Women's Volleyball | 9/22/2015 11:43:00 AM
Live Stats | Live Video ABILENE, Texas – The Abilene Christian volleyball team worked tirelessly during its ultra-challenging non-conference season and now the Wildcats are hoping those efforts will pay off with a victory Thursday night as they begin their third Southland Conference season at Central Arkansas.
Match time at the Prince Arena in Conway, Ark., is set for 7 p.m. Links to live stats and video will be made available through UCASports.com later this week.
This is the fifth all-time meeting between the two schools. ACU won the first two matches against the Bears in 1997 (3-2) and 2003 (3-0), but have lost each time since joining the Southland Conference. The Wildcats were swept during their last trip to UCA in 2013, and lost a close 3-2 battle last fall at Moody Coliseum.
The Wildcats finished their non-conference campaign last weekend in the Mile-High City, where they lost three straight to teams from Montana, Illinois-Chicago and Denver.
Leading the offense were senior Jennie Loerch and a trio of freshman:
Lauren Walker,
Kendall Bosse and
Jacey Smith. Loerch scored 34.0 points, while Walker tallied 34.5 points behind a team-best .250 hitting percentage and 28 kills.
Smith and Bosse each recorded 22 kills through the three matches with two service aces.
Walker additionally played a big role on the block with 12 stuffs.
Lexi Mercier was part of 16 blocks and setter
Sarah Siemens got her hand up a dozen times to go along with 93 assists and 29 digs.
Central Arkansas is in the midst of an eight-match homestand and comes into Thursday's contest at 4-9 overall and 0-1 against the league after falling 3-0 earlier this month to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
UCA went 13-3 vs. the Southland a year ago, finishing second to Stephen F. Austin, and was 20-12 overall. Representing the Bears on this summer's all-preseason conference team were senior outside hitter Heather Schnars and junior middle blocker Fulani Petties.
Leading the Bears from the sideline is first year head coach Jeni Jones, who spent the previous 13 seasons as an assistant and associate head coach at Missouri State.
