Volleyball heads to Houston for Saturday match vs. HBU

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ABILENE – Practice this week for Abilene Christian volleyball was 'awesome,' which is exactly what the Wildcats needed to help expunge the memories of last weekend's venture to Louisiana, where they dropped winnable matches at McNeese and Nicholls.
 
The Cowgirls swept their season series with ACU behind another 3-1 win, while the Colonels surprised the Wildcats with a 3-2 victory. The Wildcats rallied from a 2-0 deficit in Thibodaux only to suffer an offensive collapse in the fifth set.
 
With nothing much to be gained from either of those defeats that left ACU 2-4 within the conference, the coaching staff moved forward with an intense week's worth of practices.
 
"We played a lot of 6v6, and it was fast-paced, high-level volleyball," said head coach Angela Mooney. "The overall environment was better too because we're cultivating competition, building enthusiasm and competing more aggressively within ourselves. This is what we all have to have and feel before we get to Thursday or Saturday."
 
History shows the Wildcats they can't lose again if they desire to win the regular-season championship, especially when the last four champions went undefeated. In fact, the last Southland champions to lose at least three times were the 2004 Texas State Bobcats and Stephen F. Austin Ladyjacks who finished tied at 17-3.
 
Currently there are seven teams ahead of ACU with 10 contests remaining, beginning with Saturday's 1 p.m. contest at Houston Baptist – a team that's largely been a thorn in the side of the Purple and White, having won four of five meetings since 2013. The Wildcats finally beat HBU, 3-1, at Moody Coliseum last November, but have yet to win inside the cozy confines of Sharp Gym.
 
This year's Huskies are 14-6 overall and several wins ahead of the Wildcats in conference play at 6-2. They were quite close to becoming 7-1, but led a 2-0 slip away Thursday night vs. the still undefeated Sam Houston State Bearkats (7-0). Heading into that match, however, HBU had won its last four matches with sweeps of Lamar, SFA, Southeastern Louisiana and New Orleans.
 
The Huskies also have posted sweeps of McNeese and Nicholls and defeated Louisiana, UTSA and UT Arlington during their non-conference slate.
 
HBU is one of the conference's top offensive teams, hitting .238 with 13.8 kills per set, and is the only team ahead of the Wildcats in blocking, 2.62 to 2.50. ACU claims two solid middle blockers in junior Lauren Walker (1.05 bps) and freshman Lorin McNeil (1.18 bps), but Mooney this week wanted to get them more involved on the attack.
 
"One of our goals is to get the middles to work harder in transition, and they were beginning to demand the ball during our 6v6 matches," she said. "We've received some good numbers and output from them, so if we can utilize them more, then that can free up our outside hitters."
 
McNeil's blocking average ranks third in the conference and Walker is seventh, and they'll be opposed at the net by HBU's duo of Blair Gillard (1.42 bps) and Kayla Davenport (1.06, .325 attack percentage). The Huskies additionally boast the league's No. 1 attacker in Bailey Banks (3.89 kps) and two of its most accurate servers in Banks (0.39 aces per set) and Abby Gargus (0.33 aps).
 
ACU's middle blockers are joined on the conference leaders' lists by junior setter Kendall Bosse (8th, 8.04) and sophomore libero Amanda Chapa (5th, 4.40 dps).