COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Senior outside hitter Jennie Loerch recorded nine of her game-high 20 kills during a dramatic third set in which Abilene Christian staved off an early exit thanks to an incredible comeback that started with the Wildcats down four and facing match point.
Unfortunately, this little bit of magic wouldn't be duplicated in game four as Texas A&M pulled away late to secure a 3-1 victory in Reed Arena Saturday night. The Aggies won the match by scores of 25-14, 25-21, 26-28 and 25-20 to improve to 3-1, while the Wildcats slipped to 0-6.
A&M completes its invitational Sunday night with a match against New Mexico State, which swept the Wildcats earlier today.
ACU started slow offensively tonight as evident by its eight attacking errors in game one and .160 hitting percentage in game two (8 kills on 25 attempts). Â
Game three then began to follow a similar pattern as a couple of blocks in the early stages mixed in with several kills by Jazzmin Babers pushed the Aggies out to a 14-9 lead, which forced the Wildcats to call a timeout.
ACU scored five of the next six points out of that break to tie the score at 15-15 as an A&M service error was followed by a couple attack errors combined with three kills by Loerch. From there the score was tied four additional times until the Aggies took off on what seemed to be a match-closing run led by Emily Hardesty.
The Aggies broke a 20-20 deadlock on a Wildcat serving error and then Hardesty hammered in consecutive kills followed by a block assist alongside Kaitlyn Blake that gave A&M a commanding 24-20 advantage.
But the Wildcats stormed right back.
Loerch killed two more shots with an Aggie attack error pinned in between to trim the Aggies' lead to 24-23 and then senior setter
Sarah Siemens snuck one over the net off an assist from
Lillian Drever to tie the score at 24-24.
Texas A&M pulled ahead twice more on the next three possessions, but Loerch countered a kill by Ashlie Reasor to tie the game at 25-25; and after Paige Painter gave her side a 26-25 lead with one of her five kills, teammate Amy Nettles committed one of her three (and one of the team's 10) service errors.
Then it was time for the Wildcats' youngsters to step up. A block from
Kendall Bosse and
Lauren Walker gave ACU its first lead of the game since 18-17, and a solo block by
Jacey Smith against a shot from Babers served as the game-winner.
Those blocks were ACU's only ones of the entire set. The Wildcats also hit .271 (15-for-48, five errors) this frame and dug out close to half of A&M's 46 attacks.
ACU got off to such a good start in game four - behind leads of 5-1 and 10-6 - it was hard to think the Wildcats couldn't push this match to a fifth game; however, the Aggies used a 6-1 run of their own to grab a 12-11 lead and they never trailed again.
Babers was clutch down the stretch, delivering five of her team-high 19 kills in the final game on eight attempts. The Aggie defense, meanwhile, held ACU to .167 attack percentage with 21 digs.
Loerch's 20 kills were a season high and her most ever in a four-set match. Her previous 20-kill match came against Northwestern State (23 kills) in a five-set defeat last season on Oct. 2.
Loerch tonight also hit .326, dug out six attacks and was part of one block.
Siemens recorded her second double-double of the day with 33 assists and 10 digs to go along with four kills and two block assists. The Wildcats also received a combined 27 digs from Drever and
Madison Hoover and registered 8.0 total team blocks.
The Aggies had three players with 10-or-more kills led by Babers (19), Hardesty (18) and Reasor (12). Blake also crossed the 10.0-point threshold thanks to her role on eight blocks.
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The Wildcats return to action Tuesday for a 6:30 p.m. road match against their regional rivals from UT Arlington.
