Box Score
ABILENE – Freshman
Lexi Mercier continues to lead the Southland Conference in blocks after stuffing eight Ladyjack attempts Saturday at Moody Coliseum during Abilene Christian's 3-1 loss to Stephen F. Austin. The defeat dropped the Wildcats' overall and league records to 6-15 and 2-11, while SFA improved to 14-13 and 6-8.
Mercier today recorded a team-high 15.5 points and her seven solo blocks were one away from cracking ACU's single-match top-10 list. Program record holder Stacy Atkinson had a dozen solo blocks vs. Southland rival Oral Roberts in Oct. of 1985, plus two games of 10 blocks and two more with eight. The last Wildcat to post eight solo blocks was Shawna Hines, who did it vs. Midwestern State on Oct. 22, 2009.
On the season, Mercier is averaging a league-best 1.52 blocks per set (120 overall) but still needs 16 more over the next three matches (two vs. Incarnate Word and one vs. Grand Canyon) to break into ACU's season top-10. Hines' 2008 total of 136 currently ranks 10th, while junior
Neely Borger's 2011 total of 183 ranks ninth.
Borger today had three block assists, which gave her 301 for her career and pushed her past assistant coach
Ijeoma Moronu for seventh place on the Wildcats' list of career leaders. Borger is now 17 blocks away from tying Lauren Leone (318) for sixth.
As for today's match, the Wildcats dropped four of the last five points of game one in losing, 25-21, before completely flipping their fortunes in game two, 25-15. ACU carried the lead for much of the second set and hit a match-high .214, while the Ladyjacks struggled with 12 attacking errors.
The Wildcats' broke away from SFA early with a 6-0 run and were able to maintain that advantage on the strength of nine kills and six blocks. Consecutive stops involving Mercier near the mid-way point forced the Ladyjacks into a timeout with ACU ahead 16-7, and then two additional back-to-back blocks by
Dorothy Swanson and Mercier brought the Wildcats to match point at 24-14. Freshman
Erica Lambert sealed the game two victory with one of her three kills.
Following the 10-minute intermission, however, SFA came back out and simply dominated the attack as the Ladyjacks ripped 17 kills on 37 attempts (.324) to win 25-13. Then, in game four, they broke an 8-8 tie with a 5-2 run that gave them the lead for good.
The Wildcats crept to within a point at 15-14, but the Ladyjacks responded with four-consecutive points that put them ahead at 19-14. SFA won the game and the match on a block assist from Paige Holland and Jacque Allen, which was its fifth of the match.
Allen was part of four blocks (two solo) and one of four SFA players to score 10 or more points. Tori Bates led her side with 14 points, while Allen and Justice Walker each had 11 and Kaitlyn Granger contributed 10.
Jennifer Loerch led the Wildcats' attack with 10 kills, followed by Mercier and Borger, who each had eight. Borger led all players with a .438 hitting percentage.
The Wildcats return to action next Friday, Nov. 8 at Incarnate Word, and will then play two matches later this month vs. the Cardinals and Grand Canyon in Phoenix the weekend of Nov. 22-23.
