ABILENE – Stopping the Moody Coliseum's curse took less than hour for the Angelo State volleyball team on Saturday.
The No. 11 Belles (11-2, 4-0 Lone Star Conference) made quick work of Abilene Christian, winning 3-0 (25-13, 25-13, 25-17) and in the process stopped a 12-match losing streak to the Wildcats (4-8, 1-3 LSC) in Abilene that dated back to 1998. ASU has now won six straight matches and have won 18 consecutive sets.
“We did a tremendous job of maintaining our composure and not letting them going on any runs,” said ASU head coach
Chuck Waddington, who earned his career's 100th win in the victory. “They are a talented team but we were steady and didn't let them score. We defended really well and gave them a lot of trouble.”
Shelbi Goode led Angelo State with 14 kills and nine digs, while
Kaelen Valdez added 12 kills and
Maddie Huth and
Chelsea Gibson each had nine.
Alex Woolsey finished with 34 assists and seven digs, with Huth leading the way with four blocks and a .615 hitting percentage.
“Our team chemistry was better than it's been all season today and we did a great job of executing everything that we work on in practice,” said Valdez, who was celebrating her birthday along with the win. “We focused on our side of the court and had an awesome block the entire match.”
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box score
The Belles outhit the Wildcats .460 to .071 in the match and had 10 blocks to ACU's three.
Goode now has 166 kills on the season, while Gibson is at 102 after Saturday's match. Woolsey is now at 4,145 assists in her career and continues to hunt Amber Nelson's career record of 4,786 which was set in 2004.
Angelo State returns to action at 7 p.m. on Tuesday when it will host Texas A&M-Kingsville before traveling to play at Eastern New Mexico on Friday and at No. 6 West Texas A&M on Saturday, Sept. 29.
Additional Quotes
Chuck Waddington (100-48, fifth season at ASU)
On snapping a 12-match losing streak to ACU at the Moody Coliseum:
It wasn't the only motivation going into the match, but it was important to us. Our seniors should take pride in the win and being able to come in here and stay focused on what we needed to do to win the match.
On reaching win No. 100 in his career with the victory on Saturday over ACU:
It's really cool and the girls congratulated me on it. They did the work for it though and it's a testament to them. They are the reason why we are winning. I'm proud of them for it.
