Nov. 7, 2009

Box Score

THIBODAUX - The Nicholls State University women's volleyball team (11-17, 5-9 Southland Conference) fell victim to a hot-hitting Texas A&M Corpus Christi squad as the Islanders (9-20, 2-12 Southland) picked up their second straight conference win by handing the Colonels a 3-0 loss by scores of 23-25, 19-25 and 15-25 on Saturday afternoon.

"We were never really able to get our game plan going," head coach Chris Laird said. "It's pretty frustrating after such a great win last night. I'm hoping that we will come out and play with a little more effort on Friday and Saturday on our last road trip. Hopefully, we will still have a chance to get ourselves back into the conference tournament."

The Islanders outhit the Colonels .264 to .104 to drop Nicholls into eighth place in the leauge standings, giving the Colonels control of the final conference tournament berth heading into the final week of the season.

With two matches remaining, Nicholls remains one game ahead of Southeastern Louisiana (4-10 Southland record) and one game behind seventh-place Texas-San Antonio.

Nicholls opened the first set with a 5-1 run, but the Islanders rallied to tie the match at 10-10 before taking the lead for good. Down 23-19, the Colonels rallied to within one at 24-23, but TAMUCC held on for the win in the opening frame.

From there, the Islanders dominated the second and third sets with wins of 25-19 and 25-15.

Nicholls was led offensively by senior outside hitter Manieka Golden's nine kills. Freshman Rachel Yezak added eight more kills and nine digs to finish just short of a double-double, but it wasn't enough to keep pace with the Islanders who saw 18 kills from Emma Ridley and 12 more from Jessica Korda.

The Colonels will return to action by hitting the road for the final road trip of the regular season. Nicholls will head to McNeese State on Friday and Stephen F. Austin on Saturday looking to complete a season-sweep of both programs to help climb the conference standings.

Nicholls claimed a 3-0 win over McNeese on Oct. 10 and picked up a 3-2 victory over Stephen F. Austin on Oct. 9.

First serve for Friday night's contest at McNeese is set for 7 p.m. Live stats will be available online at www.geauxcolonels.com or www.mcneesesports.com.