Volleyball home for pair of Southland matches

Women's Volleyball | 9/27/2016 2:23:00 PM

New Orleans: Live Stats | Video
Southeastern La.: Live Stats | Video
 

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ABILENE - Abilene Christian volleyball returns home to Moody Coliseum for the first time in over three weeks for a Thursday night match against New Orleans that begins at 6:30 p.m. The Wildcats also will play host to Southeastern Louisiana during this short two-match homestand Saturday at 11 a.m.

Both matches will have live stats and accompanying video stream.

ACU is a combined 5-1 vs. the Privateers and Lady Lions since entering the Southland Conference in 2013. The Wildcats have won all three of their meetings vs. UNO, and captured their last two contests vs. Southeastern.

ACU began conference play last weekend with a 1-1 road trip as the Wildcats followed a 3-0 loss to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi with a five-set win at Incarnate Word. 

The Wildcats dominated their final set against the Cardinals to extend their series winning streak to three matches. 

ACU took off on three significant runs in the decisive set and were helped along by seven Cardinal errors – five on the attack and two at the service line. The Wildcats tied the score at 2-2 and secured the lead for good during a stretch of three consecutive UIW errors, and later they scored five consecutive points that included two kills by Jacey Smith, an ace from Lillian Drever, and a block from Smith and Lexi Mercier.

Smith's third point of this run put the Wildcats ahead 10-5. And after the Cardinals closed to within three points of the lead at 11-8, the Wildcats responded with three straight points from Smith, Lauren Walker and freshman setter Makenzie Kesler to reach match point. 

The Wildcats won the lengthy two hour and 10-minute battle on an attack error by UIW's Maddie Slaughter.

Smith's efforts on the attack have her ranked 10th in the Southland Conference with 2.76 kills per set, and the 22 combined blocks from Mercier and Walker, have them ranked fifth and sixth respectively with per set block averages of 1.08 and 1.00.

Sophomore Kendall Bosse ranks eighth with 7.35 assists per set, and on defense, freshman Amanda Chapa has the sixth-best digs average in the Southland at 3.92.

The Privateers and Lady Lions are both off to slow starts this season. UNO has lost its first two league matches to Houston Baptist and Lamar to fall to 3-12, while Southeastern went 1-1 against the same schools in improving to 2-12. The Lady Lions' 3-2 win over Lamar was their first since Aug. 27.