ABILENE, TEXAS – The University of Incarnate Word volleyball team dropped their match against Southland Conference rival Abilene Christian on Tuesday night 23-25, 25-18, 29-27, 28-26.
           
The Cardinals (3-10, 1-3) won the first set 25-23 and overcame four attacking errors to start out the match.  Autumn Lockley (Leander/Leander HS) led the team to the set victory and she had nine kills in the first set alone.  The turning point in the set occurred after Bryaunea Hall (Copperas Cove/Copperas Cove HS) tied the match at 22-22 with a kill and Lockley was able to finish off the set with back-to-back kills and then a block to give the Cardinals the early advantage. 
           
The second set started off promising for the Cardinals as they jumped out to an early 8-3 lead, but the Wildcats would respond with several runs and help from four attacking errors from the Cardinals.  A kill by Angelique Vidaurri (San Antonio/Southwest HS) closed the Wildcat lead to 22-18, but that was as close as UIW would get and Abilene Christian closed out the set with three straight points to win 25-18.
           
The third and fourth sets were extremely close and both had to go into extra points.  In the third set, the Cardinals took a 27-26 lead after a service ace from Taylor McClelland (Cypress/Cypress Ranch HS), but the Wildcats put together three straight points, including a pair of aces, to win the third set, 29-27 and take a 2-1 lead in the match.
The fourth set was another close one after the Cardinals negated an early Wildcat lead.  After a kill by Lockley to tie the set at 26-26, the Wildcats responded with a side out and then won the match with an ace.
           
Lockley was the star for the Cardinals for the third straight match.  She had a career high 23 kills and a hitting percentage .390.  She now has 63 kills in the last three matches for UIW. Shaina Garza collected a double-double with 13 kills and 12 digs. Vidaurri had 11 kills and a hitting percentage of .280.  McClelland and Kaitlyn Brooks (Sugar Land/Fort Bend Austin HS) led the team with 21 and 20 assists, respectively while Claudia Hernandez (San Antonio/Antonian HS) had 17 digs.

The Cardinals as a team had 63 kills and 31 errors for the match which resulted in a .213 hitting percentage.  Defensively, the Cardinals had 55 digs and 14 blocks.  Unfortunately, UIW as outscored by 13 points in the service game as they had six fewer aces and seven more service errors than the Wildcats.

The Wildcats had 51 kills, 47 digs and a .213 attack.  Jennifer Loerch led the team with 16 kills while Lauren Walker had 10 kills and a .474 attack.  Sarah Siemens had a double-double with 41 assists and 11 digs.

The Cardinals return home on Thursday night for a 7 p.m. match against Southland Conference rival Sam Houston State.
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