KINGSVILLE, Texas – The Texas A&M-Kingsville beach volleyball team has reached April, the final month of their 2021 campaign, and they'll begin that month by traveling to Corpus Christi, Texas for the Conni and Jay Wise Islander Classic, which will be held on Friday and Saturday at Water's Edge Park.
The Javelinas will spend their first day in Corpus Christi battling the Utah Utes at 8 a.m. and the Houston Baptist Huskies at 2:30 p.m. Saturday's schedule includes a 12 p.m. tilt against the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks and a 4:30 p.m. showdown against the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders.
The matchup with the Utes will be TAMUK's 15th match against a team from a Power Five conference since the program's inception in 2017. The Javs last win against one of those squads came in 2020, when they took down the Nebraska Cornhuskers, 4-1.
One of the pairs playing the best volleyball for the Javelinas of late is their team of junior Tenley Housler (Bulverde, Texas) and freshman Macie Satterwhite (Callisburg, Texas). Housler and Satterwhite helped the Javelinas picked up a win over Southeastern Louisiana on March 26th, then spent the next day going 5-1 in a pairs tournament. In their first weekend of competition as a pair ever, Housler and Satterwhite finished with 6-2 record.
The only Javelina pair that went further in Saturday's pairs tournament was the No. 1 tandem of senior Olivia Nicholson (North Platte, Neb.) and junior Roxanne Morris (Goliad, Texas), who won three times in pool play and twice in the tournament's single elimination round to reach the semifinals. Those five victories give Nicholson and Morris seven triumphs in their last 11 matches.
The Utes began their beach program in 2017, the same year as the Javelinas, but Utah is still searching for their first winning season in the sand. They'll enter Friday's bout looking for their first win since March 20th and attempting to break a seven-game losing streak. The Utes have had their most success out of the No. 3 flight, where Camille Lee and Olivia Teerlink have logged three wins.
In 2018 and 2019, HBU put together a combined record of 34-26 and two of those victories came at the expense of TAMUK, but they haven't faced the Javs since 2019 and have gone 3-13 so far in 2021. The Javelinas will be going for their first win in six tries against the Huskies.
Fans can check back on Javelinaathletics.com for a recap of all the action in from both days in Corpus Christi. Fans can stay up-to-date with everything related to Javelina beach volleyball during the season by following @JavelinaBeach and @JavelinaSports on Twitter and Instagram, liking the Javelina Sports Facebook page, subscribing to the Javelina Athletics YouTube Channel and visiting Javelinathletics.com. Watch your Javelinas live today on the Javelina Sports Network sponsored by Mendoza's Pharmacy.
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