Cats Open WAC with Sweep of Seattle

ABILENE – Abilene Christian held off an early challenge and beat Seattle 3-0 in both teams' Western Athletic Conference volleyball opener on Thursday.
 
ACU got the home win, 26-24, 25-19, 25-19.
 
Seattle rallied from down 17-13 and forced the first set to extra volleys before ACU got a kill from Ashli Edmiston and a block from Chloe Karn and Braden Bossier to end the rebellion.
 
From there, the Wildcats relied on their big offensive show with a .295 hitting percentage for the match.
 
Karn and Edmiston had kills and Abby Christian added back-to-back aces in a 5-0 run that gave the Wildcats command in the second set, 22-13. ACU ended the set on a 3-1 run that included kills by Bossier and Bryley Steinhilber.
 
Edmiston, Steinhilber and Bossier had kills in a 5-0 run for a 22-13 lead in the third set. Hannah Gonzalez punctuated the victory with a thunderous kill for the win.
 
The Wildcats get the WAC-opening win after going 5-7 through a difficult non-conference schedule.
 
"I think that our competition during non-conference play helped us get tough on the court, not only physically but mentally," said ACU Head Coach Ijeoma Moronu Alstrup. "It's really exciting. The girls have been working really hard. I always tell them that they earn what they get and they earned this tonight."
 
ACU had 52 kills on the night, led by Steinhilber and Edmiston with 13 and Box with 10. Madeline Guffy had a busy night feeding the front line with 41 assists.
 
Defensively, the Cats got 11 digs from Steinhilber and 10 from Sara Carrizales. Bossier and Karn were in on two blocks each.
 
Arianna Bilby led SU with 11 kills.
 
Now 6-7 overall and 1-0 in the league, ACU hosts Utah Valley at 1 p.m. on Saturday. UVU lost in four sets at Tarleton State on Thursday.