ABILENE – Abilene Christian volleyball blocked 11 shots and watched 14 services sail wide or hit the net in its 3-1 victory over Lamar Thursday night at Moody Coliseum, which lifted its Southland Conference record to above .500 for the first time this season at 3-2.
The Wildcats (3-15) won by scores of 25-23, 21-25, 25-16, 25-19 to drop the Cardinals' overall and league records to 12-6 and 2-2, respectively.
ACU (3-15) improved offensively as the match rolled on and received some quality performances from the freshman duo of
Jacey Smith and
Kendall Bosse, which combined for 25 kills and a.293 hitting percentage. Rookie
Lauren Walker (10.5) and
Jennifer Loerch (12.0) also reached doubles figures in scoring with Walker adding 3.5 blocks to her seven kills, while Loerch finished with nine kills and four block assists.
The Wildcats' block hit its stride midway through game three of a 1-1 tie. The Cardinals had just tied the score at 14-14 on a kill by Chelsea Grant (17 kills, .481), but an ensuing service error by Murielle Hlavac gave the ball back to the Wildcats who responded in kind with three consecutive blocks wrapped around a Lamar timeout. Walker and Loerch blocked two shots by the 6-foot-2-inch Grant – regarded as one of the top middle blockers in the league – and then setter
Sarah Siemens teamed with Walker to stuff an attack by Autumn Taylor (nine kills).
"Every single time on the serve, (assistant coach) IJ (Moronu) would communicate to our middle which direction to block," said head coach
Jason Bibler. "We needed to give our players more intentional feedback on where to go, and we constantly did it to keep them all engaged after losing our focus in game two."
ACU's last block of game three made it 18-14 and the Wildcats continued to pull away thanks to four kills from Loerch over the final nine possessions.
Game four was decided near the halfway point as Siemens served up a pair of aces during a 6-0 Wildcats run that made it a 14-6 contest, and a little later ACU grabbed its largest lead of the night at 12 points (19-8) following a kill from Bosse and solo block from Walker.
The Cardinals made things a little interesting with a 7-1 run that got them to within 23-19, but Walker brought the home team to match point with her final kill of the night and the match ended with Hlavac's attack landing out of bounds.
ACU's defense limited Lamar's hitters to a .170 percentage, digging out 55 of 141 attacks led by libero
Madison Hoover who had 31. Siemens finished with 39 assists as her team hit .262 for the night.
"It's all about staying in control," said Bibler, whose team has won three of four on its current five-match homestand. "Tonight we won the service / serve-receive battle, kept to our offensive game plan, and were consistent in our technique and emotions. Mentally, we've been doing a good job of staying level-headed in tight situations."
Both sides started a little sloppy on offense with the two teams combining for 14 attack errors in game one. The Wildcats even trailed late at 21-20 following an error by Loerch, but would ultimately regain the lead on her lone ace before finishing on a 3-1 run propelled by Bosse and Smith.
ACU spent most-to-all of game two chasing the Cardinals and never trailed by any more than three points until Lamar took off on a game-ending 5-2 run after the Wildcats pulled to within one point at 20-19.
Grant led the Cardinals with 17 kills and 20.5 points as she was part of 2.5 of Lamar's five blocks. Cortney Moore registered 13 kills, while Taylor had nine but hit just .067.
The Wildcats conclude their homestand Saturday at 1 p.m. vs. Sam Houston State.
