DENVER, Colo. - The Abilene Christian volleyball team finished its stay at the Colorado Premier Challenge with a 1-3 record after losing consecutive matches to #11 Cal State San Bernardino and host #10 Metro State Saturday afternoon.
The setbacks give ACU a 3-5 record heading into next weekend's start to conference play. The Wildcats begin their final season in the Lone Star Conference Friday night at West Texas A&M before traveling Saturday to Eastern New Mexico.
Fresh off last night's 3-1 win over No. 21 Colorado School of Mines, ACU seemed poised to pull another upset after taking a 2-0 lead on San Bernardino, but the Coyotes quickly regrouped to win the last three sets, 25-14, 25-17 and 15-10.
Freshman Jennie Loerch was ACU's leading attacker against the Coyotes with 18 kills and a .224 hitting percentage. Sophomore
Sara Oxford contributed 10 kills and played a role in four blocks.
Corrie Reeder led the Wildcats with five block assists, while
Madison Hoover dug out the most balls with 18.
Sarah Siemens provided 34 assists but couldn't keep the offense rolling past the second set as ACU's hitting percentages dipped from .074 into the negatives.
Ashley Solis ripped 20 kills in 54 attempts for San Bernardino and Jay Rutledge had 15.
The loss to San Bernardino forced ACU onto the court less than an hour later to battle Metro State, which had dropped a 3-1 morning decision to defending national champion and No. 1 Concordia-St. Paul.
The Roadrunners beat the Wildcats in the first set 25-15, before following up with 25-12 and 25-16 victories. Three Metro State players registered 12 or more kills, including Alysa Heath who hit .667 for the match.
Loerch pace the Wildcats' offense again with 10 kills and added seven digs and an assist.
