ABILENE – Outside hitters
Katelyn Mueller and
Jacey Smith each posted a double-double, setter
Kendall Bosse tossed up 48 assists, and defensive specialist
Mikai Brown set a career high with four aces in the Wildcats' 3-1 win over McNeese Saturday at Moody Coliseum.
The Wildcats won by scores of 25-17, 25-18, 20-25 and 25-18 in improving to 5-9 overall and 2-0 vs. the Southland Conference, while McNeese slipped to 1-15 and 0-2.
"We controlled the tempo and style of play in sets one and two, executing the way we wanted to and doing a great job of scoring on the serve," said head coach Angela Mooney. "We had a bit of a breakdown in set three but I'm proud of the comeback we made in set four. We refocused and took control toward the end."
The Wildcats broke a 10-10 tie in the final set with a 4-0 run that forced the Cowgirls into a timeout, getting two kills from Mueller, one from Smith and an ace from Bosse that was one of eight for the home team.
ACU pushed its lead to six points on consecutive McNeese errors and reached 20 points on a kill from Lauren Walker (6K, 8.5 points). Another Cowgirl miscue brought the Wildcats to match point and then Mueller won it with her 20th kill – a career single-match high that bested her previous high of 19 set against Idaho State in late August.
The Wildcats also made late runs vs. McNeese in sets one and two. They finished the first set on a 12-5 run after the Cowgirls' reduced ACU' deficit to 13-12, and in set two they used a 10-5 boost to pad their advantage to 22-15. ACU's defense also limited the Cowgirls to a .029 hitting percentage during that second set, as the visitors seven kills were negated by six attacking errors.
In set three, however, it was McNeese that posted a game-changing run, which gave the Cowgirls a nine-point lead at 24-15. The Wildcats made things interesting with a 5-0 run that cut McNeese's lead to 24-20, getting points from Brown (ace), Mueller (kill), Smith (block) and Walker (block and kill), but Allison Lippert eventually finished matters with one of her five kills.
In the end, though, the momentum ACU began to build at the end of set three carried over into the fourth set as the Wildcats jumped out to several early leads before taking off on their match-deciding run.
"We played more crisp Thursday," said Mooney. "Today we had to be tougher and grit it out. McNeese gave us more pushback but we responded well to the challenge … if we continue to learn from each match and the challenging situations they present, we'll be right where we need to be in November."
ACU hit .206 during its first conference homestand of the season with per set averages of 12.9 kills, 1.9 aces, 15.3 digs and 1.8 blocks. Mueller was the team's leading scorer with 29.5 points, a total composed of 28 kills (4.0 k/s), an ace and block assist in addition to 19 digs (2.7 dig/s).
Mueller today hit .362 on 47 attempts while digging out 12 attacks, while Smith provided a 12 kill / 20 dig double-double. Smith's 20 digs were a single-match best and her career kill total stands only two shy of 1,000.
Senior libero Lillian Drever was right behind Smith with 19 digs, and the team's leading blocker was Walker with five. Walker averaged a block per set this week vs. McNeese and Lamar.
The Wildcats return to action Saturday, Sept. 29 for a 2 p.m. match at Incarnate Word.
