BOX SCORE
SAN ANGELO – Down 13-11 in the fifth set, the No. 17 ranked Angelo State Belles rallied for four straight points to take a 3-2 Lone Star Conference win over Abilene Christian on Tuesday at Stephens Arena.
Angelo State (23-2, 12-1 LSC) and the Wildcats (13-11, 7-5 LSC) alternated winning sets (25-22, 22-25, 25-12, 24-26, 15-13) before the Belles made their comeback in the first meeting of the season between the two schools. ASU will travel to Abilene to play the Wildcats on Nov. 1, in its final regular-season road match.
“The game was more stressful than it needed to be,” ASU freshman
Shelby Wilt said. “We were really up and down with too many mistakes throughout. The fact that we were able to pull it out is a great thing and says something about our team. Every team wants to beat us and is going to play their best against us. We have to be ready all the time and be able to win like we did tonight.”
Kaelen Valdez led the Belles with 20 kills and 21 digs, while
Chelsea Gibson added 17 kills and
Maddie Huth 11.
Alex Woolsey, who was named the LSC's Setter of the Week for the fifth time this season on Tuesday, added 46 assists and 13 digs in the win.
Celeste Bonter, who was also honored on Tuesday as the conference's Offensive Player of the Week, had seven kills and four digs against the Wildcats.
The five-set match was only the fourth time overall and second time at home this season the Belles were forced to five, with the only other LSC match being against West Texas A&M in their only conference loss of the season. The victory, which equals the most wins by an Angelo State team since a 23-9 record in 2004, takes the Belles' winning streak to five games going into a pair of home contests at 7 p.m. on Thursday against Texas Woman's and a 2 p.m. match against Texas A&M-Commerce on Saturday. It also takes their home record to 8-1 on the season.
“It was a big win for us,” ASU head coach
Chuck Waddington said. “You want your team to be in tough situations like that sometimes, but you also always want them to win them too. We have to know as a team that when we are down, that we have the strength and ability to come back and win. We are showing that this year.”
Sara Oxford and Jennie Hutt led ACU with 16 and 15 kills, respectively, while Haley Rhoades accumulated 51 assists in the five-set match. The ACU loss stopped a three-game winning streak for the Wildcats.
Additional Player and Coaches Quotes
ASU head coach Chuck Waddington
On the Belles' winning 3-2 on Tuesday against Abilene Christian at Stephens Arena:
We needed this win. We were coming off a good week, but have three matches this week. For us to keep our goals where they are at, we have to win. You always want to win in front of your fans. They were loud when we needed them to be loud tonight.
On being pushed to five-sets by Abilene Christian:
I don't think we played too well, but give them credit. They fought and scrapped to put us in tough situations. I said in our practice and at our press conference that any time you play Abilene Christian, it doesn't matter what our record is or what their record is. It's going to be a fight every time.
Celeste Bonter: Senior from Madoc, Ontario
On the Belles' 3-2 win over Abilene Christian where they rallied with four-straight points in the final sets:
We have been good at coming back, but we shouldn't be putting ourselves in that position. It shows that we have a lot of fight to come back and win the games that some teams wind up losing.
