ABILENE – Abilene Christian volleyball's 2018 season ended a few matches too soon Friday as Houston Baptist pulled off a five-set comeback to eliminate the Wildcats from the Southland Conference Championship Tournament hosted by Northwestern State University. The Huskies (16-15) lost the first two sets by seven and nine points, respectively, but rallied to win the next three by scores of 25-19, 25-21 and 15-12 to earn a spot in tomorrow's first semifinal vs. Stephen F. Austin.
The Wildcats' offense (13-16) produced a .270 attacking percentage through the first two sets, while their front-line defense took part in seven blocks as the Huskies combined for 20 attack errors (.026).
But HBU flipped the script in winning sets three and four. First the Huskies finished the third set on a 9-3 run that was composed of six kills, two blocks and a set-winning ace by Morgan Dewyer. And then in set four, HBU broke a 12-12 tie with a 7-0 explosion which featured four consecutive kills from four different players: Mikayla Vivens, Camie Copeland, Kayla Davenport and Madison O'Brien.
The Wildcats eventually pulled back to within two points after a string of Husky attack errors and kill from ACU junior
Marybeth Sandercox made it a 23-21 score, but HBU managed to knot the match at two sets apiece after a Kelly Colwell kill was followed by a Wildcat miscue.
ACU jumped back in the driver's seat early in the fifth set. Three straight kills from senior
Jacey Smith and two from her classmate
Lauren Walker put the Wildcats ahead 6-2, and later they were still ahead by as many as three points. A kill from Sandercox gave ACU an 11-8 lead and Walker's team-leading 13th kill put the No. 4 seeds up 12-9.
Unfortunately, Walker's last point was also the teams as HBU took off on a 6-0 run to end the match in addition to the careers of several distinguished Wildcat seniors. Three straight kills from Ashyn Richey gave the Huskies their first lead of the set since 2-0 at 13-12. O'Brien followed with her third service ace in bringing her team to match point, and Vivens won it with her match-high 19th kill.
HBU hit .440 in the final set, receiving 11 kills from five players without a single attack error.
ACU finished the match with a .199 attack percentage, led by Walker who totaled 15.5 points on 13 kills (.464), an ace and three block assists. Smith, meanwhile, posted a 12-kill / 11-dig double-double, and Sandercox hit .300 from the right side with 11 kills plus four blocks (one solo).
In addition to Smith and Walker, today's match also was the final Wildcat appearance for longtime setter
Kendall Bosse (4K, 38 assists, 7 digs, 3 blocks), defensive specialist
Mikai Brown (one ace, two assists, eight digs) and libero
Lillian Drever (30 digs).
Smith leaves the Wildcats as their D1 era career leader with 94 service aces, and was second only to Bosse (452) with 448 sets played. The Wimberley, Texas, native this fall also set several career season bests with 339 kills, 274 digs and 46 blocks, and earlier in the season she became the first Wildcat in three years to surpass 1,000 career kills (1,185).
Bosse and Walker also hit career milestones earlier this month as the setter from Ingram, Texas eclipsed 3,000 assists (3,136), while the IT major from Round Rock, Texas collected her 400th block (408).
