NATCHITOCHES, La. – The ACU Wildcats closed the 2015 volleyball season in style Saturday afternoon with a 3-2 win over Northwestern State that helped the Wildcats finish above the .500 mark in Southland Conference play on the season.
The Wildcats won the first two sets, 28-26 and 25-22, before dropping the third and fourth sets, 25-23 and 25-16, respectively. But the Wildcats fought off four match points in the fifth and decisive set and won the fifth set by the score of 20-18.
ACU finishes the season 9-20 overall under second-year head coach
Jason Bibler, but tied for fourth in the Southland at 9-7. The Wildcats had a dramatic turnaround to their season in the second half of the schedule, propelling them into the upper half of the league.
In the decisive fifth set, ACU jumped out to a 10-6 lead before Northwestern State began to rally, eventually taking a 13-12 lead on a kill by Glynna Johnson. After ACU tied the set at 13-13, Northwestern State went up 14-13, but ACU fought off its first match point on a kill by senior
Jennifer Loerch, tying the set 14-14.
Caitlin O'Connell gave the Lady Demons a 15-14 lead with a kill, but Lauren Agan's service error on match point tied it again at 15-15. ACU freshman
Kendall Bosse had an attack error to push Northwestern State back ahead 16-15 before another service error – this time by Johnson – tied it again at 16-16.
O'Connell's kill on the next ball gave Northwestern State at 17-16 lead, pushing ACU to the brink of defeat once again. But the Wildcats fought off match point for the fourth time to tie it 17-17 on a block by
Sarah Siemens and
Lauren Walker.
The Wildcats regained the lead at 18-17 on a kill by Loerch before Reagan Rogers put down a kill to tie it again, 18-18. The Wildcats, though, finished it off with two straight points, the first coming on a kill by Loerch and the second on a ball-handling error by Natalie Jaeger.
Loerch finished her career in fine fashion with 21 kills on 61 attempts and had just four attack errors. Walker ended her freshman campaign with 13 kills in the match and a .273 attack percentage.
Siemens – the Wildcats' senior setter – had 41 assists and 12 digs in her final match as a Wildcat, while senior libero
Madison Hoover had 24 digs in her final match.
