Box Score
ABILENE – The Abilene Christian volleyball team battled back from the edge of defeat Saturday afternoon vs. Texas Woman's, winning the final three points of the fifth set to escape Moody Coliseum with a 3-2 victory: 20-25, 25-14, 25-16, 21-25, 16-14.
The win lifted the Wildcats' overall record to 15-11 and kept them in third place in the Lone Star Conference standings at 9-5 with six matches remaining. TWU dropped its second straight in falling to 10-14 and 8-7.
Facing what could have been its fifth five-set loss of the year – and second of the season to the Pioneers – ACU came back to win the decisive game after being down 14-13. The rally started with a
Neely Borger kill that tied the score at 14-14, followed by an attack error by Chloe Tate brought the Wildcats to set point, and then
Jennie Hutt finishing it off with her 12th kill of the match.
Hutt admittedly did not have her finest offensive performance this afternoon, however, she dug out 14 balls and was involved on six blocks.
“Today's match showed how much fight we have as we're beginning to feel like professionals in these five-set matches,” Hutt said. “We were determined not to relive the same outcome as Tuesday night at San Angelo (a 3-2 loss), so we put the hammer down and took the match from them.”
Although ACU head coach Kellen Mock was ultimately satisfied with the win, it was clear to her this match would have never reached a fifth set if her team had not “coasted” in the 25-21 fourth-set loss, during which ACU gave up a five-point lead.
“Our play in that set was frustrating because we went from being up 16-11 to watching them go on a 15-5 run,” she said. “I told the team they can't coast on any opponent in the conference, especially against an outstanding team like Texas Woman's.
“Overall, I was pleased with how hard we fought throughout and our defense and blocking was the best its been all year … that says a lot about this team's mentality, and how hard we'll outwork an opponent to get the point.”
ACU won the battle at the net with a season high 15.0 blocks to 9.0 for TWU. Borger played a role in a season-best nine blocks (eight assists) on top of producing 17 kills. The digs, meanwhile, came from a variety of sources, including
Kelsie Edwards with a game-high 32 and
Michie Johnson with 21.
Setter Haley Rhoades dished out 54 of the team's 61 assists.
The Wildcats rebounded from a difficult first set (-.029 hitting percentage) with consecutive routes in games two and three. Freshman
Sara Oxford led the charge in the second set, where she was a perfect 7-for-7 in her kill attempts, to finish the match with a game-high 18. At one point in the second game she scored on four straight attempts in giving ACU an 18-8 lead.
ACU made one error in the third set during which Oxford and
Kalynne Allen were responsible for a combined 11 kills as the Wildcats pulled away late. After the Pioneers closed with two points at 16-14, the Wildcats responded with a 5-1 run that included consecutive kills from Allen, plus another two from Oxford. ACU scored the final four points of this game, the last of which came on
Michie Johnson's service ace.
With four players registering 10-or-more kills, ACU hit .225 for the match compared to Texas Woman's clip of .152. Katelyn Osborne and Tate each ripped 14 kills to lead their team.
The Wildcats return to action Tuesday at 7 p.m. for a Dig Pink showdown vs. Tarleton State. ACU's Student-Athlete Advisory Committees will be selling pink game-day t-shirts for $10, and donations will be accepted on behalf of the Make-A-Wish foundation.
