Wildcats split South Division matches

ACU beats Eastern New Mexico before falling to West Texas A&M

ABILENE -- The ACU Wildcats split their Lone Star Conference South Division-opening matches over the weekend, beating Eastern New Mexico on Friday before falling to West Texas A&M in four games on Saturday.

The split of the two matches leaves ACU at 17-7 overall and 1-1 in the LSC South Division.  ACU handled the Zias with relative ease on Friday, winning in three games, 30-17, 30-24, 30-16.  The only negative in the match against the Zias came when sophomore setter Lindsey Martin rolled her right ankle midway through the third game and was forced out of the match.

She missed the next day's match against the Lady Buffs, although her absence didn't hurt the Wildcats that much in a 30-27, 30-28, 26-30, 30-27 loss to the Lady Buffs, who had their NCAA Division II record 77-match winning streak over conference opponents snapped Friday night at Angelo State.

Freshman Malia Plumlee stepped in for Martin and played well, posting 64 assists and 21 digs.  Senior Haylee Hartline and sophomore Michelle Bernhardt each had 23 kills against West Texas A&M, while freshman Ambra Clark had 23 for the Lady Buffs, who have now won 21 straight matches over ACU dating back to October 1993.

ACU hurt itself, however, with 12 service errors compared to just three by the Lady Buffs.  The Wildcats led the fourth game 26-24 before West Texas A&M rallied to score six of the last seven points of the game to win the match.

ACU will return to action Tuesday at 7 p.m. when it hosts Angelo State in an LSC South Division match at Moody Coliseum.  The Wildcats will then hit the road later in the week to play at Texas A&M-Kingsville (Thursday at 7 p.m.) and at Tarleton State (Saturday at 2 p.m.).