Wildcats roll into LSC final
11/11/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Wildcats roll into LSC final
Lowry, Bernhardt lead No. 11 ACU to 3-0 win over Pioneers
Final Stats
ABILENE -- The nationally ranked ACU Wildcats moved one step closer to defending their Lone Star Conference volleyball championship Friday night with a 3-0 win over Texas Woman's in the LSC Post-Season Tournament semifinals at Moody Coliseum.
The Wildcats ran their winning streak to 28 straight matches with a 30-25, 30-27, 30-22 win over the Pioneers, who finished their season at 17-19.
The Wildcats' victory sends them into Saturday's 7 p.m. championship match against either West Texas A&M or Central Oklahoma. The win was also the 33rd straight home victory for ACU, the 12th-longest such streak in NCAA Divison II volleyball history. ACU -- ranked No. 11 in the nation and No. 3 in the NCAA II Southwest Region -- has put together the 19th-longest overall winning streak in Division II history.
Playing in front of a large and boisterous home crowd for the first time since Oct. 20, the Wildcats held TWU to an .034 attack percentage, but hit just .149 themselves. Sophomore Abbie Lowry had a match-high 12 kills, while senior outside hitter Michelle Bernhardt and senior middle blocker Amanda Slate had 11 kills apiece.
"That was a solid match; both teams played fairly well," ACU head coach Brek Horn said. "Texas Woman's has a strong team, and we knew that this would be tough. This wasn't our best game offensively, but we held them to just .034 on their attack. We executed what we wanted to do."
Lowry was especially key in the second game, which was the closest of the three games. Neither team enjoyed more than a two-point lead early until ACU went on a run to push its lead from 13-12 to 19-14. But that lead shrunk again, thanks to two TWU kills and three errors by the Wildcats. The Pioneers caught ACU and then took a 23-22 lead on back-to-back attack errors by Slate.
The senior from Hallsville redeemed herself, however, with back-to-back kills to give the Wildcats a 24-23 lead. Lowry then added a kill to push ACU's lead back to two points at 25-23. Leading 25-24, Slate had another kills, followed by another kill by Lowry to make it 27-26 in favor of the Wildcats. Ashlee Motola had a kill for ACU to make it 28-26, and then Robin Hawkins had an attack error to give ACU a 29-26 lead.
After a kill by Kandis Schroeder prolonged the game, Bernhardt ended it for ACU with a kill to give the Wildcats the victory. Lowry had six kills and hit .455 in the critical Game 2 victory.
"It felt good to come out and play like we know how to play," Lowry said. "Our heads were in it from the start tonight. We were focused because we've been waiting on this weekend for a long time. But we can't forget that we've got another match to play and that we've still got goals we want to accomplish."
ACU NOTES
* ACU's 3-0 victory tonight gives the Wildcats eight straight 3-0 wins at home and 26 of their 33 straight home victories have been by 3-0 sweeps.
* The Wildcats' win pushes their school-record winning streak to 28 straight matches, which is tied for the 19th-longest such streak in NCAA Division II history. Northern Michigan won 29 straight matches from Sept. 1-Oct. 9, 1993.
* The Wildcats' 33rd straight home victory is the 12th-longest such streak in NCAA Division II history. Up next on the list is West Texas A&M, which won 40 straight home matches from Oct. 25, 2001, -- Oct. 30, 2003.
