ACU (10-13, 5-6) dropped its fourth game in a row, losing to Utah Valley (8-14,5-6) in a sweep on Thursday night.
The Wildcats came into Thursday night’s matchup facing some recent struggles, having lost three straight including two sweeps. The Wolverines were coming in off of back to back 1-3 set losses.
In set one, the Wildcats would get down early and not be able to ever fully recover. After a 4-0 run and a 5-0 run, UVU would take a 16-7 lead before the Wildcats began to climb back. ACU would cut into the Wolverine lead and go on a 7-1 run which included three kills from junior outside hitter Bryley Steinhilber.
After ACU would cut it to three the Utah Valley would go on another short 4-0 run and the teams would exchange points the remainder of the set and UVU would take set one in a final of 25-18.
Set two would start off with both teams exchanging points with three of the Wildcats first ten points coming off kills from graduate student middle blocker Hannah Knier. With the score tied at 11, UVU began to pull away going on three separate 4-0 runs to take a 23-16 lead. The Wildcats would not go down without a fight however, as ACU would take seven of the next eight points to cut the lead within one. However, the Wolverines would secure the last point to take a 2 point match win at 25-23, and a 2-0 set lead.
The Wildcats faced a similar problem in set three as the previous two and would find themselves in a deficit too big to overcome. Three straight kills from sophomore outside hitter Ashli Edmiston would get the Wildcats within striking distance, but six straight points from Utah Valley would put the game out of reach. A late rally from the Wildcats got the score within two once again but could not close it out.
UVU would win set three 25-20 and take care of the Wildcats in a sweep.
The Wildcats led the Wolverines in kills, aces, assists and digs only trailing in the blocks category. Edmiston finished with 11 kills and Steinhilber finished with 10. Junior setter Madeline Guffy ended with 32 aces and redshirt junior outside hitter Andie Sheppard helped with 23 digs.
The Wildcats are back in action at 4 p.m. this Saturday when they head on the road to take on Seattle with the game streaming live on ESPN+.
