Box Score
ABILENE – Abilene Christian volleyball fell 3-0 to their old Lone Star Conference turned Southland Conference rivals from Incarnate Word Saturday night at Moody Coliseum by scores of 25-15, 25-19 and 25-22.
The win lifted UIW's season and conference marks to 9-9 and 4-5, while the Wildcats slipped to 5-12 overall and 1-8 vs. the league.
ACU picked up 6.0 points from its block, but that effort wasn't enough to soften the Cardinals' attack, which produced a .337 hitting percentage and 49 kills. Brittani Dear and Angelique Vidaurri tied for the UIW lead with 11 kills as each player hit well over .300. Dear also scored a double-double with 17 digs, while Danielle Suarez and Taylor McClelland combined for 37 of the Cardinals' 46 assists.
For the Wildcats, sophomore outside hitter
Jennifer Loerch led her side with 12 points on 11 kills and a service ace. And at the net, freshman
Lexi Mercier was part of four blocks,
Neely Borger came through with two and
Sarah Siemens on three. Siemens also totaled 30 of ACU's assists and libero
Madison Hoover dug out 18 attacks.
ACU was there at the very end with the Cardinals in sets two and three, but just could not put either game away. After coming back from two points down to tie the score at 19-19 in game two, UIW responded with a game-ending 6-0 run in which it picked up back-to-back blocks from Vidaurri and Jaina Jackson and a kill from Brittani Dear that put the visitors up 2-0.
Game three was a back-and-forth affair as the score was tied 15 different times, the last at 22-22 when Borger delivered her sixth kill of the match. But from there the Cardinals got three-straight points on kills from Vidaurri, Meaghan Patterson, and Dear, who hit .556 for the match.
The Wildcats return to action this Thursday and Saturday with matches at Southeastern Louisiana and New Orleans. Game times are 7 and 2 p.m.
