ABILENE – Abilene Christian volleyball has its first Southland Conference rematches of the season this week with the Wildcats first visiting Houston Baptist Thursday for a 7 p.m. match followed Saturday's 1 p.m. tilt at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
Each match will offer a live video stream and stats.
Kennedy Shelstead Feature
The Wildcats have bested both the Huskies and Islanders during their current six-match winning streak, which began Oct. 9 with a thrilling home win over HBU. The visiting Huskies led 14-12 late in the fifth set only to see the Wildcats score the final four points to win 16-14.
Since then ACU has won its last five matches in four-sets, including its Oct. 16 match vs. A&M-Corpus Christi. The Wildcats also have rattled off recent victories vs. New Orleans, Nicholls, Northwestern State and Southeastern Louisiana in improving to 12-10 overall and 9-1 vs. the conference.
As good as ACU's record is, it only has the Wildcats tied for second place with Sam Houston State while Stephen F. Austin remains undefeated at 10-0. Central Arkansas, which has lost both its matches to the Ladyjacks, is also part of this lead pack at 8-2. However, the rest of the conference (nine teams) sits at .500 or below.
The Huskies (11-13, 4-6 Southland) are 2-2 since falling at Moody Coliseum with a pair of five-set wins vs. the Islanders and Lamar Cardinals sandwiched around losses to Sam Houston State and McNeese.
HBU is the conference leader in aces per set (1.7) and team digs (1,447), but on the whole the Huskies are only hitting .194 with 12.6 kills and 1.98 blocks per set. Mikayla Vivens is their leading point scorer with 344 and and is tops in the league with 11.0 attacks per set.
Corpus Christi has won its last two matches vs. Lamar (3-2) and McNeese (3-1) since losing to the Wildcats on Oct. 16 in improving to 6-17 (5-5 Southland). The Islanders will play host to Sam Houston State Thursday before welcoming in the Wildcats for their Saturday matinee.
