The volleyball team was over-matched in the first two sets against Texas Woman’s University Tuesday night in Moody Coliseum.

The Wildcats lost those sets by scores of 25-6 and 25-16, but overcame their sluggish start with a rally in the third game.

Head coach Kellen Mock said the team was not prepared when they came out of the locker room.

“Texas Woman’s came ready to play and we were not quite ready to go,” she said. “In the second set we fought back a little bit. Haley Rhoads got in and changed up our offense which was good.”

“I think there is some hesitancy and definitely some inconsistency,” Mock said. “We’re struggling to connect setters to hitters. I don’t think there is a lack of focus. I think they’re allowing some pressure get to them.”

Senior Kalynne Allen said the team sometimes has trouble determining who should be getting the ball.

“Chemistry on the court is our thing right now,” she said. “We’re still figuring out how to unify ourselves on the court and trust each other.”

“We’re a talented group of girls,” Allen said. “If we can figure out how to bring all the best parts of our game and put it together at one time, we’ll be unstoppable. It’s nothing any team is doing to us, it’s just things we’re doing to ourselves, like unforced errors.”

There were seven ties and four lead changes in the third set, however the Pioneers mounted a late charge in which they scored four of the final five points to give them a three set victory, 25-6, 25-16, 27-25.

Mock was happy to see the ‘Cats adjust in the third set.

“To see them come back from how they played game one versus how they played game three was definitely a step in the right direction,” she said.

“We gave them a run for their money in the third,” Allen said. “If we had started a little bit earlier we would have taken that set easily.”

The Lone Star Conference loss dropped ACU’s record to 4-9 and 1-4 in the LSC and the squad remains winless at home (0-3). TWU improved to 11-3 and 5-1.

The ‘Cats trailed by as many as three points in the final set before they rallied to take a 23-22 advantage on a block by freshman Corrie Reeder.

The team then made a costly serving error and gave Texas Woman’s an opportunity to close out the match.

The Pioneers could not capitalize on their serve and the Wildcats held their final lead of the match, 24-23, after a clutch kill by Allen. She had six total kills for the match.

“We can’t hope a team is going to give us a point,” Mock said. “We have to go earn it. We’re struggling to earn points as opposed to being the recipient of given points.”

The ACU offense was led by Reeder and sophomore Sara Oxford. Both had seven kills apiece.

The team hits the road this weekend for a pair of matches at University of the Incarnate Word and Texas A&M University-Kingsville. The Incarnate Word match-up is at 7 p.m. on Friday while they play Kingsville at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

The ‘Cats were 2-0 against the Javelinas last season and 1-1 versus the Cardinals.