Southeastern Louisiana Live Stats and Video | New Orleans Live Video
ABILENE, Texas – The Abilene Christian volleyball team returns to the road this weekend for a pair of Southland Conference matches at Southeastern Louisiana and New Orleans. The Wildcats will first battle the Lions Thursday at 7 p.m. followed by a 2 p.m. Saturday matinee against the Privateers.
Live stats and video will be made available for both matches.
All three teams enter the week in need of victories. The Wildcats and Privateers are both in the midst of a five-match losing streak and the Lions have lost nine of their last 10. SLA's (7-16, 1-10 Southland) lone victory during this stretch came at New Orleans on Oct. 15 and snapped an eight-match losing skid.
UNO's (3-21, 0-11 Southland) last victory was a non-conference match against Alcorn State on Oct. 8 and snapped a six-match winless streak.
As for the Wildcats (5-12, 1-8 Southland), they're coming off a hard-fought three-set loss last Saturday night against their rivals from Incarnate Word. The Cardinals ran away with the first set, 25-15, but had to rally late to beat ACU in sets two and three by scores of 25-19 and 25-22.
Sophomore outside hitter
Jennifer Loerch led her side with 12 points in the losing effort on 11 kills and a service ace, while the league's leading blocker
Lexi Mercier was part of four stops at the net. Mercier is averaging 1.56 blocks per set this fall and should pick up her 100th of the season this weekend; however, she still needs 38 more to crack the program's season top-10 list.
Climbing ACU's career records chart are sophomore setter
Sarah Siemens and junior
Neely Borger. Siemens needs 106 assists over the next seven matches to pass Krista Wright (1,758) for eighth place on the Wildcats' all-time list, while Borger needs four blocks to tie Jana Moore (293) for eighth place and 11 to match assistant coach
Ijeoma Moronu's career total of 300.
Among the Southland Conference leaders this fall, Siemens ranks 10th with 8.40 assists per set, while Loerch is eighth in kills (3.23) and sophomore libero
Madison Hoover ranks fifth in digs (4.51). ACU also is ranked among the conference's upper half in terms of defense with a .174 opponent hitting percentage, a league-best 2.40 blocks and the fourth-most digs per set at 15.60.
The Lions are led by freshman Rachael Bunn, who currently ranks third in hitting percentage at .321 and 15th in blocks with 0.77 per set, while New Orleans claims one of the conference's best servers in senior Ariane Labrzycki (0.32 aces per set). As a team, UNO is ranked 14th in six of seven statistical categories listed by the Southland and are ranked 12th in service aces per set (1.10).
From Southeastern Louisiana ... ACU volleyball freshman
Dorothy Swanson's great-grandfather A.L. "Red" Swanson was Southeastern's football coach from 1931-1937, including an undefeated (8-0-1) season in 1936.
