But the nationally ranked Wildcats had enough gas in their tank to beat West Texas A&M in five games to clinch their second straight Lone Star Conference South Division and the right to host the LSC Post-Season Tournament.  The tournament will be played next week, Nov. 10-12, at ACU's Moody Coliseum with the championship match set for Saturday, Nov. 12, at 7 p.m.

The No. 11 Wildcats -- who won their 26th straight match to improve to 26-3 overall and 9-0 in the LSC South Division -- trailed 2-1 after losing 30-20 in the second game.  But the Wildcats bounced with a 30-20 win in the fourth game, and then jumped on top quickly in the fifth game (8-3) en route to a 15-9 win in the decisive fifth game.

The victory puts ACU two games in front of the Lady Buffs (7-2 in the LSC) with only one match to play for each team, giving the Wildcats the division title.  ACU -- ranked No. 3 in the NCAA Division II Southwest Region and a virtual lock to make its second straight appearance in the regional tournament -- will close out the regular season Saturday in Portales, N.M., against the Eastern New Mexico Zias.

"It was really a roller-coaster match," ACU head coach Brek Horn said.  "One team would play really well for a while, and then the roles would reverse for a while.  We got behind 2-1 in games, but we played well in the fourth game, and then played really well in the fifth game.

"It wasn't easy (tonight), but that's good," she said.  "They had the home crowd and all that goes with that, but we kept fighting and kept fighting and we finally got what we came here to get (division title).  I wouldn't doubt, thought, that we'll see them down the road somewhere."

The teams split the first two games with the Lady Buffs (25-8 overall) winning the first game, 30-26, before ACU bounced back with a 30-17 in the second game.  But the Lady Buffs won the third game, 30-20, putting the Wildcats behind 2-1 in games for the first time since a five-game win over Central Missouri State on Sept. 3.

But ACU responded in the fourth game, jumping out to a 6-1 lead that eventually grew to 16-8 on one of Michelle Bernhardt's 20 kills.  The Lady Buffs rallied, though, pulling to within 21-15 on an attack error by ACU sophomore Abbie Lowry.

But ACU went on another run, outscoring the Lady Buffs 7-2 with Bernhardt picking up another kill to make it 28-17.  Megan Spivey was charged with a ballhandling error on the final point of the game to give the Wildcats the victory, evening the match at two games apiece.

The Wildcats took control early in the decisive fifth game as Amanda Slate and Lowry combined for three kills on ACU's first four points as it jumped out to a 4-1 lead.  The lead grew to 11-4 on a service ace by Malia Plumlee and a kill by Bernhardt.  The Lady Buffs rallied to within 12-9 before ACU called timeout to re-group.

The timeout worked as the Wildcats finished off the match on a kill by Bernhardt and back-to-back attack errors by Rachel Altman and Kolby Rhoades.

Bernhardt had a match-high 20 kills to go along with 21 digs, while Slate and Lowry each had 14 kills.  Lindsey Martin had 49 assists and a team-best 22 digs in the match, while Liz Snoddy had 21 digs.