ABILENE – Abilene Christian volleyball continued its best NCAA D1 era start Thursday night following a 3-1 win (25-19, 25-27, 25-23, 25-17) vs. the Lady Demons of Northwestern State at Moody Coliseum.
The Wildcats, winners of five-straight matches, improved to 11-10 overall and 8-1 vs. the Southland Conference, while the Lady Demons dropped to 8-11 and 4-5. Northwestern State has lost the last five matches in this series after winning the first three between 2013 and 2014.
Head Coach Angela Mooney's postmatch comments
ACU's overall start is the program's best since 2011, and hasn't had this good a start in conference play since the 2009 (13-1) and 2010 (13-1) squads only lost once during their respective Southland Conference seasons.
Tonight's win also kept the Wildcats tied for second in the league with Sam Houston State (8-1) and one game behind undefeated Stephen F. Austin (9-0). The Bearkats were 3-1 winners at home vs. Southeastern Louisiana, while the Ladyjacks won in four vs. New Orleans in Nacgodoches.
If the Wildcats are remembered for anything from tonight's contest, it will be their irrepressibility as the Lady Demons simply could not control them at any point during the match.
Down 20-13 in the second set, the Wildcats forced Northwestern State to burn a timeout after whittling the Lady Demons' lead to three points. ACU then crawled to within one point on five occasions leading to Kennedy Shelstead's (7K, .333) game-tying kill that knotted the score at 24-24
Northwestern State, however, proved to be even more resilient in this setting and retook the lead twice more on kills from Brooke Wood (5K, .417) and Hannah Brister (12K) before a Wildcat attack error tied the match at 1-1.
Incredibly, ACU made an even greater comeback in the third set, climbing out of a 10-point hole (16-6) en route to a 25-23 triumph.
A six-point outburst would cut the Lady Demons' lead to four (16-12) and then another 5-1 run that involved senior setter Kendall Bosse on three points (kill and two blocks) made it 19-17.
Senior middle blocker Lauren Walker (8K, 7 blocks) followed with a kill that trimmed her team's team's deficit to one (19-18), and Mikai Brown delivered a set-tying service ace.
ACU went on to take its first lead at 21-20 on a Katelyn Mueller (15K, 13 digs, two blocks) kill followed by an ace from Jacey Smith (16K, five digs, three blocks), but once more the Lady Demons capitalized on a pair of Wildcat errors that tied the score a final time at 23-23.
Thankfully, though, the home team came out of its timeout with consecutive kills from Mueller and Shelstead in going up two sets to one.
The Wildcats recorded five blocks in the third set and finished with 13, five shy of the team's season high of 18, which came in a five-set win vs. Oral Roberts on Sept. 8.
The fourth set was a see-saw battle from the get go with neither side separated by more than a point until a 3-0 ACU run propelled by kills from Marybeth Sandercox (10K, three blocks), Walker and Smith forced Northwestern State to call for time, trailing 11-8.
From there, the Wildcats took off on another 4-2 run that pushed their lead to 15-10 and then three more big swings toward the end from Smith and Shelstead made it a 23-17 contest.
A Walker and Bosse block brought the Wildcats to match point, and Mueller won it on her 15th kill.
The Wildcats' completed the match with a .231 attack percentage, and on defense they added 73 digs to their 13.0 blocks. Senior libero Lillian Drever dug out the most attacks of any player with 32, which serves as a four-set personal high.
Mueller and Bosse each registered double-doubles. Bosse dug out 10 attacks to go with her 51 assists, and Mueller provided 13 digs.
ACU led wire-to-wire in the first set, outhitting the Lady Demons, .297 to .024. The Wildcats jumped out to an 11-3 lead and after the visitors bounced back at 16-14, ACU responded with an 8-4 run that brought them to match point.
Shelstead was involved on ACU's final two points of the opening set, first providing a kill and then a block assist alongside Mueller.
Six ACU players had a hand in at least two blocks vs. the Lady Demons with the exception of the three defensive specialists (Brown, Drever and Amanda Chapa).
The Wildcats return to action and conclude their three-match homestand Saturday at 1 p.m. vs. Southeastern La.
