ABILENE – Abilene Christian volleyball Monday recorded its first two-player sweep of the Southland Conference Player of the Week awards as senior
Lillian Drever and
Lauren Walker were voted as the league's top defensive and offensive players by its sports information directors.
All weekly awards are presented by MidSouth Bank. Southland weekly award winners are nominated and voted upon by each school's sports information director. Voting for one's own athlete is not permitted. To earn honorable mention, a student-athlete must appear on 25 percent of ballots.
These honors, historically, have proved elusive for the program, which collected its first two citations between 2013 and 2017. Libero
Madison Hoover was the first Wildcat ever to be named Southland Conference Defensive Player of the Week on Oct. 12, 2015, and the following year Walker was received the same award on Oct. 3, 2016.
This time around Walker was chosen among seven nominees for the league's offensive prize. The middle blocker from Round Rock, Texas, was the Wildcats' leading point scorer (50) during the team's 3-0 week as she blocked 10 shots to go along with 43 kills and a pair of service aces.
Walker started last week with a single-match career high 17 kills and was credited with the match-winning block vs. Houston Baptist as the Wildcats completed an improbably fifth-set rally, flipping a 14-12 deficit into a 16-14 triumph.
The information technology major hit .440 on 25 attempts (14 kills) and delivered the match-winning kill Thursday at New Orleans, and at Nicholls last Saturday she collected 14 points with four blocks and 12 kills. She and classmate
Kendall Bosse registered the third set's winning point to give ACU a two sets to one lead on the Colonels.
Drever's efforts this past week as the Wildcats' libero propelled her up the national and Southland Conference rankings. The Copperas Cove, Texas, native now ranks second in the league (93 NCAA) with 4.62 digs per set, and ninth (219 NCAA) with 268 total digs.
This last week, Drever averaged 5.38 digs per set (70 overall), collecting 31 in the five-set home win vs. Houston Baptist, 24 at New Orleans and 15 at Nicholls. She also assisted on nine kills and tied a season-high with two service aces at Nicholls.
ACU's busy stretch of matches continues throughout this week (Oct. 16 - 20) with three consecutive home contests, starting with Tuesday's Go Pink match vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (6 p.m.). ACU is partnering with Hendrick Women Services for this match in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Thursday the Wildcats welcome Northwestern State (6 p.m.) and Saturday they play host to Southeastern La. (1 p.m.). ACU – tied for second in the Southland Conference with Sam Houston State and Central Arkansas at 6-1 – is ahead of all three teams on its homestand, and likely will need to push its win streak to six in order to keep pace with the still undefeated Ladyjacks of Stephen F. Austin (7-0).
The Islanders will pose a serious test to the Wildcats (9-10) despite starting the season with overall and conference marks of 4-16 and 3-4. ACU only has defeated Texas A&M-Corpus Christi once in seven matches (W, 3-2 on Oct. 19, 2017), and Tuesday will face a hungry team that's lost its last two matches in five sets (Sam Houston State and Houston Baptist).
Corpus Christi's three conference wins have come against Nicholls, New Orleans and Incarnate Word, while a majority of their losses have come against the top third of the league. The Islanders were swept by the Ladyjacks after dropping a 3-1 decision at UCA.
Corpus Christi is led by Rachel Young – the seventh-ranked attacker in the conference based on hitting percentage at .320 – and Madison Green, who is one of just 14 student-athletes nationwide this season with a triple double. She notched 33 assists, 12 digs and 10 kills in a five-set loss to South Florida on Aug. 31 at LSU, and currently ranks third in the conference with 0.33 aces per set.
