ABILENE – Abilene Christian volleyball returns home to Moody Coliseum Tuesday for a 6 p.m. match vs. Houston Baptist. The Wildcats trail their all-time series against the Huskies, 2-5, but one of those wins came during last year's semifinal at the Southland Conference Championship.
ACU won that match as the tournament's eighth seed by scores of 26-24, 27-25, 19-25 and 25-23. The Wildcats only other win vs. the Huskies took place on Nov. 3, 2016 – a victory that sparked a season-ending four-match winning streak that allowed ACU to finish 11-5 vs. the Southland and 9-0 at home. ACU is 2-1 at home this season with both wins coming against league opponents Lamar (W, 3-0) and McNeese (W, 3-1).
Live
video and
stats of Tuesday's match will be provided online, while free admission will be given to those who show their
football ticket for this Saturday's homecoming football game.
The Wildcats (6-10, 3-1 Southland Conference) start their week – which also includes road matches Thursday and Saturday at New Orleans and Nicholls – tied for third place in the league with Sam Houston State behind Stephen F. Austin (6-0) and Central Arkansas (5-1). ACU started its conference slate 3-0, but suffered a 3-1 loss to the Bearkats last Saturday at Johnson Coliseum (25-17, 22-25, 25-22, 25-20).
Senior outside hitter
Jacey Smith led the Wildcats Saturday afternoon with 15.0 points on 13 kills and 3.0 blocks. She also dug out 11 attacks for her 10th double-double of the fall. Senior middle blocker
Lauren Walker was second to Smith in the Wildcats' point column with 12.0, registering 10 kills (.304), three assists, five digs and four blocks.
Kendall Bosse tossed up 43 assists and is now averaging 11.0 assists per Southland Conference set, while libero
Lillian Drever dug out a team high 23 attacks. Bosse is the conference leader in both assists (654) and assists per set (9.76).
Houston Baptist comes to Abilene with overall and conference marks of 9-10 and 2-3 with their latest decision a 3-2 win vs. Incarnate Word. The Huskies also have swept Nicholls, but lost earlier this season to New Orleans, SFA and Central Arkansas.
HBU is No. 1 in the Southland and 12th in the NCAA with 114 service aces (1.75 per set), and is led on offense by Mikayla Vivens, who ranks second among all conference players with 211 kills and points with 244.
