CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas— McNeese volleyball couldn't get their offense on track Saturday as the Cowgirls suffered their first Southland Conference loss of the season in a 3-0 (25-18, 25-16, 26-24) setback at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.  The loss drops McNeese to 6-12 overall and 4-1 in the SLC.  Texas A&M-Corpus Christi improves to 9-8 overall and also 4-1 in the SLC.

"We came out flat and a little passive to start the match which carried through to the second set as well," said head coach Sasha Karelov.  "We couldn't get our offense flowing due to some miscommunications and miscues.  Corpus came out strong and put pressure on us early, and we just couldn't find our rhythm until the third set.  I hope this is a wake up call and learning experience for our team moving forward."
 
Heading into the match, McNeese led the conference in hitting percent but was held to a .167 hitting percent today while the Islanders hit .346 in the match.
 
McNeese placed one player in double figure kills and digs with Sanni Rantanen leading the Cowgirls with 10 kills and Kendall Osgood ending the match with 13 digs.  Emma Hendricks was credited with 26 assists.
 
The Islanders placed three players in double figure kills with Kyndal Payne leading all players with a match high 16. Leah Stolfus had 12 kills and Morgan Baese chipped in with 10.
 
 
Set 1
• The set was back and forth early on
• With the set tied at eight, A&M-CC scored three straight points to take an 11-8 lead
• The Islanders held as much as a four-point lead at 15-11 but the Cowgirls pulled to withing two points at 15-13
•  The Cowgirls never got any closer than three points as the Islanders outscored McNeese 6-2 the rest of the set to win the opening set
 
Set 2
• The Islanders took an early 2-1 lead and then went on a 7-2 run to lead 9-3 lead
• McNeese pulled to within three points (9-6) but a 5-1 run by TAMU-CC increased their lead to 14-7
• With the Cowgirls trailing by 10 (22-12), the Cowgirls scored three of the next four points to trail 23-15
 
Set 3
• McNeese held an 11-9 lead but a 6-2 run by the Islanders gave them a 15-13 lead.
• Three straight points by the Cowgirls out of a timeout, put the Cowgirls back up 16-15
• TAMU-CC won the next four points to lead 19-16
• A 5-2 run by the Cowgirls evened the set at 21 apiece
• With McNeese down three match points, the Cowgirls scored four straight points to take a 25-24 lead but a net violation challenge by the Islanders was overturned and gave TAMU-CC a 25-24 instead. The Islanders closed out the match on the next serve to pick up the win.
 
 
McNEESE NOTES
• McNeese suffered its first loss in conference play
• Sanni Rantanen was the only Cowgirl to record double figure kills, ending the match with 10
• McNeese out dug TAMU-CC 42-37 and out blocked the Islanders 8-5
• Kendall Osgood was the only Cowgirl to record double figure digs, finishing with 13
• Emma Hendricks dished out double figure assists for the fifth straight match, leading the Cowgirls with 26