BACK-TO-BACK LSC CHAMPS!
11/12/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Wildcats roll to second straight title
ACU blitzes Lady Bronchos to win conference crown
Final stats / All-Tournament Team
ABILENE -- The ACU Wildcats have spent the entire 2005 season dreaming of winning the Lone Star Conference championship on their home floor at Moody Coliseum, and doing it in front of a large and boisterous crowd.
Those dreams became reality Saturday night 1,300 fans watched the 11th-ranked Wildcats dominate Central Oklahoma in a 3-0 sweep that delivered the Wildcats their second straight LSC championship.
"This weekend was everything we thought it would be," ACU head coach Brek Horn said. "We worked hard all year to be able to host this and win the championship in front of our fans, and it's been worth everything we did to get here."
The win pushes the Wildcats' school-record winning streak to 29 straight matches and extends their school-record home court winning streak to 34 straight matches. ACU is 29-3 as it prepares for next weekend's NCAA Division II Southwest Region Tournament. The tournament field will be announced either late Sunday night or early Monday morning, as will the site. The likely host is Nebraska-Kearney, the No. 1 team in both the region and the nation.
Saturday night's championship match took just 70 minutes as ACU blitzed the Lady Bronchos (27-7) early and often. The Wildcats trailed 2-1 before senior setter Lindsey Martin served 13 straight points to give the Wildcats an insurmountable 14-2 lead in the first game. ACU won that game, 30-12, and then won the other two games by the scores of 30-19 and 30-19.
"I kept looking up at the scoreboard and they were stuck on two points," said Martin, who also ended the match in fine style with a service ace on championship point. "I tried not to think too much about it while it was happening, but it obviously had to take something out of them. I really think we took the life out of them early, and that was a big key for us."
ACU lost the first point in all three games, but the Lady Bronchos never held a lead past 4-3 (second game) in any game of the match. The Wildcats had leads of 18 points (end of the first game), eight points (second game) and and eight points(third game).
"That's one of the best matches I've ever seen us play," said Horn, who is now 171-67 in her seventh season as the head coach. "I didn't have to do anything except sit back and watch us perform the way I knew we always could.
"Our practice today was normal, nothing out of the ordinary," Horn said. "When I went to talk to them before the match started, I could hear them in our locker room from down the hallway. I knew then they were 'up,' but I didn't know how that would translate on the court."
It translated pretty well as ACU never let the Lady Bronchos gather any momentum as the Wildcats won in a sweep for the 27th time in their 34-match winning streak.
Only twice in the match did Central Oklahoma appear as if it were trying to get back in the match: once in the second game when it cut ACU's lead to 12-7 and again in the third game when it cut the Wildcats' lead to 14-10. Both times, however, the Wildcats responded with runs that pushed their lead back to 19-9 (second game) and 19-11 (third game).
"Anytime momentum tried to shift, our crowd kept it on our side," Horn said. "When you get into tournament play, you want the first-round bye (which ACU received), and you want your home crowd to keep momentum on your side."
Senior outside hitter Michelle Bernhardt -- who was named the tournament MVP -- was spectacular for the Wildcats, finishing with 18 kills and a .469 hitting percentage. Senior middle blocker Amanda Slate was tough as usual in the middle with 12 kills (.500 hitting percentage) and five total blocks. Sophomore rightside hitter Abbie Lowry had 12 kills, while Martin dished out 38 assists in the match.
ACU hit a dominating .342 on the night compared to just .053 for the Lady Bronchos, who were led by Katie Schult's 10 kills.
The only downer of the night for the Wildcats was that it was the final home match for four ACU seniors -- Martin, Bernhardt, Slate and rightside hitter Ashlee Motola -- who ran their four-year record to 100-36 with the first two conference titles in program history, as well as the first two regional tournament bids in program history.
"What can you say about those four girls?" Horn said. "Each of them brings different qualities to the floor, and they mesh together so well. They've set a standard for this program that will last for years to come that everyone that follows after them will have to work hard to reach."
