Huntsville - Deveney Wells-Gibson posted her second consecutive 20-plus kill match to lead Sam Houston State to a four-set victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in a volleyball match with second place in the Southland Conference at stake.
The Bearkats won 25-18 25-12 30-32 29-27 to up their winning streak to nine games and their Southland Conference mark to 9-2. The Islanders dropped to 8-3 in league action. For the season, SHSU stands 14-9 while Corpus is 16-7.
Sam Houston took advantage of 17 Islander errors in the first two sets to breeze to a two-set to none lead at the intermission. The Bearkats totaled 25 kills and committed only six errors in the first two frames.
But A&M-Corpus Christi came out of the locker room on fire in the third set, totaling 21 kills and jumping out to a 20-14 lead. Sam Houston didn't give up easily, coming back to tie the set at 24-24 and surviving five set points before the Islanders finally forced a fourth frame.
The fourth set was just as close with 20 ties and seven lead changes before another Islander error, A&M-Corpus Christi's 35th of the match, ended the contest.
"We were really clicking on all cilinders in those first two sets, but we lost some momentum at the break," SHSU head coach Brenda Gray said. "We didn't play with enough urgency in the third set, but we came back to finish at the end. This was a great team effort."
Wells-Gibson posted 23 kills. Kendall Cleveland and Kaylee Hawkins added 14 and 10 kills, respectively. The Islanders were led by Ivy Baresh with 15 kills and Brianna Brink with 12
The Sam Houston front line combined for 13 blocks. Kim Black had a hand in eight and Hawkins totaled five.
Tayler Gray assisted on 52 of Sam Houston's 60 kills and led the team with 17 digs.
