HOUSTON – Houston Baptist snapped Abilene Christian's season-best six-match winning streak Thursday night at Sharp Gymnasium after coming back from a set down to win 20-25, 25-21, 25-20, 25-21. The two teams have now split their season series for the second time in three years.
The loss dropped the Wildcats (12-11) into a tie for third place in the Southland Conference with Central Arkansas at 9-2. First-place Stephen F. Austin remains undefeated at 11-0, while Sam Houston State is alone in second place at 10-1 following its 3-2 win at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The Islanders welcome the Wildcats to their arena Saturday at 1 p.m.
The Huskies (12-13, 5-6 Southland) posted a .239 attacking percentage for the match after experiencing a dismal first set (.024) in which they made half of their 24 attack errors. HBU was charged with four attack errors during an early 6-0 run for ACU, which provided the visitors with a 9-5 lead. The Wildcats eventually fell back into a tie, but regained the lead for good on a block from seniors
Kendall Bosse (36 assists) and
Lauren Walker (7K, 3 blocks).
Three additional HBU miscues followed the rejection to put the Wildcats ahead 18-14, and later the Huskies committed two critical service errors that provided ACU a two-point advantage. Catherine Drapela's attack error made it a 23-20 game and consecutive kills from
Jacey Smith (8K, 14 digs) and
Marybeth Sandercox (13K, .435) put the Wildcats ahead by one set.
From there, however, the Huskies were vastly improved on the attack, hitting .319 in the second set (19K), .317 in the third (16K) and .277 in the third (18K). They also outblocked the Wildcats, 9-8, and dropped in five aces.
The Wildcats, by comparison, hit .195 and were held to under .200 in sets one, three and four as the Huskies dug out 77 attacks led by CiCi Collins (18 digs). ACU only registered eight kills in the first set, and couldn't quite keep pace with the Huskies' second-set offense despite hitting .293 with 14 kills.
There were four tie scores early in set two, but a 10-4 run by the Huskies that featured six kills gave them their largest lead at 20-15. ACU got to within two points of tying the score once more at 23-21 following a kill from Smith, but consecutive terminations from Mikayla Vivens (18K) tied the match at one set apiece.
ACU trailed by as many as three points early in the third set only to tie the score at 17-17 on a service ace from junior
Amanda Chapa, but soon afterward HBU would take off on a 4-0 run to break the deadlock. The set was then decided by another 4-1 HBU outburst capped by another kill from Vivens.
The Wildcats went on to lead at several points during the fourth set without generating enough separation from the Huskies. ACU grabbed its final lead at 16-15 on a kill from sophomore
Katelyn Mueller (13K, 7 digs), but a 3-0 Huskies run with two blocks involving Megan Patillo followed, and the Wildcats were unable to catch HBU once more.
Walker scored ACU's final point to make it a 23-21 game, and the Huskies responded with a block (Ashtyn Richie, Kayla Davenport) and kill from Drapela.
