ABILENE – The Wildcats have one final chance to improve their playoff position as they head into the final weekend of the regular season. ACU will have one more opportunity to improve their position in the South Central Region on Friday at Midwestern State.
The Wildcats fell to No. 6 in the Region Poll released yesterday. St. Edward's holds the top spot followed by West Texas A&M at No. 2, Truman at No. 3, Incarnate Word sits at No. 4, and Nebraska-Omaha at No. 5. Behind the Wildcats is Central Oklahoma at No. 7, MSU at No. 8, Central Missouri at No. 9 and Northwest Missouri rounds out the tenth spot.
Midwestern State enters the week in fourth place where they trail ACU by two points in the standings. The Mustangs split matches last week falling at Central Oklahoma after beating Southwestern Oklahoma last Friday. MSU had been ranked as high as No. 10 nationally, but have since dropped out of the polls after losing three of their last five matches. Led by goalkeeper Mallory Whitworth who leads the conference in goals against average (0.41) and save percentage (.915) creates an interesting match as the Wildcats lead the conference in shots attempted averaging 16 a game.
As the conference tournament approaches ACU needs a win as they sit a point behind Central Oklahoma who also must lose for the Wildcats to clinch the regular season title. The Lone Star tournament will take place at the site of the conference champion November 5-8.
Along with 19 other conferences the LSC Tournament Champion will earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament as well as the top six teams from each region. The announcement for the selection of the NCAA Tournament teams will be announced November 9.
