ABILENE – The ACU Wildcats jumped out to a 2-0 lead Saturday afternoon and cruised to a 3-1 win over Southeastern Louisiana at Moody Coliseum, the Wildcats' third straight win in Southland Conference volleyball action.
The win pushes the Wildcats to 4-15 overall and 3-1 in the Southland, while the Lions fall to 2-13 and 1-2. ACU will be back in action next week at McNeese (Thursday night) and at Nicholls (next Saturday afternoon).
The Wildcats carried the momentum from their big comeback win Thursday over New Orleans into Saturday's match against Southeastern Louisiana. ACU pulled away early from the Lions, winning the first set 25-14 and taking the second set 25-19.
The first set was close through the first half with neither team taking more than a four point lead before ACU increased its lead from 13-12 to 21-12 to pull away. Southeastern shot itself in the foot in that run with four hitting errors in the 9-0 ACU run.
In the second set, ACU jumped out to a big 9-3 lead before Southeastern rallied to tie the match 14-14. But
Lauren Walker put ACU back in front with a kill before Southeastern put five straight points on the board for the Wildcats with more hitting errors. ACU was able to take that 18-14 lead and push it forward for a 25-19 victory and a 2-0 lead.
Southeastern hit .275 in the third set to take a 25-21 win over the Wildcats and cut ACU's lead to 2-1, forcing a fourth set. The Wildcats, though, dominated the fourth set, hitting .286 with 15 kills and only five errors on 35 swings. The fourth set was tied 17-17 before ACU scored eight of the final 11 points to take 25-20 victory.
Senior middle blocker
Lexi Mercier — who had 10 kills — had three kills for the Wildcats in the 8-3 run to end the set.
Sophomore
Lauren Walker had a team-high 11 kills for the Wildcats, who hit .168 in the match to .084 for Southeastern Louisiana.
Kendall Bosse had 17 assists and
Makenzie Kesler had 13 for the Wildcats, while freshman libber
Amanda Chapa had 28 digs to lead both teams.
ACU had 15 total blocks in Thursday night's win over New Orleans and tacked on 13 more blocks in Saturday's win over the Lions.
