CANYON – The No. 18 Angelo State Belles and Abilene Christian Wildcats square off for the third time this season at 5 p.m. on Friday in the semifinals of the Lone Star Conference Volleyball Championship at the WTAMU Fieldhouse. 

Angelo State (29-4) and Abilene Christian (21-12) have split the first two matches, with both ending in five sets and the winning score being 15-13 in the final set. ASU advanced to the semifinals with a 3-0 win over Midwestern State on Thursday, while the Wildcats made a comeback in the fifth set to win 3-2 over Cameron University.

The ASU-ACU winner will play the winner of West Texas A&M and Tarleton State at 7 p.m. on Saturday in the championship match. Follow Friday's game at AngeloSports.com, search for us on Facebook, or find us at www.twitter.com/angelosports.com.


Here's A Quick Look Back At The First Two Contests


NOVEMBER 1, 2011
Abilene Christian wins, 25-23, 20-25, 25-23, 15-25, 15-13

Debbie Ohl had 17 kills along with Alex Woolsey's 55 assists for Angelo State, but it was not enough as the Belles dropped their match against Abilene Christian, 2-3 (23-25, 25-20, 23-25, 25-15, 13-15) in Abilene.

The Wildcats' Jennie Hutt had 21 kills to lead Abilene Christian and added nine digs and four blocks to her stat line. Haley Rhoads had 63 assists to pace the Wildcats offense.

Ohl and Woolsey added 10 and 19 digs for Angelo State, respectively.

Three other Belle players – Maddie Huth (15), Celeste Bonter (14) and Chelsea Gibson (12) – had double-digit kills for Angelo State. Freshman Shelby Wilt led with 23 digs – her ninth match of 20 or more digs this season – while Kaelen Valdez and Kayla Smith added 14 and 16 respectively. 


OCTOBER 18, 2011
Angelo State wins, 25-22, 22-25, 25-12, 24-26, 15-13

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 in San Angelo.

Angelo State and the Wildcats alternated winning sets before the Belles made their comeback in the first meeting of the season between the two schools.

“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 had seven kills and four digs against the Wildcats.