In the midst of a lackluster showing during a pivotal conference clash, the Amarillo College Badgers’ calling card surfaced with the season trajectory in the balance.
Amarillo College overcame a slow start and first set loss against Midland College at home on Sept. 24 behind a pair of season-best performances by freshmen Delany Galligan and London Baker.
Galligan put down a season-high 18 kills with a .325 hitting percentage and Baker dished out a career-best 38 assists during the five-set victory (23-25, 25-22, 25-15, 23-25, 15-13) for AC at the FirstBank Southwest Center.
“That tells me that even though it was an adverse night, the girls continued to battle and it’ll be that way in this conference,” AC head coach Scott Sandel said. “It’s early, but it helps momentum wise going into the rest of our conference matches.”
Baker’s 38 assists tied her for the second-highest assist total in a single match in team history.
Galligan notched her 14th match with a double digit kill total against the Chaps and her 15th outing with a hitting percentage over .300.
After a first set defeat, AC responded, as they have done time and time again throughout their record-setting campaign.
The Badgers nearly hit a .300 percentage as a unit in the second set against the Chaps, led by Jaelynn Jackson’s staggering .833 clip (five kills on six swings), en route to a 25-22 victory to tie the match at one set apiece.
AC seemingly gained full control of Wednesday’s match with a 25-15 third set win. The Badgers’ back row was spotless in the serve receive department during the frame, as four AC serve receivers combined for zero errors on 15 attempts.
Libero McCall Sims recorded a perfect 3 passer rating in the third set with a pair of 3-passes on her two serve receive attempts.
After dropping another hard-fought set in the fourth frame (25-23), AC displayed its offensive versatility in the match-deciding frame.
The Badgers had six players tally at least one kill, including three kills by Galligan and two by Franklin.
Emery Bryan, Yung NG, Sam Cardona, and Jackson had one kill apiece during the fifth frame.
AC took a commanding 9-5 lead in set five before the Chaps stormed back, tying the game at 10-10. With the score at 13-13, Jackson put down an emphatic kill, which was followed by a MC hitting error that ended the contest.
The win vaulted AC’s conference record to 2-1 while the Chaps fell to 1-2 in the Western Junior College Athletic Conference.
No. 4 Odessa College sweeps AC
Amarillo College was swept for just the second time this season in a matchup against fourth-ranked Odessa College on Saturday at home.
The Wranglers (19-1, 4-0) took control of the match from the get-go and won sets one and two in convincing fashion.
But AC would not go down quietly.
The Badgers took a 17-12 lead in set three before OC rallied with an 8-3 run to tie the match at 20-20.
Odessa scored five of the next seven points for their seventh sweep (25-16, 25-17, 25-22) of the season.
NG led the Badgers with a .500 hitting percentage (four kills on eight swings) against OC.
AC fell to 2-2 in conference play and 14-5 overall with the loss. The Badgers are currently in fifth place in the WJCAC standings through two weeks of conference action.
The Badgers hit the road this upcoming week for matchups at New Mexico Military Institute (15-6, 3-1) on Wednesday, Oct. 1 and Frank Phillips College (11-2, 3-1) on Saturday, Oct. 4.
