LAKE CHARLES—In what was a hard fought defensive match, the McNeese volleyball team fell 3-1 to Abilene Christian Thursday night in a Southland Conference match. McNeese will host Incarnate Word at 12:30 p.m. Saturday.
In a losing cause, McNeese had four players record 10 or more digs with
Bridget Justis leading all players with 25 digs.
Kelly Graham picked up 13,
Malina Sanchez had 12 while
Adison Giambrone and
Hailee Showers both picked up 10 apiece. Sanchez was the only Cowgirl to record double figure kills, ending the match with 16 and Graham dished out 41 assists.
Abilene Christian relied on Jennifer Loerch and Kendall Bosse for their offense. Loerch lead all players with 17 kills and Bosse put down 15. Setter Sarah Siemens was credited with 51 assists. Madison Hoover led the Wildcats with 20 digs.
After a kill by Sanchez that gave the Cowgirls a 3-2 in the opening set,
Kelly Graham served for four straight points to extend the lea to 6-3. The Cowgirls pushed the lead to 8-4 but ACU's Lillian Drever served for four straight points to tie the set at eight apiece. The set would get tied two more times before ACU would take the lead for good and eventually took its largest lead of the set 19-15 on a Bosse kill. McNeese would come back to cut the lead to 20-19 on a kill by
Rae Myers and an ACU error. ACU would once again extend their lead to 23-19 but back-to-back errors brought McNeese back to within two points 23-21. ACU would go up by three points (24-21) on a Lexi Mercier kill. Two more ACU errors cut the lead to 24-23 before Loerch gave ACU the first set 25-23 win with a kill.
Abilene Christian took a 2-0 overall lead with a 27-25 second set win that could have gone either way. With the set tied at 23 all,
Monica Hudgins' kill gave the Cowgirls a 24-23 lead. After an ACU timeout, the Wildcats tied the set on a blocking error. The Cowgirls regained the lead at 25-24 on a monster kill by
Rebecca Korenek. The lead didn't last long as Bosse put down another kill for a 25-25 tie. ACU took a 26-25 lead on a Jacey Smith kill. Following a McNeese timeout, Smith ended the set with another kill for the ACU win.
Following the break, McNeese avoided the straight set sweep with a 25-18 third set win. Like the other two sets, this one went back and forth as well until McNeese took the lead for good at 17-16 on an ACU service error. McNeese extended its lead to 23-17 before closing out the set on a Korenek kill for the 25-17 win.
The fourth set didn't disappoint the fans as both teams battled it out until the end. Trailing 22-16, McNeese fought back to cut the ACU lead to 22-21 but allowed ACU to score three of the final four points of the set to take the match.
The loss drops McNeese to 11-17 overall and 6-7 in conference play. ACU improved to 8-18 overall and 8-5 in the SLC despite being ineligible for postseason play.
