CORPUS CHRISTI, TX. – Jacksonville State split their two matches on Friday in the Islanders Classic. The Gamecocks started the day with a win over Texas Southern in a sweep before being swept later in the afternoon by the hosting Texas A&M – Corpus Christi Islanders.
Jax State (4-1) cruised when they faced the Tigers (0-5) in the 10 a.m. first serve match thanks to scores of 25-15, 25-16, and 25-13. Statistically the Red-and-White impressed with 36 kills, six aces, eight blocks, 34 assists, 41 digs, and a .316 hit percentage.
"That was just a good execution game," head coach
Derek Schroeder said. "I challenged them with a few things away from the court before that game because we had to be up before 7 a.m. to get pregame meal and be ready for a 10 a.m. start. I challenged them with some things from a leadership standpoint, from being ready to play, and taking responsibility for their own nutrition and stuff like that. I was really happy with how they responded to that stuff."
Brooklyn Schiffli shined against Texas Southern with 19 digs, four assists, and two service aces.
Ellie Garrett continued her stellar start to the year with 25 assists, five digs, and two service aces.
Kayla Williams had a team-best 12 kills, had a .478 hit percentage, and joined Schiffli and Garrett with two aces.
Caty Havekost had a solid outing as well with eight kills and seven digs.
Hana Aiana had a team-high five block assists along with four kills.
The Gamecocks turned their sights on Texas A&M – Corpus Christi (2-3) in a 5 p.m. first serve match later Friday. The Islanders handed the Gamecocks their first loss of the season, defeating Jax State 25-15, 27-25, and 25-22. Statistically, A&M – Corpus Christi edged Jax State in kills 49 to 39. The two squads tied with four aces apiece. The Gamecocks notched eight blocks to the Islanders two. Corpus Christi had 46 assists and 52 digs, while Jax State had 34 assists and 47 digs.
"I thought Corpus Christi played great," Schroeder said. "That's a well-coached team and they are a system team like we are trying to be. They did a really good job, if you look at the stat page, they had next to zero errors. They were going to force us to earn every single point that we had to get. We gave it a valiant effort, we played really well, I was very happy with how we played. The ask was just a little bit too much today with how well they played."
Garrett was a focal point for Jax State again with 26 assists, seven kills on 11 attacks, a .455 hit percentage, four digs, two solo blocks, and a block assist.
Luci Wilkinson led the squad with 16 digs, followed by 13 digs from Schiffli. Williams had 11 kills and nine digs against the Islanders. Havekost had nine kills and two solo blocks in the match as well.
Jax State will take on North Florida Saturday at 11 a.m. The Ospreys lost to A&M – Corpus Christi in five sets on Thursday before defeating Texas Southern in four sets on Friday.
