ABILENE – The Abilene Christian women's volleyball team returns to Lone Star Conference action this weekend with matches scheduled Thursday and Saturday at Midwestern State and Cameron. Start times are 7 and 2 p.m.
The Wildcats are 10-9 on the season, which includes an 8-8 record away from Moody Coliseum and 4-3 mark against the conference. Cameron also is 4-3 vs. the LSC and tied with ACU for fourth place within the 11-team league. Midwestern State is two games behind at 2-5, but won four straight over the weekend at the Pitt State Regional Challenge in improving to 10-6.
Cameron (10-5), meanwhile, went 5-1 on a recent six-match road trip that featured a tri-match split at Oklahoma Baptist and 4-0 stay at the Texas-Permian Basin Tournament. Aggie freshman Kelle Carver was named Tournament MVP and tied a school record for most kills in a match (vs. UTPB) with 30 en route to claiming a share of this week's LSC Offensive Player of the Week Award. Her 3.93 kills per set leads the conference with Wildcat senior
Jennie Hutt ranking a close second (31st nationally) at 3.92.
Hutt, herself, had an outstanding weekend at the Ramada Inn Lady Blues Fall Classic and was named to its all-tournament team after helping ACU post a 2-2 record against Nebraska-Omaha (W), No. 5 Washburn (L), No. 25 Emporia State (W) and Truman State (L). Hutt was responsible for scoring 71 of her team's 248 points behind a .278 hitting percentage, 63 kills, four aces and eight block assists.
Seventeen of Hutt's kills came during ACU's 3-2 win over the Hornets, which was the Wildcats' first over a nationally ranked opponent this season.
Elsewhere in the league, Hutt ranks second (51st nationally) in points per set at 4.29 and tied for eighth with teammate
Sara Oxford with a .274 hitting percentage.
Kelsie Edwards ranks fourth (58th nationally) with 4.75 digs per set.
Coming on strong for the Wildcats has been freshman
Haley Rhoads, who set 171 assists over the weekend, including a career and team season high 60 vs. Emporia State. Her performances boosted the club's yearly average to 12.16 assists per set, which is good for 39th in the NCAA.
ACU also ranks among the national leaders in kills (52nd) and digs (48th) per set with respective averages of 12.91 and 16.65.
The Wildcats' block still ranks toward the bottom end of the conference despite coming through with a season-best 10 stuffs in a four-set loss to Truman State.
Neely Borger led ACU at the net with one solo block and five assists.
Wildcat head coach Kellen Mock has done well in her head-coaching career against the Aggies and Mustangs, posting a combined record of 8-1 since 2006. Midwestern State's last win over ACU took place in 2007. Cameron hasn't beaten the Wildcats since the 2003 conference tournament.
