ABILENE - Abilene Christian volleyball came within three points of knocking off the two-time defending Southland Conference champions from Central Arkansas Thursday night at Moody Coliseum. But with their backs to the wall the Sugar Bears responded with a match-ending 4-0 run to leave the Key City with as 3-2 victors.
The two sides split the first four sets with ACU winning the odd games, 25-22 and 25-21, and UCA claiming the even ones, 25-22 and 25-20. Game five went to the Sugar Bears 15-12.
The Wildcats overcame several early deficits in the final set and used a 5-1 run to take a 10-8 lead only to be outscored the rest of the way, 7-2. After ACU grabbed its last lead at 12-11 on the 15th and final kill from
Stephanie Schoelman, the Sugar Bears received a kill from Heather Schnars, then a block from Megan Nash and Fulani Petties followed by an error from Wildcat junior
Jennifer Loerch.
The Wildcat miscue brough the game to match point, and on their final touch, the Sugar Bears won it on just the fourth kill tonight from Megan Nash.
Schnars, however, had the best evening of anyone on the court, finishing with 27 kills on 55 attempts for a .382 attacking percentage. Evie Singleton and Petties also registered double-digit kill totals with 17 and 13, respectively.
Overall, UCA hit .172 for the match and had its best offensive showing in the fifth set in converting 10 of 22 attempts (.318) with one block. By comparison, the Wildcats hit .149 in their conference opener, highlighted by a third-set performance in which they recorded 13 kills on 30 attempts and made only two errors.
Both Schoelman and Loerch - who finished with an ACU best 21 kills - hit .455 that set in combining for 11.5 points.
The Wildcats were equally as sharp on the block tonight in finishing with a season-high 18, which were their most since posting 19 last fall in a five-set decision at Houston Baptist. ACU received at least one block assist from seven players led by sophomore
Lexi Mercier, who had eight assists and three solos during her 12.0-point performance.
Seven of ACU's blocks came in the first set, which the Wildcats led most of the way after breaking a 3-3 tie with a 6-0 run started by a kill from Schoelman. UCA would creep within two points near the very end at 24-22 on a block by Schnars and Alicia Dittrich, but Schoelman delivered the set-winner off an assist by Siemens - one of 46 she had tonight.
The Wildcats and Sugar Bears truly battled it out in sets two and three, which witnessed a combined 20 tie scores and seven lead changes. UCA tied the match at 1-1 on kills from Schnars and Singleton, but ACU came right back to take a 2-1 lead thanks to a major 6-2 run that pushed their lead to 22-17. The Sugar Bears made things a little interesting toward the end of the third set with three-straight points that pulled them within three, but once again Siemens found Schoelman in time for the game-ending point.
Central Arkansas carried some momentum into game four as it jumped out to leads of 8-3 and 14-7 in the early goings. But despite facing that significant deficit, the Wildcats clawed their way back to within a point a 16-15 and 17-16 only to see the Sugar Bears respond with another mini-run. And after ACU made it a 22-20 match on a block from
Neely Borger and
Taylor Nix, UCA received a kill from Nash before benefitting from Wildcat attack errors by Nix and Siemens.
Nix came off the bench to score 4.5 points on three kills and three block assists.
Junior libero
Madison Hoover also gave her team an excellent defensive performance with a match-high 23 digs.
The Wildcats return to action Sunday at 2 p.m. at Incarnate Word for the start of a five-match conference road trip.
