ABILENE - A raucous and energetic student crowd warmly welcomed the Abilene Christian volleyball team back to Moody Coliseum Tuesday night for their home opener against UT-Arlington, but the Mavs' remained unfazed by the constant flow of distractions and responded with a 3-0 victory to keep the Wildcats winless on the young season.
UTA improved to 3-1 with the 25-21, 25-11, 25-18 victory, while ACU fell to 0-4.
The Mavericks hit .351 with 46 kills using a two-setter system. Amanda Welsh was credited with 22 assists and two of her team's four service aces and Cassidy Wheeler came through with 19 assists, five digs, a kill and an ace.
Qiana Canete hit .258 and led her side with 12 kill. Additionally, three of her teammates went without an attacking error despite registering eight or more attempts.
On defense, the Mavs dug out 44 of 105 Wildcats' attacks and outblocked the home team 7-3, with Ashley Bennett getting up to the net four times (one solo, three assists).
Junior Jennie Loerch carried the Wildcats for most of the night, coming through with 17 kills on 33 attempts (.394). Newcomers
Corinne Grandcolas and
Taylor Nix also combined for two blocks, while sophomore
Lexi Mercier had a solo block.
The Wildcats certainly had their chances to win game one after three consecutive attack errors by the Mavs put them ahead at 21-20, but a service error tied the score at 21-21 and then Canete gave her side the lead for good with her fourth kill of the set. Following that point, UTA went on to receive a kill from Taylor Gross, one of two solo blocks from Stacey Koch and a game-winning kill from Cassidy Wheeler.
ACU trailed from start-to-finish in game two, and in game three could never take the lead despite tying the score four times, the last at 14-14. From there, the Mavs scored six of the next seven points in pushing their advantage to 20-15. Canete ripped two more kills over the final seven possessions. UTA also got late points from Ashley Bennett, Hannah Baptiste and a Wildcat service error.
The Wildcats return to action Saturday for a doubleheader at Texas State's Delta Zeta Classic, where they'll battle North Texas (9:30 a.m.) and host Bobcats (2 p.m.).
