CANYON -- The ACU Wildcats hit the road for their Lone Star Conference opener hoping to prove they were at least the equal of pre-season favorite West Texas A&M.
They left Canyon on Thursday knowing they've got a lot of work to do to reach that level after the No. 7 Lady Buffs rolled to a 3-0 win over the Wildcats at The Box.
The Lady Buffs improved to 12-2 overall and 1-0 in the LSC with the win, while the Wildcats saw their eight-match winning streak snapped as they fall to 9-4 and 0-1. ACU will be back in action Saturday at 3 p.m. when it takes on Eastern New Mexico at Greyhound Arena in Portales, N.M.
The Wildcats were never really in Thursday night's contest as the Lady Buffs won the match 25-19, 25-14, 25-20 to record their sixth straight win over ACU dating back to the 2006 season.
West Texas A&M hit .356 in the match compared to just .151 for the Wildcats, who had just one service ace. The Wildcats were their own worst enemy, committing five service errors, three serve-receive errors, one blocking error and one ball-handling error and 17 attack errors, giving the Lady Buffs 27 points.
Jordan Schilling led the Wildcats with nine kills, while setter
Ijeoma Moronu had eight kills to go along with 21 assists. Junior middle blocker
Shawna Hines -- who leads the LSC in blocks and is one of the top defensive players in the nation -- had seven total blocks in the match.
Lauren Purdy and Melissa Harper led a balanced WT attack with 11 and 10 kills, respectively. Setter Katie Rickwartz had 38 assists, four kills and four digs for the Lady Buffs, who will host Angelo State on Saturday.
After dropping the first two sets, the Wildcats began the third set with a 7-1 run that concluded with a service ace by
Jennie Hutt. But the Lady Buffs would rally, scoring eight of the next 12 points to pull within 11-9.
ACU, though, continued to hold the lead until the Lady Buffs caught the Wildcats at 15-15 on a kill by Purdy. Back-to-back kills by Purdy and Rickwartz pushed the WT lead to 17-15.
ACU, though, would respond by scoring five of the next eight points to tie the set at 20-20. But the Lady Buffs scored the final five points of the set to take the match.
