ABILENE— The Wildcats look to bounce back this weekend from a tough road trip that dropped the team to 2-2 in conference play. Losses at McNeese and Lamar have ACU sitting in eighth place in the conference as they head on one of their toughest road trips of the season. The Wildcats will head to Nicholls and SFA, with the Ladyjacks sitting at 16-1 and 4-0 in the conference.
Wildcats weekend outlook
The first challenge awaiting the Wildcats will be in Thibodaux, La. where they will face Nicholls who is also 2-2 in conference play. ACU is coming off one of their most efficient offensive matches of the season, hitting .303 as a team at Lamar. Despite the solid stat lines, they fell to the Cardinals and will look for ways to capitalize on their successes in the coming weekend.
Marybeth Sandercox has continued her offensive efficiency bringing her streak of hitting .429 or better to five straight matches. She is also coming off of her first career double-double with 11 kills and 10 blocks.
Kennedy Shelstead leads the team in blocks per set and ranks fifth in the conference at 1.05/set.
Lindsey Toney has reached double digit kills in four straight matches bring her total to eight matches.
The Wildcats are 6-4 against Nicholls since joining the Southland, and have won four of their last five against the Colonels. ACU is 2-7 against the Ladyjacks since 2013, but their most recent win came in the 2017 Southland Conference tournament when they upset SFA as the No. 8 seed over the No. 1 seed.
Scouting the opponent
The Colonels are 8-7 on the season and 2-2 in conference play. Their two wins came at home against McNeese in five sets and on the road at Houston Baptist in four sets. They are in the top half of the conference in digs per set and are only allowing their opponents to hit .182 on the season. Nicholls is led by Emily Gauthreaux in both points and kills per set, but have four different players averaging at least two kills per set. The team has battled in each of their conference matches, with all four going to at least four sets.
SFA is one of two teams that are 4-0 in conference play and have the best record of the conference, by far, at 16-1. The Ladyjacks only loss came at Arkansas State in four sets back in early September. The team is currently on a streak of seven straight sweeps and a total of 22-straight set wins, both are the longest active streaks in the NCAA. Five of the SFA starters are hitting at a clip of .246 or better and the team as a whole is hitting a conference-leading .251 for the year. The Ladyjacks will face UNO on Wednesday before hosting ACU on Saturday, the match will stream on ESPN3.
How to follow along
10/10 @Nicholls
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10/12 @SFA
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All weekend follow along on @ACU_Volleyball Instagram and Twitter for trip and in-game updates.
