ABILENE – Abilene Christian volleyball completes its 2018 regular season Saturday at 1 p.m. vs. Sam Houston State, and as such it will be the final home match for the Wildcats' six-woman senior class of
Kendall Bosse,
Mikai Brown,
Amanda Chapa,
Lillian Drever,
Jacey Smith and
Lauren Walker.
This core group of student-athletes has formed a considerable chunk of the starting rotation since their freshman year of 2015, and during their tenure they've been part of 47 victories, set four program records, and stunned the collegiate volleyball world during last year's run to the Southland Conference Tournament Championship match as the No. 8 seed.
Smith (OH) and Walker (MB) have both accumulated well over 1,000 points, with Smith delivering in excess of 1,100 kills and Walker totaling 872 terminations to go with her 401 blocks. And with Bosse serving as their primary setter over the last three seasons, the Ingram, Texas native recently surpassed 3,000 career assists.
Bosse also has been part of 258 blocks and is two kills shy of 500.
Brown, Chapa and Drever all have taken turns wearing the libero jersey. Brown has averaged 1.91 digs per set through 252 appearances, and this year set personal season bests with 22 assists, 16 aces and 220 digs.
Chapa, who has seen time in 260 sets, ranked among the Southland's dig leaders in 2016 (4.62) and 2017 (4.96) and is up to 1,079 for her career.
Drever claimed the starting libero job earlier this season, and through 86 sets played in 2018 she is averaging 4.78 digs per set (ranking third in the Southland) to go along with 51 assists and 12 aces.
The Wildcats have several individuals ranked among the Southland's top-five leaders in addition to Drever. Bosse is No. 1 with 10.02 assists per set, junior
Kennedy Shelstead is fifth with 1.15 blocks per set while Walker is seventh with 97 total blocks, and sophomore outside hitter
Katelyn Mueller is No. 2 in the league with 33 service aces.
As a team, ACU ranks second in both blocks per set (2.32) and total attacks (3,952).
The Wildcats (13-14, 10-5 Southland) come into Saturday's match locked into the No. 4 seed for next weekend's championship tournament (Nov. 16-18) as they are 2.0 matches behind the Bearkats (20-7, 12-3 Southland) and 2.0 ahead of Houston Baptist (15-14, 8-7 Southland). Sam Houston State, however, can move as high as second place, but only if Central Arkansas (22-5, 12-2 Southland) loses to both Nicholls (3-24, 1-13 Southland) and New Orleans (12-17, 6-8 Southland) this weekend.
Stephen F. Austin remains atop the league with overall and conference records of 27-2 and 14-0. ACU lost to both the Ladyjacks (3-1) and Bears (3-0) last weekend after posting a 3-0 sweep of the Colonels, which gave them a 7-0 home record this season vs. Southland opponents.
The Wildcats earlier this year fell at Sam Houston State by a 3-1 score – their lone blemish during a 9-1 stretch – and now trail the all-time series 4-3. The two sides split last year's series with each side winning on the visiting court.
The Bearkats are one of the top-ranked teams in NCAA D1 (16th) with 17.62 digs per set and their top playmakers are Taylor Cunningham and Madison Wallace. Cunningham is tops in the Southland with 3.87 kills and 4.60 points per set, while Wallace is No. 1 in aces per set (0.40), service aces (38) and total digs (469).
