NACOGDOCHES, Texas - Abilene Christian volleyball entered tonight's match at Stephen F. Austin still with a shot to finish as high as third in the Southland Conference, but the Wildcats let an early lead slip away in a 3-1 loss Thursday night at Shelton Gym.
ACU won game one 26-24, but couldn't maintain a high attacking percentage the rest of the way as SFA triumphed in games two to four, 25-21, 25-13, 25-17. The Ladyjacks were led by Makenzee Hanna's 17 kills and 4.0 blocks (two solo) and 32 digs from libero OJ Olson, whose efforts resulted in a .104 hitting percentage for ACU.
For the Wildcats,
Jennifer Loerch and
Kendall Bosse combined for 23 of the team's 43 kills.
Lexi Mercier had a hand in seven blocks (two solo) and
Madison Hoover dug out 29 attacks.
The win kept SFA in third place in the Southland at 11-4, while the defeat dropped ACU to 8-7 with one more match to play Saturday at Northwestern State.
There were 10 ties and five lead changes in game one, the last of which came on a block from Mercier and Bosse that put the Wildcats ahead at 18-17. From there, however, ACU couldn't push their lead out to more than two points and SFA came back to tie the score at 22-22 and 24-24 following one of seven kills from Jacque Allen.
But ACU's
Lauren Walker brought the lead right back to the Wildcats off an assist from
Sarah Siemens and they won it on an attack error by Hanna, who recorded 12 miscues to go along with her match-high in kills (.122).
In game two the Wildcats surrendered a four-point lead at 15-11 as the Ladyjacks responded with a 8-1 run to take a 19-16 lead and force an ACU timeout. A kill from Bosse and another error by Hanna coming out of the stoppage got the Wildcats to within a point at 19-18, but that's as close as they'd get as another mini-run from SFA put the home team ahead at 23-19.
After ACU benefited from consecutive attack errors to reduce their deficit to two points, SFA called for time and came out swinging as back-to-back kills from Tori Bates and Justice Walker tied the match at 1-1 going into intermission.
It was all SFA in games three and four as the Wildcats' offense recorded just one more kill (16) than error (15) on a combined 90 attempts (.011). The Ladyjacks broke free from the Wildcats in game three thanks to a game-ending 12-2 run, and in game four they led from start to finish with the final point coming off a block from Hanna and Allen.
The Wildcats complete their season Saturday at 2 p.m. vs. Northwestern State in Prather Coliseum. ACU swept the Lady Demons earlier this season at Moody Coliseum.
