Women's Volleyball | 9/18/2014 11:29:00 AM
ABILENE - Abilene Christian volleyball visits Texas Tech and the United Supermarkets Arena this weekend for the Lone Star Showdown, which also will include teams from Air Force and Weber State.
The Red Raiders and Wildcats open the tournament Friday at noon for their third meeting in two years. ACU will then battle the Falcons Friday at 4 p.m. and the Weber State Wildcats Saturday at 10:30 a.m.
TexasTech.com is offering live stats and video for all Lone Star Showdown matches.
The Wildcats and Red Raiders split last year's season series, which were the first matches between the two schools since 1983. Texas Tech swept ACU in Lubbock on Sept. 3, 25-17, 25-17, 25-19, but lost the following week in front of 1,300 fans at Moody Coliseum, 3-1, by scores of 25-11, 13-25, 25-18, 26-24.
Lexi Mercier scored the match-winning point off an assist by
Sarah Siemens.
Tech's loss that night was part of a five-match slide from which it never quite recovered as the Red Raiders went on to finish the fall at 10-22 and 3-13 vs. the Big 12 Conference. Fast forward to this season, however, and Texas Tech is off to satisfying 9-0 start that includes five sweeps and wins over the Southland Conference's Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Lamar.
Meanwhile, both the ACU and Weber State Wildcats and Air Force all enter this weekend's tournament below .500.
After being swept in its first six matches to begin 2014, ACU showed marked improvement at last weekend's Mean Green Classic, which included a 3-1 win over Jackson State and two players - Mercier and Jennie Loerch - being named to the all-tournament team. The Wildcats then put up a battle Tuesday night during a regionally televised match at TCU before ultimately falling, 3-1. Loerch led all players with 18 kills, while freshman
Stephanie Schoelman contributed 11 points.
Weber State is 1-7 since starting its season 2-1 as the Wildcats have been swept at their last two weekend tournaments hosted by Air Force and Wyoming. WSU fell to Houston Baptist, Marist and AFA in Colorado Springs the weekend of Sept. 5-6 and dropped three straight last weekend to Wyoming, Gonzaga and Furman.
Air Force's invitational victory evened the Falcons' season mark at 4-4, but last weekend they dropped two of three in Saint Louis, Mo., before coming home Tuesday and losing 3-0 to Denver.
ACU leads its series vs. Air Force, 2-1, with the last meeting taking place 20 years ago - a 3-1 win for the Wildcats. ACU swept Air Force, 3-0, in 1985, but were swept by the Falcons three seasons later during the tail end of the 1988 campaign.
ACU's match vs. Weber State will be the first between schools.
