Payne's ace gave the Islanders the set to take a 1-0 lead.
 
The Islanders carried their momentum into the second set and used a .538 team hitting percent to jump out to a 2-0 overall match lead with the 25-18 second set win.
 
The final set saw the Islanders breaking an early 3-3 tie but the Cowgirls came back from trailing 20-16 to tie the set at 22 apiece but it was Payne down the stretch who was credited with two of the Islanders' final three points of the set to end the match.
 
Johnson was the only Cowgirl to reach double figure kills, ending the match with 10. McNeese out blocked TAMU-CC 15-11 with Glueck picking up a match high six blocks.
 
Ceci Harness and Baylee Laskoskie both picked up double figure assists with Harness dishing out 17 and Laskoskie picking up 14.
 
Payne and Uigaese led all players with 12 kills apiece while Faith Panhans was credited with 38 assists and the nations dig leader (Carissa Barnes) was credited with 16 digs.
 
McNeese will remain home to host Incarnate Word this Saturday at 1 p.m.
 
 
McNeese Notes
• Anyse Smith saw her first action of the season
• Aryn Johnson was the only McNeese player to pick up 10 or more kills, ending the match with 10
• Kendall Glueck led all players with six blocks
• Setters Ceci Harness and Baylee Laskoskie both dished out double figure assists. Harness had 17 and Laskoskie had 14