WACO, Texas - Abilene Christian volleyball fell to the host Bears, 3-0, Friday night during the first day of the Hampton Inn Waco North Baylor Invitational. The Bears the season opener for both clubs won by scores of 25-15, 25-20, 25-8 in front of 747 fans at the Ferrell Center.
The score was only tied once all night early in the first set as the Bears outhit the Wildcats, .407 to .065. Junior Jennie Loerch led her side with nine kills on 26 attempts, newcomer Taylor nix had seven kills to go along with a block assist, and
Stephanie Schoelman provided four kills and six digs in her ACU debut.
Elsewhere,
Sarah Siemens had 19 assists,
Madison Hoover dug out 11 attacks and sophomore
Lexi Mercier was part of four blocks. ACU edged the Bears in blocks, 5.0-4.5.
For the Bears, Andie Malloy and Adrien Richburg had 10 kills apiece to lead Baylor. Richburg hit .833 on 12 attempts with no errors while Malloy hit .300 with eight digs.
In the first set, ACU got to within two points at 8-6 following a kill from Loerch but the Bears responded with a game-changing 9-0 run. Richburg and Malloy kickstarted the rally with consecutive kills before benefitting from three-straight Wildcat attacking errors.
ACU fell quickly behind in sets two and three by scores of 5-0 and 6-0 and could never get within three points of the lead.
The Wildcats return to action Saturday with matches against Portland and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Matches begin at 12:30 and 4:30 p.m. The Islanders defeated Pilots earlier Friday, 3-1.
