CONWAY, Ark. – Abilene Christian volleyball suffered a three-set defeat to Central Arkansas Thursday night at the Prince Center by scores of 25-20, 25-18 and 25-21 to snap a two-match winning streak.
Freshman
Katelyn Mueller registered nine kills and junior middle blocker
Lauren Walker tallied 12.5 points on eight kills and five blocks, but ACU as a whole was outhit by the Bears .060 to .204 in falling to 8-14 overall and 4-6 vs. the Southland Conference.
UCA's victory was its 20th of the season and moved to 9-2 within the league.
ACU was within two points of the Bears late in the first set at 22-20 following a kill from Mueller. That point forced UCA into a timeout, and from out of which
Jacey Smith committed a service error, returning the serve to the Bears. Samantha Anderson brought UCA to match point with one of her seven kills (.457) and then she was part of a game-winning block with Alanna Bramwell.
Both teams tonight recorded seven blocks, and Walker led all players with two solo rejections.
UCA in the second set flipped an early 8-4 deficit into a 10-9 lead thanks to a mini 6-1 run, never to trail again. And in the final set, the Bears held off the Wildcats late with kills coming from Megan Nash (7K, .364) and Abbie Harry (11K, .261).
"The Bears did a great job executing on the pins," said head coach
Angela Mooney. "They worked hard to extend rallies with their defense, and we had a hard time getting our offense going tonight mostly in part to our low serve / receive numbers.
"Overall it was a tough night for our team, but we will learn from this loss and we know we need a better sense of urgency. We will regroup and move onto focus on Saturday's match versus NSU."
Junior setter
Kendall Bosse finished the match with 28 assists, and sophomore libero
Amanda Chapa dug out 13 attacks followed by
Mikai Brown with nine and Mueller with eight.
The Wildcats return to action Sunday at 1 p.m. at Northwestern State. ACU has won its last three over the Lady Demons.
