CEDAR CITY, Utah - The Southern Utah University women's volleyball team capped off the weekend with another conference victory, securing a win over the Abilene Christian Wildcats in three sets. The Thunderbirds improve to 6-7 on the season and 2-0 in Western Athletic Conference competition, while the Wildcats fall to 5-8 and 0-2 in WAC play.
Head Coach Kacey Nady Said:
"We attacked and held steady from 0-0 until the end of the match. We did a great job staying the course and executing simply on contacts. It took the whole team, and I'm very proud of our attacking mindset, especially when it's needed versus a passionate team that made us earn each point. So proud!"
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Match Recap
The Wildcats started the first strong, scoring four of the first five points and riding that momentum into the media timeout up 15-12. Coming out of the break, the Thunderbirds used a balanced attack from Carissa Richie, Andrea Spasojevic, and Victoria Zibbechi to see the frame tied at 21. After two quick points from ACU, Southern Utah responded with two points of their own to notch the set once again. Another kill from the Wildcats put them on the brink, 24-23, but SUU went on the attack once again, scoring the game's final three points capped off by a kill from Finley Charapata that gave them the win 26-24.
Set number two started similarly to the first, with Abilene Christian holding a 15-11 lead at the halfway mark. As the Thunderbirds capitalized on a 3-0 run to put them within a point, the team flipped the script, cashing in on a 4-0 run led by the service of Molly McDermott and another 4-0 run with Teniyah Leuluai's serve leading the charge to put Southern Utah up 24-21. After a Wildcat point put them within two, another kill from Charapata iced the set 25-22 and put her team up 2-0.
In the third, the 'Birds came out firing, capitalizing on six straight points to go up 8-2 early. As the storm weathered, ACU began to crawl back into the game to end up down only one with the score reading 17-16 for SUU. A 3-0 scoring run from the Thunderbirds put them up four, but the Wildcats refused to go away, taking advantage of errors from their opponent to be down only two, 23-21, late. After a Carissa Richie kill and two more points from ACU, Charapata secured the set once again 25-23 to give Southern Utah their second consecutive sweep.
Up Next
The Thunderbirds will continue conference play as they hit the road to take on the Mavericks of the University of Texas Arlington. The match is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 3 at 5 p.m. MT.
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