ABILENE – The Abilene Christian volleyball team won its regular-season finale 3-1 Saturday night at Midwestern State and will enter next week's Lone Star Conference Championship as the No. 7 seed pitted against No. 2 seed West Texas A&M in one of four first-round matches.
The tournament begins Thursday at Angelo State, which earned hosting rights after winning its first league championship since 1992 with an 18-2 record.
The Lady Buffs finished a game behind the Rambelles at 17-3, with one of those losses coming against the Wildcats. Texas Woman's and Tarleton State finished with identical 15-5 records to round out the top four, while the bottom four seeds belong to Commerce, Kingsville, ACU and Incarnate Word.
Matches start Thursday at noon with No. 3 Tarleton State against No. 6 Texas A&M-Kingsville followed by the Wildcats and Lady Buffs at 2:30 p.m., No. 4 Texas Woman's against No. 5 Texas A&M-Commerce at 5 p.m. and No. 1 Angelo State versus No. 8 Incarnate Word at 7:30 p.m.
All the championship games will be aired live via Internet video streaming at
FoxSportsSouthwest.com free of charge. Each webcast includes both video and audio, with viewers needing only a computer with a high-speed DSL or cable modem connection to the Internet. Veteran broadcaster Chris Needham has the call for all the games.
In beating the Mustangs for a second time this season, the Wildcats (12-18, 8-12 LSC) were led by sophomore
Sara Oxford's 20.0 points plus 17.5 from senior
Kalynne Allen. Oxford hit .367 with 16 kills and was part of a team-high four block assists. Allen ripped 15 kills and was credited with three blocks.
Sarah Siemens assisted 45 attacks as the Wildcats hit .248 as a team, and
Madison Hoover led the defense with 27 digs.
ACU started the match down 1-0 after losing the first set, 25-18, but then drubbed the Mustangs in sets two and three by scores of 25-18 and 25-16. In game four, the Wildcats overcame a couple of early deficits to take a 21-17 lead, but had to hold on tight as MSU cut that lead to 22-21 and 24-23.
After the Wildcats reached match point, the Mustangs received a kill from Brandi Flores and an ace from Courtney Haney, but ACU freshman
Corrie Reeder had the final word in delivering the match-clinching point.
Reeder finished with eight kills and nine points.
Caitlin Wallace (12.5 points) and Shelbi Stewart (12.5 points) led the Mustangs (7-23, 5-15 LSC) on offense.
LSC Volleyball Championship
November 15-16-17, 2012 in San Angelo, Texas
Thursday, Nov. 15
Match 1: No. 3 Tarleton State vs. No. 6 Texas A&M-Kingsville, 12 p.m.
Match 2: No. 2 West Texas A&M vs. No. 7 Abilene Christian, 2:30 p.m.
Match 3: No. 4 Texas Woman's vs. No. 5 Texas A&M-Commerce, 5 p.m.
Match 4: No. 1 Angelo State vs. No. 8 Incarnate Word, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 16
Match 5: Winner Match 1 vs. Winner Match 2, 5 p.m.
Match 6: Winner Match 3 vs. Winner Match 4, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 17
Match 7: Winner Match 5 vs. Winner Match 6, 2 p.m.
