ABILENE - Abilene Christian volleyball fell 3-2 for the second time this season to its Southland Conference rivals from Northwestern State as the Lady Demons rallied to win the final two games by scores of 19-25, 25-19, 18-25, 26-24 and 15-12.
The loss gives the Wildcats a final overall and league mark of 6-24 and 4-12, while Northwestern State will go into next week's Southland Conference tournament as its No. 5 seed at 13-16 (10-6 Southland).
Both sides hit .136 Saturday afternoon at Moody Coliseum, but the Lady Demons won the blocking battle, 15-10, and dug out 74 of the Wildcats' 184 attacks. ACU's defense countered with 86 digs on an equal number of Nortwestern attacks, led by junior libero
Madison Hoover who had 26.
Junior outside hitter
Jennifer Loerch once again led the Wildcats' offense with 16 kills, followed by senior
Rachel Riley with 14 and
Lexi Mercier with 10. Junior setter
Sarah Siemens had 47 assists, and on the block, senior
Neely Borger had five block assists, while Mercier and Nix each had four.
For the Lady Demons, they were carried on offense by Mackenzie Neely's 16 kills plus 12 apiece from Caiti O'Connell and Glynna Johnson. Bailey Martin led them in digs with 24, and at the net, Stacey DiFrancesco recorded four solo blocks and two assists in finishing with 13.0 points.
After completing a fairly dominant third game, the Wildcats fell into a six-point hole midway through game four (15-9) but responded with an incredible 11-5 run that tied the score at 20-20.
Dorothy Swanson ripped two kills during this stretch, but Northwestern State also hurt itself with six attack errors.
Two straight kills by senior
Taylor Nix gave the Wildcats' their first lead of the game at 21-20, and an attack error a few possessions later put the home team ahead at 22-21. Unfortunately, the Lady Demons would come back twice more to tie the score at 22-22 and 23-23.
A Natalie Jaeger service error tied the score a final time of 24-24, but the Wildcats wouldn't capitalize any further as the Lady Demons received their last two points on a kill by O'Connell and and ace by Aubrey Davis.
ACU used a 4-0 run to take its biggest lead of game five at 10-8. Swanson ignited the mini-rally with a kill followed by two additional points from Loerch and an attack error by O'Connell.
O'Connell redeemed herself on the follow-up possession with one of her 12.5 points, and on the subsequent rallies ACU was victimized by a bad set and ball-handling error. The second of those miscues forced the Wildcats to take a timeout, trailing 11-10.
ACU tied the score twice more at 11-11 and 12-12, but from there the Lady Demons put up one final block before ending the match on a Wildcat error and ace from Emily Johnson, who had two this afternoon.
