ABILENE –
Madison Hoover delivered four service aces, including one on the match-winning point late in game four to lead Abilene Christian volleyball to a come-from-behind 3-1 victory over Incarnate Word Tuesday at Moody Coliseum.
The Wildcats dropped the first game 25-23 after holding a 22-16 lead, but stormed back to tie the match behind a 25-18 victory in game two, and then received some clutch performances late in games three and four, which they won, 29-27 and 28-26.
"It feels good … this was a very big win," said head coach
Jason Bibler. "The girls were excited for this match all along and to pull out two wins in games where we went to extra points was huge, considering we lost at their place last year after reaching match point in games three and four."
The win was ACU's (2-15, 2-2 Southland) first over their archrivals since October of 2012 when both were members of the Lone Star Conference. After the two schools came into the Southland Conference together in 2013 the series has all but belonged to UIW (3-10, 1-3 Southland) which entered tonight's match on a four-match series-winning streak. The Cardinals swept both meetings in 2013 and won in five sets each time last fall.
The way tonight's match played out it certainly felt destined to be decided in a fifth game with the two sides exchanging the lead 21 times and battling through 40 tie scores.
The fourth game alone featured 12 lead changes and the largest lead at any stage was three points by the Wildcats at 14-11 following a kill from junior
Dorothy Swanson that forced UIW into a timeout. Minutes later it was a 15-15 game, and from there the score was tied nine more times all the way to 26-26.
ACU appeared primed to win the match following back-to-back kills from freshman
Kendall Bosse that brought the Wildcats to match point at 24-22, but the seemingly unstoppable Autumn Lockley (23 kills, .390) countered with two points of her own and then an attack error by
Lexi Mercier gave the Cardinals their final lead of the night at 25-24.
Freshmen Bosse and
Jacey Smith pulled their team ahead by one at 27-26 with consecutive kills but Lockley responded with another game-tying point that brought the service back to UIW and substitute Brianna Blagowsky.
Incredibly, Blagowsky's service hit the net while Hoover's on the ensuing possession dropped right in front of Shaina Garza, who earlier utilized a knuckleball-style serve to frustrate the Wildcats during the Cardinals' 9-1 run that closed game one.
"We didn't play well in the first set." said Bibler, "We weren't with it and we weren't clicking for whatever reason, but coming back into game two we re-focused on what needed to be done within the game plan and figured out where and how to score … and from there we did pretty well."
Hoover's ace was one of 11 tonight for the Wildcats. The senior libero had four, while freshmen
Jacey Smith and
Gabrielle Grindele each had two.
Bibler added postgame that he normally switches Smith for
Lillian Drever on the serve, but late in game three his team was out of subs and the decision to keep Smith at the service line paid off as she flipped over a pair of aces.
Smith's first service landed in the right corner to the side of Lockley, who appeared to let it go, and then the next one got the best of Jordan Reifsteck.
UIW jumped out to a convincing 14-8 lead in game three, but slowly the Wildcats chipped their way back into the contest with a point here and there and ultimately tied the score at 20-20, where it then became a tug of war.
ACU was the first to reach match point at 24-23 on a ball-handling error by Kaitlyn Brooks, but the Cardinals tied the score and took the lead at 25-24 on a kill by Garza. The lead then exchanged hands twice more with the Wildcats going ahead on one of 16 kills by senior
Jennifer Loerch, and the Cardinals responding with a kill from Bryaunea Hall and ace from Taylor McClelland.
Bibler burned his last timeout with his team down 27-26, but coming out of that stoppage Smith was able to score the final three points with a kill and two aces.
"Jacey came through for us in a clutch moment and she and some of the other freshman have been stepping up for us all year," said Bibler. "I pulled Kendall (Bosse) out for a full rotation in game four and then after we put her back in she gets us three points late, which were big."
Smith finished the match with 9.5 points, trailing only Loerch (17.0 points), freshman
Lauren Walker (12.0) and Mercier (10.0). Walker and Mercier were par of five of ACU's eight blocks tonight.
Hoover added 15 digs to her four-ace night, while setter
Sarah Siemens assisted on 41 attacks and added three kills of her own.
The Wildcats homestand continues Thursday with a 6:30 p.m. match vs. Lamar.
