Volleyball survives five-set battle with Sam Houston State

Saturday, October 10

Abilene, Texas

1 p.m.

Abilene Christian

4-15, 4-2SLC

Sam Houston State

10-10, 4-2SLC

Team	1	2	3	4	5	Final F
Sam Houston St.	25	20	27	26	12	2
Abilene Christian	13	25	25	28	15	3

Photo by: Jeremy Enlow

Volleyball survives five-set battle with Sam Houston State

10/10/2015 8:31:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

ABILENE - Abilene Christian volleyball won its first five-set showdown of the season against a quality side from Sam Houston State Saturday afternoon at Moody Coliseum to finish its 10-day homestand at 4-1.

The win improved ACU's conference record to 4-2, placing them into a tie for fourth place in the Southland Conference with the Bearkats (10-10), who lost for the first time in six tries against the Wildcats in a series that dates back to 1983 when they were briefly part of the Lone Star Conference.

"We knew going in that we'd be in for a close match ... a battle," said head coach Jason Bibler. "Sam is a good offensive team and they are tough defensively as well. We talked a lot about controlling our side of the court, how we pass, where we swing and how we communicate. If we did all that we would be successful in the tight sets we knew were coming."

It appeared Sam Houston was primed to keep its series winning streak alive after trouncing the Wildcats in game one, 25-13. ACU, however, came back in game two to even the score with a 25-20 victory, and following the 10-minute intermission fans were treated to an epic best-of-three series in which there were 11 lead changes and 33 tie scores.

ACU dropped game three, 27-25, returned the favor in game four, 28-26, and then watched the Bearkats seemingly self destruct offensively in game five as they were held to a -.095 hitting percentage in a 15-12 defeat.

Both sides took turns holding a two-point lead in the early goings of game five, but after ACU went ahead 11-9 the Bearkats tied it on a Wildcat attack error plus one of 17 kills from Madison Wallace, who finished with 46 attempts and .217 hitting percentage.

Bibler then called timeout with the score knotted at 11-11, knowing full well that his team's recent history in five-set matches had not been stellar. ACU lost two five setters earlier this season to North Texas and Stephen F. Austin and the previous two years were a combined 1-13. In fact, their last five-set win prior to today took place all the way back in August of 2013.

"Going into game five today, we talked about our strengths, and that was playing together as a team and staying aggressive," he said. "I wanted them to have confidence going into that fifth set ... but when we did have a little mental lapse there near the end of the fifth, I called a timeout to remind them of those things, mostly some communication. But besides that they were very focused on playing tough and playing together."

Coming out of the break the Bearkats hit into one of ten Wildcat blocks - this one posted by senior Jennie Loerch and Lauren Walker - and they then followed with two additional attack errors that brought the Wildcats to match point.

After Wallace drove home another point to make it 14-12, the Wildcats and setter Sarah Siemens made sure to get the ball into the hands of Loerch, whose 17th kill of the afternoon held up as the game-winner.

Loerch tallied only two kills in game five, but ACU would have never gotten that far if not for her game-four performance in which she provided seven kills with four digs.

The Wildcats led most of the way in game four but ran into trouble after taking one of their biggest leads of the set at 21-18. The Bearkats responded with a 5-0 run that included three Wildcat errors, but then Loerch delivered two kills within three possessions to put her team ahead once more at 24-23.

Sam Houston wouldn't regain the lead again, but it continually frustrated the Wildcats by coming back to tie the score at 24-, 25 and 26-all. ACU finally broke free with a kill from Kendall Bosse, who recorded 12.0 points today, and an attack error by Jordan Vaughn, whose 10 errors partially offset her 13 kills.

ACU started game three in a 3-0 hole but climbed back into the contest thanks to consecutive blocks from Walker with Jacey Smith and Siemens (49 assists and four block assists). Smith then killed a shot to give ACU its first lead, which it would keep for the better part of the game but never extended by more than two points.

The Bearkats finally caught ACU at 22-22 on consecutive kills by Vaughn and went ahead on a strike by Amanda Gooch. For their part the Wildcats rallied once more to tie the score at 24-24 with points from Smith and Walker, but Sam Houston answered with three points over the final four possessions with kills coming from Vaughn, Taylor Cunningham (15 kills) and Wallace.

Game two also was a see-saw struggle most of the way until the very end as the Wildcats finished on a 5-0 run with freshman Gabrielle Grindele at the service line. Loerch provided two kills during this stretch and Lexi Mercier finished the game with a solo block.

Sam Houston hit .149 as a team today as the Wildcat defense led by libero Madison Hoover (25 digs) du out 76 of 195 attacks.

ACU returns to the road next weekend for matches at Houston Baptist and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, which is in first place behind a 6-0 start in conference play.

"This week we'll keep focusing on some skill work and put ourselves in some match-like situations while we get ready for these matches at HBU and Corpus," said Bibler. "We have been really good about grinding it out these last couple of week, so we'll just keep doing that and focus on what we need to do to remain successful."