ALBUQUERQUE - Abilene Christian volleyball didn't win any sets Saturday through two matches against 2015 NCAA Championship participants Fairfield and Arizona State, but the Wildcats remained competitive throughout both matches and received some impressive individual performances to conclude its two-day stay at the New Mexico Tournament.
The Wildcats were swept by the Stags of Fairfield University at the Johnson Center in the early afternoon, 25-19, 25-19 and 25-22, and later went head-to-head against Pac-12 power Arizona State in a 25-21, 25-21, 25-18 defeat.
Between the two matches junior
Corinne Grandcolas hit .210 with 22 kills (3.67 per set average), sophomore setter
Kendall Bosse assisted on 50 attacks and the defense outblocked its opposition, 16-11. Senior
Lexi Mercier was strong at the net in finishing with four solo blocks and six assists.
Grandcolas was the Wildcats' leading point scorer Saturday with 22.5 points. Mercier was right behind her with 22.0 and sophomore
Jacey Smith chipped in 14 points on 12 kills and four block assists.
ACU additionally averaged 12.5 digs per set led by senior
Dorothy Swanson with 21 and sophomore
Lillian Drever with 17.
Fairfield countered the Wildcats' efforts with a .252 attack percentage as all-tournament team honoree Skyler Day (14 kills) and teammates Megan Theiller (13 kills) and Megan O'Sullivan (10 kills) each finished with a double-digit point total.
ACU led for much of its third game vs. Fairfield, but a late 9-5 run by the Stags tied the score a sixth time at 22-22 and then Day gave her side the lead for good with her 14th kill. The Wildcats then finished the match by committing consecutive attack errors.
ACU recorded 10 of its 16 blocks against the Sun Devils and held them to a .217 hitting percentage, but as close as the scores were, the Wildcats secured their only leads of the match in a back-and-forth game two.
ACU trailed by as many as seven points in the early stages only to mount a major comeback and tie the score at 20-20 on one of 14 kills by Grandcolas. Soon afterward, however, the Sun Devils would close the game on a 5-1 run with the final Wildcat point coming from Mercier that made it 21-21.
From there, ASU received back-to-back kills from Maya McClendon and Tournament MVP Oluoma Okaro, and then it scored on a block from Okaro and all-tournament team selection Kylie Pickrell.
Pickrell finished the ACU match with 34 assists and 3.5 points on two kills and three block assist. Okaro had eight kills, two aces and three block assists.
The Wildcats continue their tournament season next weekend with a trip to Omaha, where they'll face the Mavericks, UMKC and South Dakota.
