CORPUS CHRISTI – The Texas A&M University-Commerce volleyball team ended its regular season with a 3-0 to loss to A&M-Corpus Christi at the Dugan Wellness Center on Saturday afternoon via set scores of 25-23, 25-23, and 25-14.
The Lions end the regular season with a record of 9-22 overall and 5-13 in conference play. A&M-Commerce finished eighth in the Southland Conference standings and will be the No. 8 seed in next week's conference tournament, which is hosted by the Islanders, who finished second in the conference with a record of 16-2 and 21-9 overall.
The full bracket for the conference tournament will be released later on Saturday night after the completion of all matches around the conference.
The Lions took the first two points of the first set, but neither squad was able to build a lead bigger than two early on. A&M-Commerce put together a 4-0 run, with the set tied at 15, to go up by four, but A&M-Corpus Christi took the next four to tie the set right back.
After the Lions went up 21-19, the Islanders won the next four to take command of the set and despite A&M-Commerce saving a set point, the Islanders took the set win on a kill.
The second set was in favor of the Lions for most of the set, as they led 22-19, but the Islanders went on a 6-1 run to close out the set and went up 2-0 in the match.
In the third set, the Lions had a 6-5 lead, but the Islanders surrendered just eight more points the rest of the set to pick the up the win at home. In the four meetings between the two teams over the last two years, A&M-Corpus Christi is 4-0 and lost just one set.
Essence Allen (Longview – Tatum) led the team with nine kills and added eight digs as well.
Kitana Tuufuli (St. Hedwig – Steele) posted seven kills, while
Breann Connally (Coolidge – Groesbeck) recorded a double-double with 27 assists and 10 digs.
Jade Smith (Houston – Mayde Creek) recorded nine digs.
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