ABILENE – Sam Houston State lived up to its reputation as being one of the nation's best defense teams by digging out 91 attacks and blocking nine in a 3-1 win over Abilene Christian Saturday at Moody Coliseum. The Bearkats won by scores of 25-20, 25-21, 17-25 and 25-21.
The loss leaves the Wildcats at 13-15 overall and 10-6 (fourth place) within the Southland Conference, while the Bearkats improved to 21-7 and 13-3, keeping them as the No. 3 seed for next weekend's Southland Conference Championship Tournament in Natchitoches, La. (Nov. 16-18).
ACU currently is slated to play the 6:30 p.m. match next Friday, Nov. 16 vs. the No. 5 seed; however, the Southland has yet to reveal the bracket as four teams are tied for fifth place at 8-8: Houston Baptist, McNeese, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and tournament host Northwestern State.
The Wildcats won three more conference matches this year compared to last (7-9, 8th) and finished four places higher, but they'll need a tournament run similar to last year's to eliminate the bad taste left behind by today's defeat.
ACU enjoyed late leads in the first and fourth sets only to watch the Bearkats stage convincing rallies following a timeout. The Bearkats called for time in set one after three consecutive errors pushed the Wildcats' lead to 18-13, and right out of the break they scored six consecutive points as part of a set-ending 12-2 run.
Three sets later, the Wildcats were ahead 20-17 in looking to even the match at two sets apiece, but another well-placed break by the Bearkats resulted in a match-ending 8-1 run.
ACU also let slip a four-point lead early in set two, and after regaining a 17-15 lead thanks to a
Kennedy Shelstead kill (8K, 7 blocks), Sam Houston rolled to a two sets to none lead behind a 10-4 outburst.
In between, set three essentially belonged to the Wildcats from start to finish as they scored 13 kills and 5.5 blocks while digging out 20 attacks in holding the Bearkats to a match-low .048 hitting percentage. ACU scored 10 of the first 15 points in building a 10-5 lead and never once allowed the visitors to get closer than three points.
Soon afterward ACU had its largest lead of the afternoon at nine points (21-12) following back-to-back kills from today's point leaders
Jacey Smith and
Lauren Walker.
Smith registered a 15 kill / 11 dig double-double with five blocks in collecting 17.5 points for her final Moody Coliseum appearance, while Walker finished the match with 13 kills. She also was part of four of the Wildcats' 12.5 blocks in totaling 15.0 points.
Sam Houston came into today's match ranked 16th nationally with 17.62 digs per set, but substantially raised that mark as the Bearkats averaged 22.75 per set vs. the Wildcats. They had 24 in each of the first three sets followed by 19 in the fourth.
Taylor Cunningham (19K, .318) and libero Madison Wallace tied for their team lead with 21 digs, while Addison Miller had 14 and Ashley Lewis 13.
For their part, the Wildcats averaged 19.5 digs per set with sophomore
Katelyn Mueller responsible for 21 of the team's 78 digs followed by libero
Lillian Drever (20) and setter
Kendall Bosse (15).
Bosse additionally scored three kills, provided 39 assists and was part of five blocks (one solo).
