ATLANTA, Ga. – Abilene Christian volleyball scored wins vs. the Big East and Big South Conferences Friday at Georgia Tech's Hyatt Regency Invitational, following a 3-1 win over Georgetown with a 3-2 thriller vs. Winthrop.
ACU's 2-0 start is its best since 2008, but Saturday's schedule is even tougher as the Wildcats face off vs. the Yellow Jackets on ACC Extra at 11 a.m. and Idaho State Bengals at 3:30 p.m.
"Today was a really great day for our program," said head coach
Angela Mooney. "You can't beat winning the first match of the season and then following up with a gritty five-set victory. We put up good numbers, and I was happy with our blocking at the net, but what doesn't show on the stats is how we were able to slow a ton of balls down. This made it easier for our defense and it was exciting to watch.
"Overall, our serve receive was consistent throughout the day and I thought we served with purpose while being aggressive. We were able to get our opponents out of system more times than not."
Sophomore Katelyn Mueller was ACU's leading scorer today with 36.5 points on 32 kills (.388), three aces and three block assists. Senior Jacey Smith also tallied over 30 points with 24 kills, five aces and four blocks assists, while Marybeth Sandercox (17.5), and middle blockers Lauren Walker (21.0) and Lorin McNeil (22.5) all provided more than 17 points.
The Wildcats outhit their opposition, .249 to .173, and recorded more aces (17), digs (121) and blocks (19.0).
ACU 3, Georgetown 1
Furious rallies at the end of sets two and four combined with a dominant showing in set three provided the Wildcats with a come-from-behind 3-1 victory over Georgetown (0-1).
Not only was this match the season lidlifter for both programs, the 9:30 a.m. ET start time earned it the additional honor of being the first D1 contest of the 2018 campaign accoring to PrepVolleyball.com.
In winning their first Opening Day match since 2011, the Wildcats hit .290 overall and registered 30 kills with only five errors over the final two sets. ACU went 14-for-21 with one error (.619) in winning the third set, 25-10, and completed set four 16-for-37 (.324).
The Wildcats trailed for much of the final set until a late 5-1 run gave them the lead for good at 18-17. ACU then received back-to-back kills from Mueller that forced the Hoyas into a timeout, trailing 21-18.
The stoppage, however, was of no use to Georgetown as the Wildcats finalized matters with a 4-0 run that included kills from Sandercox and Smith, plus an ace from setter Kendall Bosse, and block from Sandercox and McNeil.
"What an exciting way to start 2018," said Mooney. "Overall, it was a really great team win for us, and you can't beat winning the first match of your season. I was happy with our blocking at the net and thought our overall defense did a good job as well. Serve receive steadied out and it was nice to see our middles more involved in sets three and four."
Mueller led all players with a single-match career high 19 kills (.421) and 20.5 points, followed by Walker (9K, .412) and Sandercox (.474).
McNeil was the Wildcats' leading blocker with seven rejections. Senior Mikai Brown started at libero and dug out 14 attacks, and Bosse's 45 assists pushed her past 2,000 for her career.
ACU hit .167 (12-for-36, six errors) in the first set, won by Georgetown, 25-23. The Hoyas led by as many as five points at 11-6, and after the Wildcats tied the score at 14-14, they once again dropped ACU into a five-point hole at 24-19. Mooney's crew made things interesting by scoring the next four points (24-23), but the Hoyas recovered in time with a kill from Alyssa Sinnette (15K, .222).
The Hoyas again started fast in the second set and twice held five-point leads in both the early and latter stages, but after grabbing a 21-16 lead, the Wildcats flew ahead with a 9-1 run that evened the match at 1-1.
Two second-set errors by Sinnette and a block by Smith and Bosse cut the Hoyas' lead to 22-20, and then Walker collected three kills over the next four possessions in bringing the Wildcats to set point. ACU would win the set on the next rally, which ended on an attack error by Iva Vujosevic (8K, .067).
ACU's defense collected 59 digs and blocked 10 shots in holding Georgetown to a .169 hitting percentage.
ACU 3, Winthrop 2
The Wildcats returned to the O'Keefe Gym only a few hours later to face a solid Winthrop team that finished 2017 with an overall record of 18-14 and conference mark of 8-8. One of the Eagles' 18 wins was a 3-2 decision over the Southland Conference's Northwestern State.
The match started with Winthrop (0-1) winning the odd sets, and the Wildcats capturing the evens in setting up the decisive fifth set. And once there, ACU was pushed into an 11-7 hole after enduring a series of kills delivered by Emily Wunder (12K, .241), Sydney Gunter (7K, .231) and Jace Kleefner (11K, 1.58).
But the set and match soon began to spin in the Wildcats' favor after their timeout. The Eagles committed one of their 17 service errors to bring the ball back to ACU, and then a block from McNeil and Mueller combined with an ace from Lauren Walker trimmed their deficit to 11-10.
Winthrop once more pushed its lead out to two points at 12-10, but after that the Wildcats took off on a 5-1 run to seal the victory. ACU tied the match at 12-12 on kills from McNeil and Sandercox, and won it on their block that was the team's ninth of the match.
ACU hit .210 vs. the Eagles led by Smith, who hit .222 with 16 kills, and Mueller again had a fine match on both sides of the ball, scoring 13 kills and 16 digs.
Brown dug out 19 of the Eagles' 62 attacks in establishing a new career single-match high, and Bosse's 43 assists were accompanied by 16 digs.
