ABILENE— The Wildcats had 10 days off in preparation for their conference opener and it paid off. The well-rested Wildcats came into Thursday night with a new energy and gave UIW all they could handle. The first and third sets both went to extra points, ACU was able to dominate in set two, and it was the Wildcats who came away with the straight set sweep.
ACU got out to an early 5-1 leas in the first set, before the Cardinals were able to even the score. UIW would take the lead, and lead by as many as five points, before the Wildcats made their run to even the score once again, eventually winning in extra points. Set two was all ACU, with six of their 10 aces coming in that set. The Wildcats hit .381 in the set and tallied two blocks. The third set was a battle once again seeing 13 ties and six lead changes, but it was the Wildcats who once again came away with the extra points win.
Kennedy Shelstead led the way for ACU hitting .727 with nine kills and four block assists on the night.
Lindsey Toney totaled 11 kills on the night as well as six digs and two service aces.
Marybeth Sandercox also had nine kills in the match on a .529 hitting percentage and no errors.
Logan Browning led the Wildcats with nine digs.
Scoring Summary
Set 1: 26-24
Set 2: 25-13
Set 3: 27-25
Mooney Said It
Student Athlete Interview
News and Notes
- The Wildcats hit .326 as a team which is a program record for a match the D-I era.
- Shelstead's .727 hitting percentage was also a D-I era match record.
- As a team, ACU totaled 10 aces, which is the third-highest match total in the D-I era.
- The Wildcats have now won six of their last seven matches over the Cardinals, but this is their first sweep of UIW since 2012 when both schools were still D-II.
- Despite losing, UIW had more kills (42-39) and more digs (34-29) than ACU.
Up Next
The Wildcats will remain at home to host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Saturday at 1 p.m. The Islanders are currently 1-1 in Southland play.
