Women's Volleyball | 10/30/2015 3:06:00 PM
Live Stats | Video ABILENE – Abilene Christian volleyball begins a season-ending five-match road trip Saturday with a 2 p.m. Halloween date vs. its old rivals from Incarnate Word. This contest serves as the home finale for the Cardinals, who have won four-straight at the McDermott Convocation Center where they are 5-2 overall.
UIW's modest win streak over the likes of New Orleans, Southeastern Louisiana and McNeese has the Cardinals in the thick of the Southland Conference standings and tied for sixth with Sam Houston State at 5-6. ACU is one game ahead of UIW and tied for fourth with Houston Baptist at 6-5 following Monday's 3-1 loss to Nicholls.
The Wildcats defeated the Cardinals earlier this month 3-1 (23-25, 25-18, 29-27, 28-26) at Moody Coliseum for the first time since 2012 on the strength of a season-high 11 service aces, breaking UIW's four-match series winning streak.
Senior
Madison Hoover led ACU with four aces while freshman
Gabrielle Grindele and
Jacey Smith each had two. Senior outside hitter
Jennifer Loerch was one of three Wildcats to reach a double-digit point total with 16 kills and two block assists. Freshman
Lauren Walker hit .474 with 10 kills and three blocks, and
Lexi Mercier had a hand in five blocks to go along with seven kills.
The Wildcats continued to roll at home following the UIW victory, beating Lamar and New Orleans in four sets and hanging on to defeat Sam Houston State in five. They then blanked Southeastern Louisiana last Saturday for their second sweep of the season, but followed that performance with a surprising Senior Night defeat to Nicholls.
In the two matches leading up to Monday's home finale vs. the Colonels, the Wildcats hit well above .230 in averaging more than 14 kills and assists per set. They also ripped eight services aces, while the opposition combined for 22 service errors and the defense averaged 15.86 digs and 2.14 blocks per set.
The Nicholls' match, sadly, played out quite differently. The Colonels' defense limited the Wildcats to .120 hitting, digging out 81 of 191 ACU attacks in addition to registering 14.0 blocks. And despite Loerch recording a career-best 24 kills, there wasn't much else support offensively as three of her teammates hit well below .100.
