HOUSTON – Abilene Christian set a goal at this week's practice to get the middle blockers more involved with the offense, and the duo of freshman
Lorin McNeil and junior
Lauren Walker responded with a combined 30 points on 24 kills and six blocks in Saturday's 3-1 loss at Houston Baptist.
HBU won by scores of 25-18, 22-25, 25-23, 25-22 in improving to 15-6 overall and 7-2 vs. the Southland Conference, while the Wildcats fell to 6-13 and 2-5.
McNeil (.409) and Walker (.259) each finished with 12 kills and had a hand in half of the team's dozen blocks with assistance coming from junior setter
Kendall Bosse (41 assists) and sophomore libero
Amanda Chapa (31 digs). Chapa's dig total set a single-match career high and accounted for nearly 50 percent of ACU's 68 digs.
HBU, however, also was solid on defense and countered with 10 blocks and 85 digs that limited ACU to a .169 attack percentage.
"HBU is a very good blocking team," said head coach
Angela Mooney, "so it was great to see both middles handle that pressure and find success offensively, but we also have to give a lot of credit to our back-row defenders and passers. Kendall got the ball to them in system the way we wanted because our back-row did an excellent job of controlling the first contact, and Amanda really stepped up into the role we've been pushing for."
The Huskies, by comparison, hit .220 and had five individuals finish with a double-digit scoring total led by Bailey Banks who scored 20.5 points on 14 kills (.043), five aces and three block assists. Banks also tied libero Hailey Erickson for the team lead in digs with 21 followed by Jessica Wooten (17 digs) and Madison O'Brien (13).
"We extended a ton of rallies and really pushed their defenders to respond," said Mooney in answering a question about the Huskies' season-high dig total (29 of which came in the fourth set). "They were getting touches on defense but after set one they were more out of systems with their digs, and that doesn't always show up on the stat sheet."
The Wildcats led for the majority of set four until an 8-0 Husky run that featured six kills gave the home team a 20-18 advantage. ACU then pushed back to tie the score twice at 20-20 and 21-21, but back-to-back errors on the service and attack provided the Huskies with a 23-21 lead and forced the Wildcats into a timeout.
Walker delivered her final point coming out of the stoppage to make it a 23-22 game, but Banks countered with a kill and block assist alongside Kayla Davenport to seal the victory.
ACU also was right there at the end of set three, and nearly erased a 24-20 deficit thanks to a kill by senior
Corinne Grandcolas and consecutive blocks involving
Marybeth Sandercox (with Bosse and McNeil). However, it was Banks again who delivered the set-winning point off an assist from O'Brien (46 assists).
Set one turned in the Huskies' favor after a 6-1 run flipped a 9-9 deadlock into a 15-10 lead, but in game two it was the Wildcats who rallied late after trailing by as many as eight points (10-2). ACU tied the score at 17-17 on a 15-7 run capped by a block from Walker and
Jacey Smith but never led by more than two points down the stretch.
An attack error by Banks gave the Wildcats their final lead at 22-21, and ACU followed that miscue with two kills by McNeil and an ace from Bosse that knotted the match at 1-1.
"Overall this was a great team effort … we made huge strides this weekend despite falling to a very talented team," said Mooney. "I'm very proud of the way we executed when the match was tight and how we trusted ourselves within our systems. This was a great lesson for us today and we're anxious to get back in the gym Monday … we are all very optimistic.
"HBU has a great volleyball environment (at Sharp Gym) and I feel like our players handled the challenges with a maturity we've not seen yet this fall."
The Wildcats return to Moody Coliseum for Homecoming Week. ACU will play host to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Thursday at 6 p.m. and Incarnate Word Saturday at 7 p.m. following football's game vs. Southeastern Louisiana.
