Volleyball buries Huskies in fourth set to win 3-1

ABILENE - Abilene Christian volleyball moved a half game ahead of Houston Baptist in the Southland Conference standings following its 3-1 win over the Huskies Thursday night at Moody Coliseum. The Wildcats won by scores of 25-21, 28-26, 23-25, 25-13 to improve to 9-19, 8-5 vs. the conference and 6-0 at home.

HBU, which swept the Wildcats in their first meeting on Oct. 10, fell to 17-13 and 8-6 as the Huskies were outhit tonight, .284 to .179.

Four Wildcats scored in double figures led by senior Dorothy Swanson's career high 20.5 points. Swanson was focused on the attack, hitting .417 on 36 attempts with 19 kills while sophomore Jacey Smith batted .467, scoring 16 points on 15 kills and two block assists.

Freshman Marybeth Sandercox delivered 13 kills (.286) and a solo block and Lexi Mercier tallied 10.5 points on eight kills and four blocks (one solo).

Overall, the Wildcats outblocked the Huskies, 11-8, and were led in that category by freshman Courtney Miller, who had a hand in six blocks and tied for the team lead with two service aces.

Sophomore Kendall Bosse was credited with 50 assists and freshman libero Amanda Chapa had the most digs with 19.

ACU only trailed once in game one and used a 8-2 run near the midway point to begin pulling away and taking a 13-7 lead. HBU did tie the score one more time at 17-17, but following the kill by Kayla Armer, the Wildcats took off on a game-ending 8-4 run.

Game two and three were very competitive from wire to wire. The Huskies jumped out to leads of 6-2, 9-6 and 12-9 to start game two only to see the Wildcats fight back with a 8-2 run that included three kills from Smith.

That resurgence was short lived, however, as Houston Baptist regained the lead several possessions later and reached match point first on a Bailey Banks' ace that made it a 24-22 game. ACU countered with back-to-back kills from Smith and Mercier and tied the score twice more down the stretch thanks to a pair of Huskie errors. 

A bad set by Melissa Fuchs returned the serve to ACU, and Chapa immediately capitalized with one of her two aces. Swanson then finished the game with her seventh kill of the set to send her team into the break ahead 2-0.

It appeared ACU was going to sweep the Huskies after starting the game with a couple four-point leads, but the visitors rallied with two significant runs that helped them regain the advantage. Fuchs hammered in consecutive kills to give HBU its first lead of the game at 11-10, and later they flipped a 15-14 deficit into a 20-18 lead with some offensive help from Ashlee Vann (11 kills) and Blair Gillard (4 kills). 

ACU grabbed the lead once more on a 4-1 run that made it 22-21 in the home team's favor, but the Huskies had one run left in them and scored four of the last five points, capping their run with an Armer ace. 

None of that momentum, however, carried into game four where the Wildcats scored the first five points and never looked back as they later produced runs of 6-0 and 7-2 to win the final game by 12 points.

ACU returns to action Saturday at 1 p.m. vs. Lamar. The Cardinals beat ACU, 3-0, earlier this season on Oct. 18.