WACO, Texas - Abilene Christian lost in three sets for the second-straight match Saturday to the University of Portland, which defeated the Wildcats by scores of 25-16, 25-23 and 25-11 at Baylor's Ferrell Center.
Junior Jennie Loerch and freshman
Stephanie Schoelman shared the ACU lead in kills with six, and
Lexi Mercier added five to go along with four block assists. But the Wildcats as a whole, hit just .146 compared to to Pilots, which hit .300 complete with 10 service aces.
Setter Djurdjina Milovic recorded 20 assists and four aces, while her teammate Brittney Markwith had three along with 10 kills. Emily Liger led all players with 14 kills and hit .333 with seven digs.
Portland (1-1) had three players recorded 10 or more digs to finish with 57 for the match. ACU (0-2) dug out 40 of 110 attacks led by libero
Madison Hoover, who had 13.
After dropping the first set by nine points in which the Pilots scored 7 of the last 10 points, the Wildcats started the second set on an 8-0 run with Loerch on the serve.
Taylor Nix and
Neely Borger got things rolling for ACU with consecutive kills and a block, and then three Portland attack errors mixed in with two aces by Loerch gave the Wildcats a comfortable early lead.
Several plays later the Wildcats pushed their lead out to nine points at 14-5, but the Pilots were quick to respond, scoring six of the next seven points to pull within four at 15-11.
ACU scored the next two points on a service error and kill by Schoelman, however, the Wildcats were not able to sustain the momentum as the Pilots took off on another major run that allowed them to tie the score at 18, 19 and 20 before taking their first lead of the set at 21-20 (kill by Sarah Savoca). The Wildcats tied the score a final time at 21-21 on a kill by Mercier, but then Portland took the lead for good on a Siemens error and won it on a miscue by Loerch.
Portland led the third set from start to finish, jumping out to leads of 3-0, and 14-7 before finishing the game on a 11-4 run.
The Wildcats conclude their stay in Waco later today with a 4:30 p.m. match vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
