Box Score
SAN ANTONIO – With 11 kills and a pair of service aces, sophomore outside hitter
Jennifer Loerch scored 13 points Friday night as Abilene Christian fell 3-0 to Incarnate Word at the McDermott Center.
Loerch also picked up 11 digs in recording her seventh double-double of the season, but the Cardinals still found a way to hold off the Wildcats in each game by scores of 25-20, 25-22 and 25-14.
The loss dropped ACU's season and Southland Conference records to 6-16 and 2-12, while the Cardinals improved to 12-11 and 7-7. Using two setters, who combined for 30 of the team's 35 assists, UIW hit .264 led by Angelique Vidaurri's 12 kills, while the Wildcats were charged with 22 attacking errors in hitting .095.
The Cardinals also outblocked ACU, 4-3, and had nine service aces to three for the Wildcats.
ACU held the lead in games one and two, but ultimately could not stop the Cardinals from stringing together five or six points. In the early stages of the first set, ACU used a 5-1 run to take a 10-9 lead only to have UIW rally behind the service of Danielle Suarez, who delivered consecutive aces as part of a game-changing 6-1 run that put the home team ahead 15-11.
The Cardinals twice pushed their lead out to as many as six points before ACU cut its deficit in half to 23-20 thanks to kills from Loerch and
Neely Borger that forced UIW into a timeout. But coming out of that stoppage, the Cardinals quickly received game-winning kills from Brittani Dear and Jaina Jackson.
Dear hit .500 for the match (8-for-14 with one error) and dug out 12 attacks.
In game two, ACU led by as many as four points and as late as 22-21 but could not seal the victory as the Cardinals followed a service error with two kills from Vidaurri to reach match point. UIW then took a 2-0 lead on an attack error by Loerch, and in game three used a 6-0 run to push its lead out to 18-9.
The Wildcats are off for the next several weeks, but will play twice more during the weekend of Nov. 22 at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix. The Antelopes are members of the WAC conference in their first year as a NCAA D-I program.
