ABILENE - Moody Magic sprang to life once more at the Coliseum Saturday as Abilene Christian volleyball scored five of the last six points in the third set to escape with a sweep of McNeese State by scores of 25-19, 25-22 and 26-24. Today's match was the season finale for both schools.
Set three was a see-saw battle from the start with the lead having changed hands four times when the Cowgirls took their final lead on a 7-1 run that brought them to match point at 24-22. In this position the Wildcats had to score four consecutive points without the match going any further, and they did it thanks to three consecutive attack errors by the Cowgirls plus the game-winning kill from sophomore
Jacey Smith, which was her tenth of the match.
The win gave ACU (12-19) a final home record of 9-0 and third place in the Southland Conference at 11-5, while McNeese (10-21) fell to 6-10.
Neither team hit particuarly well this afternoon, but the Wildcats more than made up for an inconsistent attack with a season-high 16 blocks, nine of which came in the third set. Sophomore
Kendall Bosse and freshmen
Marybeth Sandercox and
Courtney Miller all recorded two solo rejections, while senior
Lexi Mercier – playing the final game of her career – had a hand in seven blocks to finish with nine points. Her classmate
Dorothy Swanson was second on the team to Smith with 10 points as she was part of two blocks to go along with nine kills (.231).
Bosse additionally assisted on 21 of the Wildcats' 31 kills, and freshman libero
Amanda Chapa dug out 21 attacks, resulting in a .043 hitting percentage for the Cowgirls.Â
The Wildcats lost to McNeese earlier in the season with all three sets decided by two points, but the home team got off to a fast start today in jumping out to a 13-6 lead. ACU then used a late 3-0 run to grab their largest advantage of the game at 21-13. McNeese made a little noise offensively with the Wildcats sitting on match point for three possessions, but couldn't get any closer than five points of the lead after Smith finished things off with her fourth kill of the game.
Game two proved to be much closer as the Cowgirls coughed up a pair of three-point leads in the early goings. With McNeese ahead 16-13, the Wildcats countered with a 5-0 run that gave them the lead for good at 18-16. They then pushed their lead out to four points at 23-19 following one of the Cowgirls' seven service errors.
Closing the game was a bit of a challenge as the Cowgirls scored four of the next six points to get within two at 24-22, but Rebecca Korenek hit the ball right into the net on their last possession, sending ACU into the break with a 2-0 lead. Korenek was McNeese's leading point scorer with 13.5 points, but only hit .105 for the afternoon.
ACU had a couple of five point leads in game three and was ahead 21-17 when McNeese called their final timeout. The Cowgirls responded well to the pep talk as they took off on a 6-0 run that included three of their six blocks and forced ACU to burn both of its timeouts.
Smith delivered a kill right out of the Wildcats' last stoppage and then Korenek brought her team to match point at 24-22 with her last kill of the match. From there, Mercier and Sandercox blocked her next attack attempt and then both Keegan Nelms and Angela McGownd hit their shots out of bounds, giving ACU a 25-24 lead.
