ABILENE - An exciting first set victory for the Abilene Christian volleyball team was quickly countered by three disappointing defeats and the Islanders of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi emerged victorious over the Wildcats by scores of 25-27, 25-13, 25-15 and 25-21 Saturday at Moody Coliseum.
The loss dropped ACU's season and Southland Conference records to 2-19 and 0-8, while the Islanders reached .500 at 12-12 (5-2 vs. Southland).
Corpus Christi hit .192 as a team and had four players register 10 or more kills, including Brianna Brink who posted a double-double of 17 kills and 14 digs. Brittany Gilpin, Ashley Phelps and Kirstee McGarva all had 10 kills, and as a team, the Islanders dug out 87 attacks in keeping ACU's hitting percentage below .100.
ACU, which finished with a .072 hitting percentage, was carried offensively by junior
Jennifer Loerch's 10 kills. The home team was more impressive on the defensive side in blocking 11.0 shots and digging out 77 attacks, led by
Brooke Ray's 21 digs.
On the block, senior Neely Border recorded nine assists to finish with 10.5 points, while Loerch was part of four in scoring a team-high 12.0 points. Loerch also had 13 digs.
Six of Loerch's 10 kills came in the game one victory as she hit .357 to go along with eight digs and a pair of block assists. The team additionally received 4.0 points from junior setter
Sarah Siemens and 3.0 from sophomore middle blocker
Lexi Mercier.
There were seven tie scores and two lead changes in game one with the last coming on a kill by Mercier that put the Wildcats on top at 12-11 and kickstarted a 9-4 run. A kill by Loerch then made it a 20-15 game, which was ACU's largest lead of the afternoon.
From there, however, the Islanders began to slowly chip away at their deficit and crept to within a point on two occasions before tying the score at 24-24 on an attack error by ACU senior
Taylor Nix.
Nix recovered on the very next possession to put the Wildcats ahead once more at 25-24, but Gilpin delivered yet another equalizer to knot the score at 25-25. Siemens then went on to score the next two points, first on a surprise kill assisted by Ray and on a solo block of an Ivy Baresh attempt.
Unfortunately, the momentum didn't last long for the Wildcats as the Islanders led wire-to-wire in games two and three. Corpus Christi snapped a 2-2 tie in game two with a 4-0 run that provided enough comfort for the remainder of the set, and in game three, they started with four-consecutive points and the Wildcats never got closer than three points the rest of the way.
ACU appeared ready to send this contest to a fifth set after starting game three with leads of 3-0, 7-4 and 9-6, but the Islanders came back with a 6-2 run that gave them their first lead at 13-12 - a lead they would not relinquish even though the Wildcats would tie the score three more times.
But after a kill from freshman
Corinne Grandcolas tied the score at 19-19, the Islanders got their first of three straight points, which forced ACU to call a timeout. Then after the break, ACU cut its deficit to one as both Brink and Kelsee Felux committed errors.
Felux, though, would come back with a seventh a final kill followed by a service ace by Maddy Wall and game-ending attack error by Loerch.
The Islanders finished the match with six aces, four of which were recorded by Baresh.
The Wildcats return to action next week for the start of a four-match road trip that will take them to New Orleans, Southeastern La., Louisiana-Lafayette and Nicholls from Oct. 23-28.
