The volleyball team was bested by two Lone Star Conference opponents in their first home games of the season.
The Wildcats could not claim a set over the weekend. They were defeated by Tarleton State University on Friday, 3-0 (26-24, 25-19, 25-22) and lost to No. 11 Angelo State University, 3-0 (25-13, 25-13, 25-17) on Saturday.
The two losses drop ACU’s record to 4-8 overall and 1-3 in the LSC.
The match versus the TexAnns was the closest of the two contests. Tarleton out-blocked the ‘Cats 11-3.
Head coach Kellen Mock said the team could not stop one player in particular.
“Tarleton has a player that we have a hard time dealing with Nikki McNorton,” she said. “She was a big difference maker in that game.”
“They’re a good blocking team,” Mock said. “But we gave them some opportunities to block us rather than letting them earn it.”
Freshman Corrie Reeder said the team lost its focus throughout the match.
“We weren’t seeing the open shots,” she said.
Sophomore Sara Oxford and Reeder were the scoring leaders among the team. Oxford had 17.5 points against TSU while Reeder recorded 10.5 points.
Oxford also led in kills with 16 total. Reeder smashed nine kills of her own and assisted in three blocks.
ACU and Tarleton were tied 13 times and had nine lead-changes in set one alone. When the score was knotted at 24-24 in the first set, the Wildcats made two costly ball-handling errors that gave the TexAnns a 1-0 lead.
“That was a pretty big blow mentally to the team,” Mock said.
TSU had a commanding 11-6 lead in the second set, however the ‘Cats racked off six of the next seven points to tie the score at 12-12.
Senior leader Kalynne Allen had two points during this stretch and was the server during the final three points.
The TexAnns took control of the second game when they put together seven consecutive points after the game was tied 16-16.
The Wildcats held the lead for much of the third set, but Tarleton had a late 8-5 run that put a damper on the match for ACU.
Angelo State played dominate volleyball in Moody Coliseum on Saturday. They hit .460 as a team and had four players score in double digits. The Rambelles’ are undefeated in LSC play at 4-0.
“Angelo is able to take away everything you like to do,” Mock said. “They force you to play uncomfortable.”
Allen whacked seven kills in the match and tied with freshman Jennie Loerch for the team lead in points (8.0).
Freshman libero Madison Hoover recorded 12 digs. Setter Sarah Siemens had all but two of ACU’s 25 assists.
The ‘Cats are having to deal with the injury bug early in the season. Juniors Neely Borger and Madelyn Robinett and sophomore Haley Rhoads have missed games due to various injuries.
“That’s put a lot of mental stress on us,” Reeder said. “I think it’s made us a lot stronger as a team though. It’s stressed us in ways that we wouldn’t normally be stressed.”
