ABILENE – Abilene Christian volleyball will play four of its next five Southland Conference matches on the road starting with Saturday's 2 p.m. contest at Incarnate Word. The Wildcats are 3-6 vs. the Cardinals since both teams jumped into the D1 ranks in 2013 with all three of those victories coming since 2015. The two schools split last season's series with each side winning 3-1 on their home court.
The Wildcats won their first two league matches last weekend at Moody Coliseum, following a 3-0 sweep of Lamar with a 3-1 win over McNeese, which was their first since 2016. ACU outhit its combined opposition by .046 points with per set averages of 12.9 kills, 1.9 aces, 15.3 digs and 1.8 blocks in starting 2-0 for the first time against its Southland Conference schedule.
Five Wildcats totaled 14.5 or more points led by sophomore outside hitter
Katelyn Mueller, who received an honorable mention for Southland Conference Offensive Player of the Week after hitting .319 with 4.00 kills and 2.71 digs per set.
Mueller and fellow outside hitter each posted a double-double vs. McNeese with the Sugar Land, Texas, native registering a career single-match high 20 kills, while Smith set a personal best with 20 digs.
Senior setter
Kendall Bosse spread out the attack in allowing five teammates to collect 30-or-more attack attempts and finished with 78 assists (11.1 per set) on top of two aces, two blocks and six digs.
Bosse leads the Southland with 556 total assists (39th nationally) and 9.6 assists per set (108th nationally), while Smith ranks first in the league (69th nationally) with 557 total attacks. Smith is third in the league with 9.6 attacks per set, and the team is first with 2,045 total attacks.
UIW is off to a 3-10 start (1-2 Southland) and will tonight play host to Sam Houston State before welcoming the Wildcats. The Cardinals wins have come against Eastern Washington, Alcorn State and Southeastern La.
