ABILENE – Abilene Christian's volleyball team will play host to three matches this week at Moody Coliseum in wrapping up its 2011 regular season. The Wildcats will first welcome No. 16 Angelo State Tuesday at 7 p.m. before bringing in Midwestern State on Thursday night (7 p.m.) and Cameron on Saturday afternoon (2 p.m.).
Tuesday's match vs. the Rambelles marks the final Sideout Club event of 2011 and free sandwiches from Jason's Deli will be provided postgame to all members.
ACU (17-12, 11-6 LSC) is 1-2 this season vs. their upcoming opponents with its only win coming vs. the Aggies on Oct. 8 (W, 3-1). The Wildcats nearly pulled off the upset at Angelo State before letting a 13-11 lead slip away in fifth set, and were swept 3-0 by the Mustangs.
The loss at Midwestern was one of four all month for ACU, which finished October with eight wins, six of which came against the Lone Star Conference. And the Wildcats' recent run of seven wins in their last nine matches has kept them in third place, 1.0 game ahead of Tarleton State and 1.5 games in front of Texas Woman's.
No. 13 West Texas A&M and Angelo State, meanwhile, have locked up the top two spots with conference records of 17-1 and 15-2.
ACU went 2-1 during last week's matches, which included a dramatic four-set win over the TexAnns followed by a disappointing sweep vs. the Lady Buffs. The Wildcats, however, rebounded nicely with a convincing 3-0 win at Eastern New Mexico.
Youngsters
Neely Borger, a sophomore, and
Sara Oxford, a freshman, along with senior
Jennie Hutt continued to lead the offense as each contributed more than 30 points on 91 combined kills. Borger also blocked 16 shots, lifting her per set average to 0.95, and hit a team best .286.
Hutt's 29 kills last week raised her season total to 418, putting her 66 away from cracking ACU's top-ten list for most kills in a season, and her 1,443 career kills are just one behind Misti Germany's (1998-2001) sixth-place total. Hutt needs 70 more kills to catch Abby Lowry (2004-07) for fifth place, but would have to average close to 30.0 kills over the next guaranteed four matches to catch Linda Evans (1989-92) for second.
Hutt's classmate
Kelsie Edwards contributed 48 more digs over the weekend in raising her career and varsity record total to 1,794.
Both Hutt and Edwards, along with
Aubree Vick, will be recognized for their accomplishments during a prematch ceremony prior to Thursday's match. This trio has helped the Wildcats win 75 of their matches (99-32), and qualify for four postseasons, including last year's trip to the NCAA South Central Regionals.
Hutt also has been named to the last two all-conference second teams, while Edwards was a 2010 CoSIDA second-team academic all-district selection.
Vick's career single-match highs include
nine kills in a win over St. Edward's and
twice recorded eight digs against teams from North Alabama and Newman.
