Women's Volleyball | 10/13/2015 3:13:00 PM
Live Stats at Houston Baptist | WatchLive Stats at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi | Live Video ABILENE – Abilene Christian volleyball takes its three-match winning streak on the road this weekend for two big Southland Conference showdowns at Houston Baptist and first-place Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
Both schools are offering live stats and a video stream via their respective athletics web sites.
The Wildcats enter this weekend following a somewhat-historic homestand in which they posted a 4-1 record over 10 days of competition with wins coming against Northwestern State, Incarnate Word, Lamar and Sam Houston State. ACU's victories over the Lady Demons, Bearkats and Lamar Cardinals were their first since joining the Southland in 2013, and their triumph over UIW was it first since 2012.
The resilient Wildcats also tested the defending regular-season champions from Stephen F. Austin before escaping Moody Coliseum on Oct. 3 with a 3-2 victory. However, it was considered progress as ACU twice was swept last season by the Ladyjacks and lost in four sets to them in 2013.
During its homestand ACU hit 17 points better than its opposition (.199 to .172), ripping 13.00 kills per set while adding 25 service aces. And defensively the Wildcats blocked 41.0 shots and dug out 308 of 767 opposing attacks.
Senior Jennie Loerch, who earned honorable mention for Southland Conference Player of the Week, led her side with 3.38 kills per set and 78.0 points as she took part in eight blocks. The freshman trio of
Kendall Bosse (2.62),
Jacey Smith (2.38) and
Lauren Walker (2.29) also finished the five-match series with two-or-more kills per set.
Senior setter
Sarah Siemens kept the offense flowing with 10.43 assists per set, and senior libero
Madison Hoover averaged 6.19 digs per set in climbing from eight to fifth on ACU's all-time career list for digs with 1516.
Hoover, who won ACU's first-ever Southland Conference Defensive Player of the Week award for volleyball Monday, is on target to finish second all-time at ACU in total digs.
The Wildcats outstanding homestand not only pushed the Wildcats all the way up to fourth place in the standings, but in many of the league's statistical categories as well. Counting only those matches against Southland schools, ACU begins this week ranked among the top-half of the conference in opponent hitting percentage (.182) and kills (12.56 per set), and is the top-10 for aces (1.20), blocks (1.96) and assists (11.60).
Individually, Walker ranks eighth with a .328 hitting percentage, Loerch is seventh with 3.36 kills, Siemens is fourth in assists with 10.08 and Hoover is first in digs with 5.88.
Houston Baptist plays host to the Wildcats Thursday at 7 p.m. in Sharp Gym and has lost four of its first six league matches with its lone wins coming against New Orleans, 3-1, and Northwestern State, 3-0. They are 5-2 at home.
Winners of eighth straight, the Islanders are currently the hottest team in the league having started their Southland campaign at 6-0. Corpus Christi shut out its first four league opponents before surviving a five-set challenge from SFA on Oct. 8 in Nacogdoches, Texas.
The Islanders pitched another shutout two days later vs. the Lady Demons, which was their 13th of the season. They will welcome Incarnate Word to their arena Thursday night before seeing the Wildcats Saturday at 1 p.m.
