INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Making its fourth NCAA Tournament appearance, the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi beach volleyball team earned the highest NCAA tournament seed in conference history as a No. 13 seed and will face No. 4 USC in the first round on Friday, May 1, at 9 a.m. CT. in Gulf Shores, Alabama.
The winner will go on to face the winner of No. 12 Stetson/No. 5 Florida State on Saturday at 10 a.m. CT, streamed nationally on ESPNU.
The Islanders (23-9, 6-0 SLC) earned an automatic bid to the Big Dance after winning the Southland Conference Tournament. It is their fourth NCAA appearance in five years with the highest seed the Southland Conference has received in the Tournament.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi swept this year's superlative awards. No. 1 pair Kristin Bobay and Madison Morrow were named the Pair of the Year. Mia Stevens, who plays on court No. 5, was named Freshman of the Year, while her pair Saskia Hernandez was named Newcomer of the year. Islanders head coach Gayle Stammer won Coach of the Year for the fourth time in five years.
Stammer is the Southland Coach of the Year after leading the Islanders to their third regular season championship with an undefeated conference record. She guided the program to its fifth consecutive 20-win season, including the fourth ranked win in program history over No. 20 Tulane. The Islanders ended the season winning 15 of their last 16 matches, reaching a 13-match winning streak. With this year's regular season title, Stammer has won six total championships as the head of the program with the conference only having awarded nine winnable trophies in its history for beach volleyball.