ABILENE – Abilene Christian snapped its three-match losing streak and entered the Southland Conference win column for the first time Thursday following its convincing 3-0 sweep of Southeastern Louisiana. The Wildcats won by scores of 25-19, 25-22 and 25-13 in improving to 5-10 overall and 1-2 within the league, while the Lady Lions dropped to 2-14 and 0-3.
ACU led from wire-to-wire in games and one and three, leading by as many as seven points in the first set, and later taking off on a 10-4 run midway through the third to build a considerable 11-point advantage (20-9).
In between, the second set proved to be challenging as the visitors built a 16-9 lead thanks to a couple of blocks involving Haley Baker and three Wildcat attack errors. ACU soon, however, would make the needed corrections and used a 10-2 run to regain the lead for good.
The Wildcats received aces from
Lauren Walker and
Lillian Drever early on to get within three points of the lead, and then
Jacey Smith was on the line for five consecutive points that pushed the Wildcats ahead, 20-18. Both Smith and Drever tied for the team lead with three aces as the Wildcats finished with 12 total, while the Lady Lions recorded just one with nine service errors.
After Southeastern got back to within a point at 21-20, Walker came through with one of her six kills (.500) and made a block alongside freshman
Katelyn Mueller. The Wildcats once again won the blocking game, 10-5, with Walker getting a hand in six rejections and
Marybeth Sandercox recording five (one solo).
Smith (.400) registered nine kills tonight and her last of game two brought the Wildcats to game point, and two plays she later stuffed an attack with Walker against Southeastern's Elyssa Purcell.
ACU hit .200 for the match with Smith and Walker leading the way, scoring 13.0 and 10.0 points, respectively. Mueller finished with seven kills, setter
Kendall Bosse assisted on 22 points, and libero
Amanda Chapa dug out 15 Lady Lion attacks, holding them to a .124 hitting percentage.
The Wildcats wrap their four-match homestand (1-2) Saturday at 1 p.m. vs. New Orleans.
