Volleyball back on Mountain Time for Omni Invitational

Live Links
vs. Wake Forest | Friday at 6 p.m. (Stats)
vs. Rice | Saturday at 11 a.m. (Stats)
vs. Colorado | Sunday at 12 p.m. (Stats | Video)
 

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ABILENE – Abilene Christian volleyball returns to the Rocky Mountains for the second consecutive weekend Friday for the start of the three-day Omni Invitational hosted by Colorado in scenic Boulder. While there the Wildcats will face teams from Wake Forest and Rice in addition to the host Buffaloes, and on their way back they'll stop in Lubbock for Labor Day match at Texas Tech.

The Wildcats enter the tournament with a 1-2 mark after handing Wyoming a 3-1 defeat on its home court last weekend in Laramie, a victory that was book ended by 3-0 defeats to Portland and South Dakota. 

ACU's win at Wyoming was its first non-conference road triumph since 2010 (vs. UT Permian Basin), and head coach Angela Mooney considered it to be a 'huge upset' since the Cowgirls' RPI was 76 at the end of the 2016 season. ACU's year-end RPI was 243 by comparison.

Unfortunately for the Wildcats, they were unable to follow that signature victory with a win over the Coyotes, who have now beat them two straight years in tournament play.

"It's a shame we couldn't finish off the other two matches (vs. Portland and South Dakota)," said Mooney earlier this week via text message. "We were so close – and physically we were fine – but we weren't executing at the net with our block as we had vs. Wyoming. This made it very difficult for the back row to make the plays they needed to."
 
"Against Wyoming we did a great job staying organized in our offensive and defensive systems," she continued, "and then we struggled do that vs. South Dakota. We weren't scoring points and just playing a wide out game. And it's difficult to gain any kind of momentum any time you try to do that ... volleyball is a game of momentum and I felt we never truly controlled any part of the match even though the scores were close."

Freshman outside hitter Katelyn Mueller and sophomore libero Amanda Chapa were two standout players for the Wildcats in Laramie, and as such, they were recognized by Southland Conference voters with honorable mention citations for player of the week. Mueller additionally was named to Wyoming's Rumble in the Rockies All-Tournament team after averaging 3.11 kills per set (third in the Southland Conference) and hitting .171 during the three-match weekend. She recorded a team-high 12 kills in each of Saturday's matches vs. the host Cowgirls and South Dakota. 

Chapa is currently the Southland's leader with 5.00 digs per set following the first weekend of competition. She dug out three attacks in a loss to Portland, but had 21 in addition to a service ace in the victory vs. Wyoming. She matched those totals late in the day Saturday vs. South Dakota. 

One advantage of last week's start was zero interference from school. But with coursework arriving this past Monday, the Wildcats had to accept a new element while preparing for this weekend's opposition. 

For Mooney, the transition went fine but maybe took one day too long.

"We lifted Monday but didn't get into the gym until Tuesday and then it took us a while to get into the grove of practice, which was challenging," she said. " At the end of practice we talked about regrouping and preparing for Wednesday's practice better than we had for Tuesday.

"Wednesday the players came in more focused and had a much better overall practice. We implemented a few things we needed to work on from this past weekend as well as work on a few things to help ourselves find success against our future opponents. I walked away from practices feeling pleased and I am ready to see how the girls will respond to three good teams this weekend."

Rice went 2-2 this past week in the Metroplex, beating SMU and Mississippi State while falling to TCU and the Southland's Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. But after falling to the Horned Frogs in Ft. Worth last Sunday, it was impossible for the Owls to return to their home in Houston because of Hurricane Harvey so they spent several days at a hotel in Waco. They also received food and shelter from Baylor president Linda Livingstone, who is the mother of junior outside hitter Shelby Livingstone.

Wake Forest posted a 3-0 mark in opening its season at UNC Greensboro, beating its trio of opponents by scores of 3-0, 3-1 and 3-1. The Buffaloes also are undefeated after dispatching the Southland's Northwestern State, plus Seton Hall and Oklahoma. 
 
"It's my hope we will continue to find our personal team identity for the weekend," added Mooney. "I think we'll be able to do this if we commit to execute our offensive and defensive systems with intent. I'd like to see the team get into a rhythm of scoring points in runs against our opponents, which is something we struggled with last weekend vs Portland and South Dakota."