Photo GalleryHOUSTON – The HBU volleyball team used a collective effort to rally and defeat Abilene Christian 3-2 (21-25, 25-21, 25-19, 24-26, 15-13) on Thursday night inside Sharp Gym.
Junior outside hitter
Jessica Wooten led the Huskies (10-11, 3-4 SLC), recording a dominating performance on both sides of the net. The native of Humble, Texas, posted her ninth double-double of the year behind a season-best 22 kills and 15 digs. Wooten's 22-kill effort
against the Wildcats (4-16, 4-3 SLC) puts her at a 951 total for her career, moving past Janice Lee (1997-2000) for 10th all-time at HBU.
Junior setter
Kayla Armer captained the Huskies' offense, amassing 47 assists while adding six kills. Armer also impacted the match on defense, finishing with eight digs and tying her career-high with six blocks.
Junior libero
Melissa Fuchs anchored the back row with a career-high 26 digs, while sophomore outside hitter
Bailey Banks recorded 10 digs and seven kills.
Senior
Allison Doerpinghaus was a devastating presence in front of the net, registering a season-high nine blocks along with eight kills, as HBU tied its season-high with 14 total blocks as a team.
The Huskies struggled to contain ACU in the opening set, as the Wildcats never trailed and outhit HBU .371-.152 in taking a 25-21 victory.
The Huskies then quickly found themselves down 12-4 in the second set, before Doerpinghaus sparked a rally with three consecutive kills. HBU went on a 10-2 run to even the match 14-14 on a service ace from Armer. Tied 16-16, a pair of tandem blocks from junior middle blocker
Ashlee Vann and Doerpinghaus, and Banks and Doerpinghaus gave the Huskies the edge as they went on to win 25-21 and enter the break tied at one match apiece.
The Wildcats started quickly in the third set, jumping out to a 6-0 lead before HBU went on a 7-1 surge to even the match at seven-all. The two teams continued to trade points until Banks slammed home a kill to give the Huskies the edge, 11-10, and immediately followed with a service ace to go up by two points. HBU built up to a six-point advantage in taking the set 25-19.
The back-and-forth affair continued in the fourth set as both teams pulled even on 16 occasions and traded the lead a total of five times up until the very end with ACU claiming a 26-24 edge to force a fifth and deciding set.
In the winner-take-all set, the Wildcats were on top early, holding an 8-3 advantage when the teams traded sides. However, the Huskies battled back to even the set at 12-all and got a pair of kills from Wooten down the stretch to take the match in a 15-13 edging.
HBU will be back in action on Saturday, hosting Incarnate Word in a 1 p.m. first serve.
Postgame Quotes
Head Coach Trent Herman
Overview of match… "Tonight was a full team effort. Our bench was awesome. The kids on the court never stopped fighting through a lot of adversity. They just didn't let it end. It was unbelievable."
On Jessica Wooten's performance…"Jessica is a returning all-conference player. She's had a target on her back from ever team we've played all year to try and stop her. The challenge for her has been to figure out a different way to be successful. It has been an all-season kind of thing for her, but tonight, like her last couple of matches, she's started to go. I can't be happier for her."
On Melissa Fuchs at libero…"Melissa is a doing a tremendous job. She is actually one of our outside hitters. However, within the last couple of matches,
Hailey Erickson, our normal starting libero went down with injury and we had to sit her out against Stephen F. Austin (Oct. 10). We put Melissa in the libero jersey for the match and she came in and was a natural at it, so we rolled with her again tonight. She has done a tremendous job these last two matches.
"She is another one I couldn't be happier for. She puts in a lot of effort and is playing very well for us."
On Saturday's match with Incarnate Word…"This was a match that took a lot out of us. A lot of emotion. A lot of energy. It will be important for us to stay focused and finish out the weekend against a much-improved Incarnate Word team on Saturday."
Junior Outside Hitter Jessica Wooten
On the crowd… "I think the crowd had a big part in tonight. Having them going certainly kept us going. We played as a team. Everybody was cheering for each other. It was just really great tonight."
