SAN ANTONIO – With the preseason Lone Star Conference volleyball rankings mirroring last year's final standings, it appears a majority of the league's voters believe another third-place finish is in store for Abilene Christian behind fellow NCAA qualifiers West Texas A&M and Angelo State.
The Lady Buffs earned first-place votes on 21 of the 27 ballots for a total of 291 points, while Angelo State earned five first-place nods to finish second with 269 points. The remaining first-place vote went to fifth-place Texas Woman's, which accumulated 203 points. ACU (227 points) and Tarleton State (206 points) both ranked ahead of the Pioneers.
Cameron, Midwestern State, A&M-Kingsville, A&M-Commerce, Incarnate Word, and Eastern New Mexico round out the poll.
ACU last won a conference championship in 2005, and has since finished third or better in five of the last six years while also has advancing to three NCAA postseason tournaments. The Wildcats' overall record since head coach Kellen Mock took over in 2006 is an impressive 136-60 (.694).
Mock returns a majority of last year's 21-14 team, but will be without key starters
Jennie Hutt and
Kelsie Edwards. Hutt made the honorable mention All-America list in her final year as a Wildcat and finished with the fourth-most kills in school history (1,543) and the sixth-highest single-season total (581), while Edwards graduated from ACU as its all-time leader with 1,948 digs.
Borger was the LSC's Freshman of the Year in 2010 and last year made honorable mention after scoring 415.5 points on the strength of 304 kills, 28 aces, and 138 blocks. She ranked 60th nationally and fourth in the conference with 1.01 blocks per set.
Rhoads took over as the starting setter a month into the season but still finished with 1,132 assists, which ranks her ninth all-time on ACU's career record list.
Oxford produced the conference's 10th-best hitting percentage of .274, as she racked up 396 kills on 913 attempts. She also averaged 2.89 kills per match and blocked 90 shots, 16 of which were solo efforts.
ACU's 2012 season begins the weekend of Aug. 31 when the Wildcats visit St. Edward's and St. Mary's for a multi-team tournament.
LSC teams will us a one-conference double round-robin scheduling model, in which each team plays a home and away match against each of the other teams. The LSC champion will be the regular season winner determined by league matches, while the postseason tournament winner is designated as LSC Tournament Champion and earns the conference's automatic qualification. The top eight teams in the final conference standings qualify of the postseason tournament set for Nov. 15-17, using the NCAA regional format at the No. 1 seed.
