Nicholls volleyball team hangs with SLC frontrunner Islanders but falls in three sets

Nicholls managed to stay with visiting Texas A&M-Corpus Christi through at least the midway point of all three sets but the Southland Conference frontrunners eventually pulled away to hand the Lady Colonels a 14-25, 18-25, 19-25 loss Saturday morning at Stopher Gym.

In the clinching third set for the Islanders, Nicholls never led but was either tied or only one point behind for much of the game. The last tie came at 15-15 on a service error by Texas A&M-Corpus Christi’s Morgan Smith.

The Islanders took the lead for good on a kill by Tayah Little and stretched the advantage to 19-15 with Morgan Belle at the service line.

Nicholls trailed 19-23 when Texas A&M-Corpus Christi closed out the match on a kill by Smith, followed by a ball handling error by the Lady Colonels’ Berra Soyler.

The loss dropped Nicholls to 1-13 in the Southland and 3-21 on the season. The Islanders improved to 13-1 in the SLC and 18-8 overall.

Paris Dixon had seven kills to lead Nicholls. Soyler had 14 assists and Kendall Battistella 11. Gracie Campbell had four service aces for Nicholls.

Kyndal Payne and Rylee Achtzehn each had nine kills for the Islanders. Morgan had 37 assists and four service aces. Payne and Smith each had three block assists.

After Nicholls took a 1-0 in the first game, the Islanders ran off six-straight points off the serve of Belle and never trailed again. Nicholls ended the run on a block by Bolden and Addison Phares.

Trailing 12-20, Nicholls cut the margin by two points on a pair of attack errors by Corpus Christi’s Morgan Baese.

Trailing 14-24, Nicholls dropped the first set on an attack error by Bolden.

Nicholls led 5-4 in the second set before the Islanders ran off six-straight points off the serve of Kendall Mahaney.

The closest Nicholls could get after that was three points to trail 16-19 on a ball handling error by Morgan.

Leading 24-18, the Islanders closed out the second set on a kill by Payne.