ABILENE – Abilene Christian ran into trouble early Saturday in its match at Nicholls but went on to make an emphatic comeback to defeat the Colonels' at Stopher Gymanisum, 3-1. The Wildcats won the last three sets by scores of 25-11, 25-22 and 25-15, after being edged in the first set, 25-23.
ACU (9-10, 6-1 Southland) started the match in a 10-point hole at 16-6 but rallied to tie the Colonels at 23-23. Unfortunately, Nicholls scored the final two points on kills from Brieanna Hill (8K) and Katie Jones (15K).
From there, it was all Wildcats.
ACU hit .423 in the second set led by four kills from senior outside hitter
Jacey Smith. The Wildcats additionally received three blocks and dug out 12 Colonel attacks in keeping the home team to a .000 hitting percentage.
Smith continued to be the primary target for senior setter
Kendall Bosse (43 assists, 10 digs) in the third set, knocking in seven kills on 12 swings to finish with a match high of 17. Smith's last kill of that set brought the Wildcats to set point, and they won it three plays later on block from Bosse and senior
Lauren Walker (12K, .321, 4BA).
The fourth set again was all Wildcats as they jumped out to leads of 10-2 and 17-7. Bosse scored her team's 17th point of that set with a service ace that gave her the team's D1-era record at 87. She came into today's match tied with
Madelyn Robinett (2010-13) at 86. Smith is close behind in third place with 85.
ACU hit .284 overall today with 54 kills, five aces, 64 digs and 12.0 blocks. Bosse finished with a double-double in addition to sophomore
Katelyn Mueller who provided a team-high 17 digs and 10 kills.
Kennedy Shelstead was the team's leading blocker with eight (one solo), while senior libero dug out 15 attacks and led her team with two service aces. Freshman
Lindsey Toney appeared in two sets and hit .333 with four kills and one dig.
Nicholls was limited to a .132 attack percentage with 36 combined errors (attack, service and blocking).
The Wildcats return to action Tuesday for the start of a three-match homestand vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. First serve is set for 6 p.m. at Moody Coliseum.
