By Michael Freeman, Assistant Sports Editor
The Wildcat volleyball team promptly downed the Texas A&M-Commerce Lions Thursday night in Moody Coliseum.
The Wildcats won in three straight games after only an hour and fourteen minutes of play. With the win, ACU improved its record to 10-11 overall and 5-2 in the Lone Star Conference, while Texas A&M-Commerce dropped to 8-15 and 2-6 in the conference.
“It was definitely a quicker match,” head coach Kellen Mock said. “We had great ball control, and we were able to showcase some of our offensive players. I think we did a pretty good job about 80 percent of the match.”
The 20 percent in which the Wildcats struggled came in the second game where ACU committed eight errors. But the errors didn’t slow down ACU as the Wildcats won 30-20, 30-19, 30-24.
“I think we did really well,” freshman middle blocker Shawna Hines said. “We had a lot of goals going into the game, and we just keyed in on those. We pulled together as a team, and had a lot of fun.”
Hines and sophomore middle blocker Krystine Cethoute led the Wildcats in kills. Hines finished with 13, while Cethoute posted 11 off an efficient .526 hitting percentage. Only one Texas A&M-Commerce player ended the match with double-digit kills.
“I think our defense might have struggled a little bit,” Mock said. “But we played just as good offensively as we’ve played all year.”
The Wildcats finished with 48 kills to only 10 errors. Sophomore outside hitter Erin Curry ended the match third in kills with eight and also recorded nine digs. Sophomore defensive specialist Amy Wilson finished with the most digs for ACU with 17. And freshman setter Ijeoma Moronu posted 38 assists for the Wildcats.
“I just really feel like all of our offensive players wanted the ball tonight,” Mock said. “And they got themselves back on track and ready to go for this weekend.”
ACU’s next match is this Saturday against Texas Woman’s in Moody at 7 p.m. The Wildcats will be looking for revenge. Texas Woman’s beat ACU 33-31, 30-24, 30-22 in last year’s
Lone Star Conference Post-Season Tournament. This year, Texas Woman’s is 14-8 overall with a 5-3 conference record.
“There’s a lot of competition going into that game. We’re going to play our hearts out,” Hines said. “We’re going to win.”
