NATCHITOCHES, La. - Abilene Christian volleyball returned from its bye week with a convincing 3-0 win at Northwestern State's Prather Coliseum. The Wildcats won by scores of 25-17, 25-19, 25-21 for their first sweep since an Oct. 8 win at Nicholls.
The victory lifted ACU's overall and conference records to 8-18 and 7-4, keeping them in fourth place with five matches remaining, while the Lady Demons fell to 11-11 and 6-6.
The Wildcats tonight limited the Lady Demons to a .059 hitting percentage as they came away with 50 digs and five blocks. ACU also was helped along the way by 26 Northwestern State attacking errors and six service miscues. Three Lady Demons finished with negative hitting percentages - two of whom had 18 or more attempts, and in the second set, Northwestern State posted a -.057 mark as the home team erased its seven kills with nine errors.
ACU hit .176 by comparison as a mediocre second-set performance (.029) offset hitting percentages of .238 and .250 in sets one and three. Sophomore outside hitter
Jacey Smith led her side with 10 kills and hit .259 on 27 attempts and freshman
Marybeth Sandercox hit .400 with eight kills on 15 attempts. Senior
Dorothy Swanson finished second to Smith with 10.5 points as she had an ace and block assist to go with her nine kills.
Freshman
Courtney Miller started only her fourth match of the season and played well in relief of an injured
Lauren Walker, contributing a team-high three service aces and four block assists, while sophomore
Kendall Bosse posted a double-double of 27 assists and 11 digs.Â
Northwestern State led game one up until about the halfway point when the Wildcats took off on an 8-2 run that gave them a comfortable lead at 19-15. ACU then took a five-point lead on a kill from Sandercox and finished the game winning the final three points thanks to kills from Swanson and
Lexi Mercier.
The Wildcats were never seriously threatened in set two as they opened up with leads of 9-1, 19-5 and 24-9; however, a late 8-0 run by the Lady Demons that included five ACU attack errors made the game appear closer than it really was. ACU eventually won the game and took a 2-0 lead into the break thanks to a Reagan Rogers service error.
The Wildcats again began game three with a sizeable lead and were ahead by eight points at 20-12 when the Lady Demons registered another late-game run that pulled them to within two points of the lead. But after a Lauren Agan kill made it a 22-20 game, the Wildcats responded with a match-ending 4-0 run that featured kills from Smith, Swanson and Sandercox plus a block from Smith and Miller.
ACU plays its final road conference match of the season Saturday at noon vs. Central Arkansas.
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