BOULDER, Colo. – Abilene Christian volleyball keeps knocking on the door and ringing the bell, but for another day the Wildcats remain on the outside looking in after Rice scored five of the final six points in game four to clinch a 3-1 victory Saturday morning at Colorado's Omni Invitational.
ACU (1-4) battled back from a nine-point deficit (4-13) and fought through three ties in the latter stages only to see the Owls swoop their way back into the lead. A 15-6 Wildcat run – during which Rice made seven attack errors – knotted the score a first time at 19-19. The score remained locked at 20-20 two possessions later, and again at 21-21 following one of the Wildcats' 13.5 team blocks, the last executed by junior setter
Kendall Bosse (8 BA, 30 assists, 13 digs) and sophomore middle blocker
Courtney Miller (5 BA).
The service, however, would return to Rice after McKay Kyle registered her match-high 14th kill, and from there Julianna Dole dropped a pair of aces sandwiched around a Wildcat attack error.
Rice improved to 4-2 with the victory and received double-digit kill totals from a trio of players while hitting .202. The Owls' defense also dug out 70 Wildcat attacks in limiting ACU to a .124 attack percentage.
"Both Wake Forest and Rice are quality teams who you can't take plays off against," said head coach
Angela Mooney. "Rice probably handled the first contact and passed a little better than Wake, which meant they were in system more with their offense … and at the same time we struggled with consistency in executing our defensive plan both at the net and in the back row."
Junior outside hitter
Jacey Smith was ACU's leading attacker with 12 kills followed by
Marybeth Sandercox who totaled 11.5 points on nine kills and five block assists. Bosse finished with a 30 assist / 13 dig double-double to go along with three aces and eight blocks assists, while sophomore libero
Amanda Chapa was credited with 22 digs.
"Like yesterday, there were players who had solid matches for us but we never got enough of the cylinders running at the same time," said Mooney. "Courtney (Miller) came off the bench today and provided a much needed spark at the net as she was able to produce some big blocks at critical times. Lorin (McNeil) also had another good match (5K, 7 BA) … again the team fought and played hard, but just came up short."
Rice posted its largest margin of victory in game one, winning 25-17, but couldn't duplicate that rate of success in game two, where the Wildcats rallied from an early five-point deficit en route to a 26-24 victory.
The Owls' Grace Morgan tied the score at 24-24 on one of her 11 kills but gave the game away two plays later with an attack error. This coming after ACU reached match point on a kill from
Marybeth Sandercox – her fifth of the game.
Rice regained the lead at 2-1 behind a 25-18 triumph in game three, concluding matters on a 8-1 run.
The Wildcats wrap up their stay in the Centennial State Sunday with a noon match vs. the 4-0 Buffaloes. Colorado swept Wake Forest earlier today and will battle the Owls tonight at 8 p.m.
