LAKE CHARLES—For the second straight match, senior Rebecca Korenek sparked the McNeese volleyball offense to a win, tonight it was a straight set win (25-23, 25-23, 25-23) over Abilene Christian.
 
After recording a career high 16 kills in a win over UNO on Tuesday, Korenek led the Cowgirls again with 12 kills over the Wildcats (4-16, 3-2 SLC). Korenek ended the match with a .455 hitting percent on 22 attempts and two errors. Freshman Haley Schneider ended the match with a .500 hitting percent with five kills in 10 attempts.
 
McNeese (6-15, 2-4 SLC) were equally as good on defense tonight where three players recorded double figure kills and came up with huge digs to keep several rallies going. Senior Bridget Justis picked up 16 digs, junior Adison Giambrone was credited with 13 and freshman Keegan Nelms added 12.
 
"This feels really good," said head coach Ashleigh Fitzgerald. "We had some big serves at big moments, and we kept improving our level of play throughout the match. It was just a great team win and it is nice to have (Becca) Korenek spark us again offensively.
 
The match consisted of 41 ties and 19 lead changes and could have gone either way but the Cowgirls found ways to pull out the victory for its second straight win.
 
With the match tied at 23 in the opening set, Jenney D'Alessandro's kill gave the Cowgirls a 24-23 lead. A setting error by ACU gave the Cowgirls the first set win. D'Alessandro ended the match with nine kills and six blocks.
 
It was D'Alessandro's back-to-back kills in set two that gave the Cowgirls the 25-23 victory after the match was tied at 23 apiece.
 
The Cowgirls stumbled early in the third set to trail 7-4 but kills by Nelms and Katelyn Elliott brought McNeese to within one (7-6). McNeese tied the match at nine all on three straight ACU errors before Alexandra Aguilera served two straight aces for an 11-9 McNeese lead. An ACU attack error on the next play increased the Cowgirl lead to 12-9.
 
ACU would score the next six points to take a 15-12 lead and then held an 18-14 lead before McNeese made its comeback to tie the set.
 
McNeese went on a 5-1 run to tie the set at 19. During that span the Cowgirls picked up a block assists by Korenek and D'Alessandro and a solo block by D'Alessandro to tie the set.
 
A kill by Elliott gave McNeese a two-point lead (22-20) late in the match but ACU would cut the lead to 23-22 on a kill by Corinne Grandcolas. A solo block by Schneider put the Cowgirls up 24-22. The match ended on two service errors, one by each team with ACU serving into the net to give McNeese the 25-23 third set win and the overall match victory.