WACO, Texas - The Abilene Christian volleyball team finished its first weekend of tournament play Saturday afternoon with a 3-0 loss to its Southland Conference adversaries from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at Baylor's Ferrell Center.
The Islanders (2-1) won the first two sets by the same score of 25-18 before holding on to win a tug-of-war battle in game three, 25-22. The two sides exchanged the lead six times in the final set as there was also 15 tie scores.
Corpus Christi all but put the match away late in the third game after taking off on a 7-0 run that put it ahead by six points at 23-17. But after the Wildcats called their second time out, they scored on their next four possessions to pull within two. ACU got the serve back following an attack error that made it 23-18, then Jennie Loerch delivered a pair of aces before and following a block by
Taylor Nix and
Corinne Grandcolas.
Nix and Grandcolas blocked another shot shortly thereafter to cut the Islanders' advantage to 24-22, but Corpus won the match on its very next play after Brianna Brink delivered her 15th kill to lead all players.
Brink was one of three Islanders with 10 or more kills along with Ivy Baresh (10) and Haley Satterwhite (11). Chelby Stanford had 39 assists and Hailey King dug out 16 attacks.
Loerch led the Wildcats in the points column with 14.5, 12 of which were on kills, and later was named to the Hampton Inn Waco North Baylor Invitational All-Tournament Team.
Newcomer
Nicole Morales came through with 18 digs in her first start at libero and sophomore transfer
Tucker Smith recorded 20 assists, six kills and 12 digs in her debut at setter.
The Wildcats (0-3) return to action Tuesday at 7 p.m. when they play host to UT-Arlington at Moody Coliseum. The Mavericks, with current ACU head coach
Jason Bibler on their sideline as an assistant, edged the Wildcats in five sets during last year's season opener.
The match will be live streamed on ACUSports.com via the
Game Central portal provided by Stretch Internet.
