SAN ANTONIO—The Wildcats traveled to face UIW on Thursday night looking for a season sweep after ACU beat the Cardinals 3-0 in their conference opener in Abilene. UIW was able to use their home court advantage and come away with a five-set win.
Much like in their first meeting, the teams played close matches including the first two sets going to extra points. UIW earned the win in set one with ACU answering in the second set. The third set saw the Wildcats blocking come to life at the totaled six of their 17 blocks in that set alone, coming away with a 25-17 win. Set four went in favor of the Cardinals as they hit .432 and held the Wildcats to 16 points. Set five looked to be in favor of the Wildcats as they took an early lead by as many as seven points, but UIW closed the match with an 11-2 run to earn the set five win.
Lindsey Toney had one of her best performances of the season totaling 17 kills, eight digs, and four block assists.
Marybeth Sandercox had another solid match for the Wildcats putting down 15 kills on a .467 hitting percentage, as well as totaling six block assists and six digs.
Mackenzie Harris totaled 24 digs on the night including 10 digs in the second set alone.
Scoring Summary
Set 1: 24-26
Set 2: 26-24
Set 3: 25-17
Set 4: 16-25
Set 5: 15-13
Mooney Said It
On Toney's solid performance: "Lindsay had a great week of practice, she took the confidence she gained through the successful reps she had in practices and it really showed. Her serve was aggressive tonight and it was a solid night for her all around. It was great to see her play at such a high level. She has such a high ceiling and we are looking forward to seeing more of what we saw tonight from her in the future."
On ACU's strong defensive effort: "We had some big blocks at big times during the match. We were able to get in and out blocking schemes and the girls did a great job of making adjustments at the net throughout the match. Though we did touch and block a lot of balls at the net, our team was also very effective in the back court as well.
Mackenzie Harris has a really good night defensively with 24 digs."
On Sandercox's efficient night: "It was good to see Marybeth get going again offensively. We weren't able to be as successful offensively as we have been in recent matches in the middle so having Marybeth hit over .400 really kept us in the match."
On adjustments the team needs to make to find success against Corpus: "We missed serves at critical times and in the end, UIW was more aggressive than us. Corpus is a solid team who has found some success within conference play. It will be a tough challenge but we are looking forward to another opportunity to compete, learn and improve."
News and Notes
- Lorin McNeil had a team and season-high of 11 block assists in the match.
- Madison Rohre tallied her second straight double-double with 28 assists and 13 digs.
- The Wildcats had three different players reach double digit kills, as well as three different players reach double-digit digs.
- The 17 total blocks for the Wildcats was the fourth most blocks in a 5-set match in the DI-era.
Up Next
The Wildcats will continue their road trip this weekend when they face Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Saturday at 1 p.m.
