St. Edward's rallies past Wildcats, 3-2

Lady Hilltoppers snap Wildcats' five-match winning streak

AUSTIN -- St. Edward's rallied from a 2-0 deficit Tuesday night to beat ACU in five games in a key Southwest region volleyball match at the Recreation and Convocation Center on the St. Edward's campus.

St. Edward's improved to 23-8 with its 27-30, 26-30, 30-25, 30-20, 15-11 win over the Wildcats, who saw their record drop to 22-8 and its five-match winning streak snapped.  ACU will return to action this weekend with a key Lone Star Conference South Division road trip to West Texas A&M (Friday at 7 p.m.) and Eastern New Mexico (Saturday at 2 p.m.).

The Wildcats blistered the Lady Hilltoppers in the first two games, combining to hit .278 through those frames (.375 in the second game) with 32 kills and only seven errors on 90 attacks.  St. Edward's, meanwhile, hit a combined .158 in the first two games with 16 combined hitting errors.

The match turned, though, in the third game when St. Edward's it .213 to jut .106 for the Wildcats.  The Lady Hilltoppers then hit an incredible .417 in the fourth game, and it .154 hitting percentage was just enough in the decisive fifth game.

Sophomore outside hitter Michelle Bernhardt led the Wildcats in kills and digs with 19 and 23, respectively, while senior outside hitter Haylee Hartlin had 16 and sophomore middle blocker Amanda Slate added 11. 

Outside hitter Erika Figueiredo led the Lady Hilltoppers with 24 kills, while Leticia Campos had 21 kills.