Wildcats fall to Cameron, 3-2

ACU bumped from tournament in quarterfinal round

CANYON -- ACU's dream of winning its first Lone Star Conference volleyball championship will have to have wait for at least one more season after the Wildcats were knocked out of the LSC Post-Season Tournament in Thursday night's quarterfinal match against Cameron.

Cameron rallied from a 2-1 deficit o beat ACU 30-16, 29-31, 28-30, 30-26, 15-10, and will play Central Oklahoma at 5 p.m. Friday in the semifinals.  Texas Woman's beat Eastern New Mexico 3-1 in Thursday's other quarterfinal match, and will play LSC South Division champion and tournament host West Texas A&M at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the second semifinal.

ACU could not overcome its worst hitting match of the season in the loss.  The Wildcats hit just .115 in the match with 45 hitting errors (69 kills) in 209 total attacks.  The Wildcats, though, did manage to rally from a 1-0 deficit to win the second and third games to pull to within one game from winning the match.

But Cameron won the fourth game to get the match tied and then won the fifth game to pull the match out and advance to the semifinals.

Sophomore outside hitter Michelle Bernhardt led the Wildcats with 24 kills, while senior outside hiter Haylee Hartline had 15 kills and sophomore middle blocker Amanda Slate had 15 kills and seven blocks. Bernhardt finishes the season with 623 kills, the second-best single-season total in school history.