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CANYON – Playing for their playoff lives Saturday night, the Wildcats fell 3-1 to West Texas A&M in the championship match of the Lone Star Conference Post-Season Tournament in The Box.
The loss drops the Wildcats to 29-6 overall and snaps their winning streak at 17 straight matches while the Lady Buffs pushed their home-court winning streak to 43 straight matches. The Lady Buffs, meanwhile, improve to 34-3 and earn their fourth straight LSC championship and the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Division II South Central Region tournament.
The Wildcats, meanwhile, entered the conference tournament ranked No. 8 in the region, and will now have to wait until late Sunday night or early Monday to find out if their 29 wins is good enough to earn an at-large bid to the regional tournament.
In a match of two of the nation's hottest teams the Wildcats opened the match like a team on a mission winning the first set 29-27. With a .250 attacking percentage in the first set ACU was looking to extended their 17 game winning streak, but WTAMU – No. 6 in the nation – had other plans who were trying to defend their LSC Title for the second consecutive season.
Leading the Wildcats with 14 kills Jennie Hutt was the only ACU player with double digit kills. After the hot start the Wildcats dropped the final three sets 25-13, 25-15, and 25-19.
Setter Ijeoma Moronu recorded 43 assists for ACU and an attacking percentage of .278 to lead the Wildcats. Junior Shawna Hines recorded four blocks and eight kills for ACU.
The loss was the first for the Wildcats since a loss to No. 5 Central Missouri on Oct. 2 at the Pitt State Classic.
