ABILENE – Abilene Christian volleyball hit a season-high .291 with three players collecting more than 10 kills as the Wildcats (12-10, 9-1 Southland) came back from a set down to beat Southeastern Louisiana, 3-1, completing a 3-0 homestand that capped a flawless stretch of six matches in 14 days.
The Wildcats' six-match winning streak is their longest since 2010 when they posted two separate 11-match winning streaks against NCAA D2 and the Lone Star Conference. The team also is off to its best start as a D1 program (since 2013) and needs only two more victories over the last six matches to set new program season records for overall (13 in 2017) and conference wins (11 in 2016).
"We've played a lot of matches over the last two weeks and our team showed a lot of maturity throughout," said head coach
Angela Mooney. "A lot of times during this stretch we'd get down, but fight back and win ... and that's growth. It's good to experience a little bit of adversity in order to learn more about ourselves."
The Wildcats have lost the first set four times during their six-match winning streak, and that was the case again today as the Lady Lions escaped with a 25-23 victory before dropping the next three sets: 25-17, 25-20, 25-20.
ACU never trailed by any more than three points in the first set but only twice held the lead for one point, the last time on a kill from junior right-side
Marybeth Sandercox (5K) that made it a 12-11 game. Southeastern La., however, scored the next three points and never relinquished the lead even though the Wildcats tied the score five more times down the stretch.
A service ace from
Jacey Smith knotted the score a final time at 23-23, which led to a Lady Lions' timeout. The visitors then scored the final two points on a kill and ace from Caroline Golden (12K, 9 digs).
The Wildcats didn't begin to distance themselves from the Lady Lions until midway through the second set when a 5-1 run provided them with a 10-6 advantage. This push featured three kills from three attackers plus a service ace from junior
Amanda Chapa.
Then after Southeastern La., made it a two-point contest at 14-12, the Wildcats bounced back with a pivotal 9-3 run that gave them their largest lead of the set at eight points (23-15).
The score again was close in set three until the Wildcats recorded six of the next seven points after a kill from Tempestt Vaughn tied the score at 12-12. ACU hit .320 during this set with all six attackers registering at least one kill, while the defense dug out 11 of 33 attacks in limiting the Lady Lions to a .152 attack percentage.
Southeastern hit even worse in the fourth set (.097) and three attack errors by Golden near the halfway point gave the Wildcats the lead for good at 14-11. A few points later, ACU put the match away with three consecutive kills from Smith (9K),
Lauren Walker (14K, .357, 2 blocks) and freshman
Lindsey Toney, who went 3-for-3 in the final set.
Walker led all Wildcats with 16.0 points, while sophomore
Katelyn Mueller was second with 13.5 on 11 kills, two aces and a block assist. Junior middle blocker
Kennedy Shelstead also had a solid outing with 10 kills. (.312) and team high three blocks.
Senior setter
Kendall Bosse recorded the team's most digs with nine in addition to her 49 assists.
The Wildcats return to action Thursday for the start of a two-match road trip that will take them to Houston Baptist and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. ACU's 3-2 win last week vs. the Huskies kicked off its six-match winning streak, which also includes a 3-1 home victory over the Islanders.
