ACU will play for regional title
11/19/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Wildcats crush Metro to earn finals berth
ACU sweeps past Roadrunners; will play for regional title
KEARNEY, Neb. -- The ACU Wildcats doled out a little bit of sweet revenge Saturday evening, and in the process made another bit of history in a history-making season for the volleyball program.
ACU -- ranked No. 11 in the nation -- swept past Metro State in three games at the NCAA Division II Southwest Region Volleyball Tournament to earn the program's first berth in the regional championship match. The Wildcats, who improved to 31-3 with their school-record 31st straight victory, will take on either Nebraska-Kearney or Mesa State in Sunday's 3 p.m. championship match at the Health and Sports Center.
The Wildcats had little trouble with the Roadrunners, whipping Metro State, 30-23, 30-24, 30-25, to beat the last team to beat the Wildcats. Metro State's five-game win over ACU on Aug. 27 marks the last time ACU has lost this season, and that loss -- coupled with the fact that the loss kept Metro State ranked one spot ahead of ACU in the regional rankings all season -- was clearly on the minds of the Wildcats heading into Saturday's match.
"We wanted to win this one pretty badly and prove that we were deserving of being the No. 2 team in the region," said ACU senior middle blocker Amanda Slate, who had 17 kills. "We got the kinks out (Friday) against Central Oklahoma, and tonight we wanted to prove which team was really the better team."
The Wildcats proved it early and often as they had little trouble dispatching the Roadrunners (22-9).
ACU, which hit .356 en route to winning the first game rather handily, never trailed in the first game and was led by Michelle Bernhardt's seven kills.
The Roadrunners, however, played with a bit more sense of urgency in the second game and actually led 18-16 before back-to-back kills by Lauren Leone and Lindsey Martin got the match squared at 18-18. That's when sophomore Liz Snoddy stepped to the service line, and she proceeded to give control of the match back to the Wildcats.
Snoddy was at the service line for five straight ACU points, and she had three service aces in that stretch where each serve was directed at Metro State libero Sheena McLaughlin, who finished with five serve receive errors. Snoddy helped stretch ACU's lead out to 25-18 to cap a 9-0 Wildcat run that gave ACU control of the second game.
ACU led 28-21 before Metro State scored three straight points, but ACU's Abbie Lowry had a kill and Metro's Kylie Schmeeckle had a service error to finish it off for the Wildcats.
"We didn't necessarily see anything from McLaughlin that we attacked; we just did a good job of making them have to return serve, and they had some trouble," ACU head coach Brek Horn said. "We had a couple of spots in the second game where we were on our heels just a little bit, but we responded well and Liz did a great job of getting us back in control of the game."
The third game was back-and-forth as neither team led by more than two points until a kill by Schmeekle gave Metro State a 13-10 lead and a faint glimmer of hope. But Slate had a kill, Megan Wittenburg a hitting error and Ashlee Motola a kill for the Wildcats to knot the game at 13-13.
The Roadrunners would again lead by two points (17-15) before a Wittenburg service error and another Snoddy ace at McLaughlin got the game tied at 18-18. That ace by Snoddy began a 5-0 ACU run with the sophomore from Arlington at the service line that included two kills by Bernhardt and one by Slate. The Wildcats had a 20-17 lead when Metro head coach Debbie Hendricks called timeout.
After the Roadrunners got a point to make it 20-18, Gabrielle Curtis had a service error to give ACU a 21-18 lead and put the ball in the hands of Bernhardt at the service line. ACU extended its lead to 23-18 and Metro State never threatened the rest of the way. Bernhardt finished the match with the last of her match-high 19 kills. The senior from Hereford has 35 kills in two matches and surpassed 2,100 career kills in the match.
Senior setter Lindsey Martin finished with 52 assists to give her 5,756 career assists, good for 19th on the all-time NCAA Division II list. She'll get a chance to add to that total and move into 18th place on the list on Sunday as the Wildcats play in the regional volleyball championship match for the first time in program history.
And that's not too bad for a program that had never even reached the semifinals of the Lone Star Conference Post-Season Tournament just five years ago.
"This didn't just happen overnight, and it's not luck," said Horn, who is 173-67 in seven seasons as the ACU head coach. "It's taken a lot of hard work by the coaching staff and by our players to get to this point. And now we're eager to take the next step and get to the national championship tournament."
