ABILENE—After a tough start to last weekend in the Rice Adidas Invitational, the Wildcats bounced back for a big win at Prairie View A&M to notch their fist win of the season. The 1-5 Wildcats will have another tough weekend ahead as they host the first annual Wildcat Classic before a road match at Texas Tech on Monday. ACU will have the home court advantage as they host one game each day of the tournament (Sept. 12, 13 & 14).
Weekend outlook
A 5-1 Cal State Fullerton team will be the first test of the weekend for ACU when the teams tip-off the Wildcat Classic with a Thursday night match beginning at 6 p.m. ACU will also face Prairie View A&M for the second time in six days on Friday evening before closing out their tournament action with a matinee game at 2 p.m. on Saturday against North Texas. After a long weekend of tournament play, the Wildcats will have a quick turnaround as they head to Lubbock for a match against the Red Raiders of Texas Tech. Last season, the Red Raiders swept ACU on their home court and the Wildcats will look to return the favor Monday night. First serve will be at 6 p.m.
Scouting the opponent
- Cal State Fullerton has had great success early in 2019. They have dropped just one match this season and are currently on a four-match win streak coming into the Wildcat Classic. The team started out well last season as well before they ran into the tough competition of the Big West where they went 0-16 in conference play. The team was once again selected to finish last in the conference, but they do return four starters from last year's team. This will be the first meeting between the schools in program history.
- Prairie View A&M will be a familiar opponent for the Wildcats having just faced the Panthers on Sunday afternoon. ACU came away with their first victory on the season, winning in four sets over PVAMU. The Panthers are currently hitting just .147 on the season as a team and allowing their opponents to hit over .300 so far. The team was picked to finish sixth in the SWAC. Last season the Panthers went 7-25 on the season and 7-11 in conference play. Sunday's match was the first meeting in program history and the Wildcats will look to earn a similar result against the Panthers on Saturday night.
- North Texas is one of the top teams in Conference USA, finishing last season tied for second with three other school, just one game back of Rice. A tie-break forced the Mean Green to officially finish fifth but they had great wins over the course of the season, including closing out the regular season with a seven-match win streak. After starting the season 2-1, the Mean Green ran into some tough west coast competition while competing in a tournament hosted by 23rd-ranked Cal Poly, where they dropped all three matches last weekend. With only a couple of hours separating the UNT and ACU campuses, this will be the fifth meeting between the teams, but the first time they will play in Abilene. UNT leads the all-time series 4-0.
- Texas Tech will be another tough test for the Wildcats when they travel to take on the Red Raiders for the fourth straight season. The teams will meet for the seventh time in program history on Monday night. In the six previous meetings the Red Raiders hold the 5-1 advantage with their lone loss coming in Abilene in 2013, the Wildcats first year of DI competition. This will be the fifth visit to Lubbock for the Wildcats. Texas Tech is 4-3 on the season, including a loss to fellow Southland Conference member, SFA. The Red Raiders went 17-13 in 2018, including 6-10 in the Big 12, they return 15 letterwinners and five starts from that team. This will be the first and only Power 5 matchup for the Wildcats in their regular season.
Tournament info
Tournament central>> Game results and PDF box scores will be avaliable at this link after each match.
All tournament games will be streamed through Facebook Live on the ACUSports Facebook page.
9/12 vs. Cal State Fullerton 6 p.m.
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9/13 vs. Prairie View A&M 6:30 p.m.
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9/14 vs. North Texas 2 p.m.
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9/16 at Texas Tech 6 p.m.
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