ABILENE — The Wildcats are still undefeated inside Moody Coliseum after they were able to take down the Seattle U Redhawks, 3-2.
"We had another hard-fought win today," said head coach Ijeoma Moronu Alstrup. "That was a complete team effort. We saw different people on the court at different times of the matches and everybody contributed well. I can't say enough about the energy off of the court as well, it really gives us so much stability on the court and I'm so proud of our team to be able to provide our on-court players that feeling."
In their second-straight five-set match, ACU took the first set 26-24. The Redhawks took the following two sets, 25-21 and 25-22. With their backs against the wall, the Wildcats took the fourth and fifth set, 25-19 and 15-12.
The first set was tight down the stretch, with both teams knotted at 24-24. Then, sophomore Alexis Strong earned back-to-back kills to win the first set.
In the second and third sets, the Redhawks hit .241 and .206 percent respectively to help earn two set wins, giving them the visiting team a 2-1 lead.
With their backs against the wall in the fourth set, after going down 1-0, the 'Cats went on a 6-0 run and never looked back. ACU also finished the set hitting .250 percent to tie the match, 2-2.
The fifth set was also close, just like the rest of the match. ACU started on a 4-0 run, then Seattle U responded with a 4-1 run of their own to get within one. Then, with the score tied at 10-10, the 'Cats closed the match on a 5-2 run to take the win and improve their Western Athletic Conference play record to 2-2.
Despite Seattle U having a better hitting percentage at .216 to ACU's .194 percentage. The Redhawks also out blocked the Wildcats nine to six, but that was where the advantages ended for the Redhawks.
ACU finished the match with 69 kills to SU's 52 and finished the game with eight aces while the Redhawks only had four. The 'Cats also finished with 60 assists and 63 digs, while Seattle U finished the match with 48 assists and 56 digs.
Alexis Strong led all hitters with 23 kills all while hitting .235 percent. The 23 kills for Strong was also a career-high. Avery Thaler led ACU with her .353 hitting percentage while adding seven kills and leading the team with four blocks. Right behind Thaler was Izabelle Larson, hitting .333 with 11 kills. Bryley Steinhilber also added 12 kills.
Senior Madeline Guffy led the team with 33 assists while Rachel Koss also added 14. Libero Sara Carrizales led all players with 17 digs.
"Alexis had a fantastic match contributing a career-high amount of kills with a great hitting percentage," Moronu Alstrup said. "Both of our setters ran the offense efficiently and I am really proud of freshman Avery Thaler for a very strong offensive showing. Sara also played such a great game and was super stable for us service-wise. It was probably one of her best matches in that regard and was giving no quit."
Up next, the Wildcats head down I-20 to Stephenville on Thursday night for a 6 p.m. matchup against Tarleton State. Then, ACU returns home on Saturday for a 1 p.m. matchup against UT Arlington.
"We can't wait for another match at home next week versus UTA," said Moronu Alstrup, "but the next step will be in a match just down the road at Tarleton State, and we would love to see as many purple Wildcats there as possible."
Both matchups will stream live on ESPN+, but you can also follow the team and the match against the Texans by following the team on social media on Instagram, X, Facebook and acusports.com.
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