The Wildcats began the home portion of conference play this week with two victories to put the them at 3-1 in the Southland and 4-15 overall on the season.
ACU took on New Orleans on Thursday, winning by in four-sets. The Wildcats came out strong and was able to take the first set 25-22, but came out flat the next set as they lost 25-17. In the third set UNO seemed to carry over momentum from the second set into the third as the Cats were not able to get anything going early on. At one point ACU was down by 11 with the score at 19-8, but were able to get a quick four points to make it 19-12.
Just when it seemed that the set was about to be wrapped up with the score 21-16, the Cats got three straight blocks from Corinne Grandcolas, Jacey Smith, and Marybeth Sandercox. This proved to be the turning point for the Wildcats as they were able to make a comeback after several more blocks and bring the set into extra points as the Wildcats broke into the lead with the score reaching 25-24. The Wildcats would then win the set off an attack error from UNO, 26-24.
The women carried their momentum from the third into the fourth as they quickly jumped out to a 4-0 lead before the Privateers were able to tie the game at six all. The Wildcats would go on another run and finish UNO off by the score of 25-16, giving ACU the 3-1 win.
Smith finished with a game high 13.0 points for the Wildcats and also had nine kills and five blocks. Kendall Bosse had 12.0 points to compliment her 19 assists and eight digs. ACU finished the night with a hitting percentage of .207.
Saturday the Wildcats welcomed the Lions from Southeastern Louisiana to Moody Coliseum. The momentum from Thursday’s game was still in the building as ACU started off hot as they quickly won the first two sets 25-14 and 25-19 respectively.
The Lions were able to hit a .275 percentage in the third set to steal one away from the Wildcats with the score ending at 25-21 forcing the game to go into a fourth set. But the Wildcats would continue their play from earlier sets as they went on to win the fourth set 25-20 behind their .286 hitting percentage to give them the 3-1 victory against SELU.
Lauren Walker led the Wildcats offensively in the match with 11 kills along with six blocks. Makenzie Kesler had 13 assists, 10 kills, and 6 blocks on the night. Amanda Chapa ended the night with the game high 28 digs. ACU hit .168 on the night to SELU’s .084.
ACU will take its three-game winning streak to Lake Charles, La. next as they face off against McNeese St. on Thursday.
