Women's Volleyball | 9/29/2015 12:29:00 PM
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Live stats vs. Northwestern State | Live Broadcast Live stats vs. Stephen F. Austin | Live Broadcast ABILENE – After an exhaustive five weeks on the road Abilene Christian volleyball will play it first home match of the season at Moody Coliseum Thursday at 6:30 p.m. vs. Southland Conference rival Northwestern State on the team's inaugural Love Your Melon Night.
Love Your Melon is an apparel brand run by college students across the country who are on a mission to give a hat to every child battling cancer in America.
Junior outside hitter
Dorothy Swanson is a member of ACU's Love Your Melon Campus Crew, which will have a table stationed in the north concourse Thursday night. Before and during the match members of the crew will provide information on the foundation's mission and can help fans purchase the beanies, caps and shirts that are on display.
Love Your Melon wristbands also will be handed out and wrapped around ACU rally towels that the team and cheerleaders will toss to the crowd during timeouts.
Follow ACU's Love Your Melon Campus Crew on
Facebook and
Twitter to learn more about their efforts. The Wildcats are hoping to sell enough merchandise through
loveyourmelon.com that they'll be able to bring hats to a local children's hospital later in the school year.
Remember to select the Abilene Christian University Campus Crew in the drop-down menu during check out if making a purchase from home or work.
Earlier this summer ACU volleyball played with and visited pediatric cancer patients at Cook's Children's Hospital with Lance and Jill Fleming of the
Play 4 Rex (P4X) Foundation.
On Saturday the Wildcats play host to Stephen F. Austin at noon during which a limited number of pink ACU t-shirts (sponsored by Blue Sky of Texas) will be given out to the crowd in anticipation of Tuesday's annual Dig Pink Match vs. Incarnate Word.
Courtside, ACU continues to work and practice hard for its first victory of the season after falling 3-1 at Central Arkansas last Thursday to begin its conference season.
The Wildcats (0-14) played their best first game of the season in jumping out to a 1-0 lead over the Bears, who were last year's Southland Conference runners-up. The Wildcats hit .229 but only made two errors while their defense dug out 17 attacks and put up four blocks, two of which were solo efforts by
Lexi Mercier.
Lauren Walker also started hot, connecting on four of seven attempts (.571) along with an ace, and Jennie Loerch hit .375 with three kills.
Unfortunately, the Wildcats couldn't duplicate their collective performances the rest of the way as the Bears won the final three sets by scores of 26-24, 25-12 and 25-17.
Northwestern State went 16-17 a year ago and placed fifth in the Southland at 10-6, yet somehow defied all expectations to win the conference tournament and represent the league at the NCAA Championships. This season, however, the Lady Demons are off to a bit of a sluggish start at 3-12 with their lone wins coming against Tennessee State, UL Lafayette and Nicholls.
Northwestern State will conclude its three-match homestand tonight vs. Sam Houston State before making the trip to Abilene.
The defending regular-season champions from Stephen F. Austin are off to a 2-0 start in conference play behind wins over Nicholls and McNeese that have lifted its overall record to 9-8. The LadyJacks, who play tonight vs. Prairie View A&M, used their tournament season to play a competitive slate at Auburn, Tulsa and Baylor, where they went a combined 2-7.
SFA also went 4-0 during a home tournament in early September that included a sweep of Texas Tech.
