ABILENE – The No. 23 Abilene Christian women's volleyball team continues its season-opening nine-game road trip Tuesday with a Lone Star Conference battle vs. A&M-Kingsville followed by a weekend jaunt to San Angelo for the Angelo State Tournament.
The Wildcats, off to their best four-game start since 2008, began their 2011 campaign last weekend at the St. Mary's Classic with a 3-1 record. ACU swept its opposition from Illinois-Springfield and Pace, and topped East Central in four sets, but couldn't get to 4-0 after being blanked by Regis.
Despite suffering the one setback, head coach Kellen Mock said she was pleased to see her team come through with three wins.
"It's always good for us to get wins early on and get everyone's confidence level boosted," she said, "because that first weekend can sometimes be a struggle when you don't have all the kinks worked out."
Standout players for the Wildcats last weekend included senior
Jennie Hutt, who was the lone Wildcat named to the all-tournament team at outside hitter. Through four matches and 13 sets, the native Nebraskan recorded 46 kills, a .258 hitting percentage on 124 attempts, three aces, 44 digs and two blocks.
Freshman
Sara Oxford finished second to Hutt with 32 kills, while sophomore
Caley Johnson contributed 113 assists and a team-best .981 serving percentage. Senior libero
Kelsie Edwards came through with 72 digs.
"I'm very proud of how our team ended the tournament," said Edwards, a senior team co-captain with Hutt. "For our young team to go 3-1 at its first tournament is awesome, and the Regis team that beat us is very good. What excited me most was that we got a little better each match, we grew into our game, connected better, and it's great to have something to keep looking forward to."
ACU went 19-5 away from Moody Coliseum a year ago, and if past performances are any indication, the Wildcats should continue their winning ways through their upcoming games at Kingsville and San Angelo.
At Angelo State, ACU will face St. Edwards, A&M-International, Edinboro (Pa.) and Texas-Permian Basin, against all of whom the Wildcats own a spotless combined record of 12-0. Twice ACU has defeated St. Edwards and TAMI, while its 7-0 vs. Permian Basin and 1-0 vs. Edinboro, which it last faced early in 2000.
The Wildcats are 41-13 vs. the Javelinas since 1983 and have not lost to them since 2007 – a winning streak of four games. But with a new head coaching staff and players in place at Kingsville, Mock isn't sure what her team will see from their conference foes. The Javelinas (0-0) are under the guidance of first year head coach Tanya Allen who was previously at Frank Phillips Junior College where she went 110-30 over the past three seasons.
"There are a few older players on their team we should be familiar with in terms of strengths and weaknesses, but it's a new team and season, and I expect them to come out and play as hard as we are," Mock said. "All we can control is what takes place on our side of the court, continue to play good defense and let the offense do its job."
Kingsville finished in a four-way tie for sixth place in the conference a season ago and went 17-13 overall. In their one game vs. ACU, the Javelinas were swept in three sets but were close in two of them.
With neither team knowing much about the other this early in the season, Edwards said its critical for the Wildcats to quickly establish a presence on the court and leave southern Texas with a victory.
"Over the past few years opposing teams knew what to expect from us, but that's not the case this year," she said. "I want to see our team come out and start strong so that we're continued to be seen as a highly competitive team within the conference. This is definitely an important game."
The ACU/A&M-Kingsville match will be webcast online at www.tamuk.edu/live and will have live stats available.
Information from javelinaathletics.com was used in this release.
