Box Score Season Stats
STEPHENVILLE - With a four-set victory Saturday, Tarleton (18-5, 11-2) guaranteed themselves a spot in the LSC Championship Tournament and has successfully defeated Abilene Christian (9-14, 5-8) twice in the same season for the first time since sweeping the season series in 1998.
Tarleton's conference record of 11-2 with seven games left to play, guarantees that the TexAnns will be competing in the LSC Championship Tournament for the third straight season and the sixth time under head coach Mary Schindler.
The TexAnns dominated the opening set before three straight hard-fought games delivered them their 18th victory of the season and the 11th in LSC play.
Danielle Barker got the TexAnns off to a strong start by serving up four straight points to begin the opening set, including an ace on the match's first serve.
After ACU cut the TexAnn lead to two at 11-9, Nikki McNorton landed a kill shot to start a 10-0 Tarleton run - over the course of two ACU timeouts - giving the TexAnns a lead of 21-9. Over that span, Tarleton landed four kills, benefitted from five Wildcat errors and saw another Barker ace - her second of the set.
Each side managed four more points each as the TexAnns jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the match with a 25-13 win.
Tarleton started strong in the second set with another quick lead, this time at 4-1.
The TexAnns surrendered their lead and trailed at 12-10 before an ACU error and a Stacie Murrah kill knotted the score at 12-12. The teams tied five more times before a Jazmine Green kill started the game-ending TexAnn run.
After Green's kill made it 18-17, Tarleton scored seven of the game's next 10 points - on the strength of two more Green kills, a McNorton kill, three ACU errors and a service ace by Emily Klein - to claim the second set 25-20.
In the third set, Tarleton nearly pulled off a miraculous comeback after trailing 17-5.
A kill by Murrah started a 17-6 TexAnn run, over which Tarleton saw big contributions from Green, McNorton, Murrah, Barker and Meg Umbel, but the Wildcats would not be denied as they scored two straight points to end the set. The 2-0 push to end it was the first two-point streak for ACU over the previous 17 points.
In the fourth and final set, Tarleton again started strong with an early 9-4 lead but ACU responded with a 7-1 run to take the lead at 11-9.
The ACU lead held until 14-13 before a kill by Murrah started a 6-1 Tarleton run to give the TexAnns a 17-14 lead.
ACU managed to bring the set back to a tie at 21-21, but kills by Green and McNorton and a pair of ACU errors gave Tarleton the win in the fourth set 25-22.
Katie Covell posted her team-leading 11th double-double of the season with 13 kills and 16 digs, while Danielle Barker posted 51 assists for Tarleton.
Murrah led the team in kills with 15 while McNorton added 12 and led the team in hitting percentage with .455. Green also had 10 kills. Klein led the team in digs with 23 while Kelsey Raglin added 15 of her own.
Tarleton will be back in action Tuesday night as they host Texas A&M-Kingsville at 7 p.m. in Wisdom Gym.
