Box Score
ABILENE – Visiting McNeese State scored nine of the fourth set's final 12 points to escape Abilene Christian's Moody Coliseum Thursday night with a somewhat improbable 3-1 victory over the Wildcats. The Cowgirls were a point away from going to a decisive fifth set on five occasions, but came all the way back from a four-point deficit to stun ACU on its home court.
The win lifted McNeese State's overall and Southland Conference marks to 9-8 and 2-2, while the Wildcats remain winless in the league at 0-3 and are 4-7 overall.
ACU was summarily defeated in game one, 25-12, and humbled again in game two, 25-20, before showing marked improvement in winning the third set, 25-20 – a game in which the Wildcats hit .233 on the strength of 15 kills. ACU built a 20-15 lead heading into the stretch and finished nicely with final few points coming from four different players:
Jennifer Loerch, Sara Siemens,
Corrie Reeder and
Neely Borger, who delivered the game-winner.
The Wildcats carried that momentum into game four, building a 7-1 lead, but McNeese called a timeout and rallied with six straight points to tie the score at 7-7 and again at 8-8. ACU started to slowly pull away mid-game, but never led by more than four points, which included leads of 15-11, 23-19 and 24-20.
After reaching match point this time, the Wildcats simply could not finish. Four straight kills from Malina Sanchez, Sophie Tenbusch and Rachel Cagnina tied the score at 24-24, but then a point from Loerch was undone by an attack error from
Lexi Mercier. ACU would regain the lead at 26-25 on the following possession with a kill from
Erica Lambert; only to have McNeese score the next two points on another kill from Tenbusch and attack error by Reeder.
With the Cowgirls now at match point at 27-26, the Wildcats received a huge block by Borger and Lambert to tie the game a seventh time at 27-27; however, that would be their final point as McNeese got a kill from Cagnina and forced Loerch to hit the ball wide on her 58th and final attempt.
Loerch led ACU with 14 kills, but she also made nine errors in finishing with a .086 hitting percentage. Reeder was second on the team with 10 kills and Mercier had nine, but the team hit .131 as a whole, while the Cowgirls hit .221.
Malina Sanchez led all players with 19 kills and Tenbusch and Cagnina each recorded 12.0 points. Cagnina also provided two service aces, while Tenbusch was part of three blocks.
Borger blocked four shots for the Wildcats, three of which were solo efforts.
ACU returns to action Saturday at 2 p.m. vs. Nicholls State.
