ABILENE - Abilene Christian volleyball tested the defending Southland Conference champions from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi throughout the first and second sets, but came away empty handed as the Islanders held on for a sweep of the Wildcats, winning by scores of 31-29, 28-26 and 25-17.
Thursday's match at the Dugan Wellness Center was the league opener for both teams.
There were a combined 19 lead changes and 34 deadlocks between games one and two, and the Wildcats held the lead late in each contest.
A block by senior
Lexi Mercier and junior
Corinne Grandcolas coupled with an Islander attack error provided ACU with its final lead of game one at 29-28, but the home team spoiled the Wildcats' upset bid by scoring the final three points. Madison Fitzsimmons delivered one of her match-high 14 kills to tie the score a final time at 29-29. Brittany Gilpin followed with a solo block, and then killed a pass from setter Kristyn Nicholson for the game-winning point.
ACU and Corpus Christi continued their tug of war early in game two until the Wildcats took off on a 6-2 run that gave them their largest lead of the night at 21-17. Sophomore outside hitter
Jacey Smith dealt a pair of aces during this stretch, and freshman setter
Makenzie Kesler served up kills from
Kendall Bosse,
Lauren Walker and Grandcolas.
Following Walker's second kill of the run, the Islanders rattled off five consecutive points that set the stage for another nailbiter of a finish as the score was tied five times down the stretch. ACU snapped a 24-24 tie on a kill by freshman
Marybeth Sandercox but was then thwarted by service and attack errors on its next two possessions.
The Wildcats tied the score one last time at 26-26 on a Corpus miscue, but from there the Islanders received a kill from Morgan Carlson and won it on a botched set attempt.
Bosse and Kesler split time at setter and each finished with 14 assists. Bosse also led the team with eight kills, but Mercier was the leading point scorer for ACU with 11.0 points as she had a hand in eight blocks (two solo) to go along with six kills.Â
For the Islanders, they had three players score 10 or more points led by Fitzsimmons' 18.5 points. Carlson tallied 11.5 points and Gilpin had 10.5 points.
The Wildcats return to action and conclude their nine-match road trip Saturday at 11 a.m. vs. Incarnate Word.
