Sunday, November 15
Fort Worth, Texas
2 p.m.
Abilene Christian
at
TCU
Photo by: Emma Hall
11/14/2026 8:26:00 PM | Women's Basketball
FORT WORTH, Texas — Abilene Christian women's basketball will battle its first ranked opponent since 2020 when it takes on No. 15 TCU at Schollmaier Arena at 2 p.m. Sunday. The Wildcats wrap up a three-game road trip while aiming for their first ranked win in program history.
Sunday's matchup will be streamed on ESPN+ with John Liddle (play-by-play) and Jada Curtis (analyst) calling the action.
ACU (3-0) is looking for its third triumph over a power conference opponent and its first since taking down Oklahoma State 66-56 in the WNIT on March 16, 2017. The Wildcats picked up their first power conference victory in their debut Division I season in a 58-57 thriller versus Texas Tech on Dec. 22, 2013.
A win over the Horned Frogs would elevate the Wildcats to 4-0, their best start since 2020-21. ACU is 8-2 in its last 10 games versus nonconference foes and has won seven of its last 10 matchups on the road.
ACU leads its series versus TCU, 7-4, but is seeking its first victory over the Horned Frogs since 1982, when the programs competed in the Texas Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women. The teams have met twice as Division I programs, with TCU picking up wins in Fort Worth in 2013 and 2023.
The Wildcats suffered a 77-60 loss at Schollmaier Arena in the programs' last meeting in 2023. Payton Hull, then in the early going of her WAC Freshman of the Year campaign, scored 12 points and brought down five rebounds in 34 minutes. Emma Troxell dished out three assists and Meredith Mayes collected a couple of boards.
ACU is one of only three teams to play TCU in Fort Worth in its four seasons under head coach Mark Campbell and not suffer a loss of 20 points or more.
The Wildcats have fired on all cylinders to begin a 2026-27 season in which they were picked to win the United Athletic Conference. ACU has averaged 89.3 points in its first three games while surrendering just 44.7 points per contest. The Wildcats lead the UAC in field goal percentage at .518, including a conference-best .327 mark from beyond the arc.
Mayes leads the nation in field goal percentage, connecting on 15 of 16 field goal tries for a .938 clip. She's averaging 11.3 points per game. Before suffering a season-ending injury 16 games into the 2025-26 campaign, Mayes ranked third in the country with a .682 field goal percentage.
Hull is the conference's leading scorer with 18.7 points per game and ranks first with both a .348 three-point field goal percentage. Her 4.3 steals per game are tops in the UAC and rank 11th nationally. Hull scored 20 points in ACU's 76-59 win over UT Rio Grande Valley on Wednesday. She became the Wildcats' Division I leader in career field goals with 542 after connecting on eight shots.
ALL EYES ON ABILENE – ACU kicks off the 2026-27 campaign with plenty of preseason hardware. The Wildcats were tabbed the UAC preseason favorites with eight of nine first-place votes atop the Preseason UAC Coaches Poll. Payton Hull was named the 2026-27 United Athletic Conference Preseason Player of the Year and landed on the Preseason All-UAC Team alongside Meredith Mayes and Erin Woodson. The Wildcats' three honorees on the 11-member Preseason All-UAC Team are the most in the conference. Experience is a strength of the 2026-27 Wildcats, with five members of the roster owning 50 or more career starts entering the season in Hull, Mayes, Woodson, Emma Troxell and Raimi McCrary.
Hull, the reigning Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year, and Mayes were also named to the Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Award preseason watch list. The seniors join a team of 25 student-athletes from across the nation to land on the preseason watch list representing the best players at the mid-major level. The Wildcats are one of three programs to tout at least two selections and are the only United Athletic Conference program featured.
REWRITING THE RECORD BOOK – Hull has made a name for herself as one of the most consistent players in the nation. The Peaster, Texas product has scored 10 points or more in 84 of 90 career games and has notched a steal in 77 games. Hull rattled off an ACU DI-record 36 points at Tarleton State on Feb. 14, 2026. With four career 30-point performances, she is tied with Breanna Wright for the most in the program's Division I era. Hull's 14 20-point performances led the WAC last season, and she has 31 20-point games in her career.
Hull was the fastest of the nine Wildcats in the DI era to reach the 1,000-point milestone, doing so in 60 games. She ranks third in the Wildcats' DI record book with 1,559 career points and is 107 points shy of breaking Alexis Mason's program record of 1,666 points. Hull is ACU's DI leader in career field goals with 542, reaching the milestone at UTRGV on Nov. 11. She was named the UAC Player of the Week on Nov. 9, the program-record sixth weekly honor of her career.
IN THE REARVIEW MIRROR – The Wildcats launched back-to-back 20-win campaigns with a 24-11 showing in 2025-26. ACU placed second in the final season of the Western Athletic Conference with a 13-5 mark in conference action. It picked up its most conference victories since 2019-20 and its first back-to-back 20-win seasons since 2018-20. ACU built Moody Coliseum into one of the conference's top home-court advantages with a 14-2 record at home. It marked its most home victories since 2019-20. The Wildcats returned to the Women's National Invitation Tournament's Super 16 with an automatic berth, matching the program's deepest postseason run.
NEW YEAR, NEW CONFERENCE – ACU makes its debut in the United Athletic Conference in 2026, welcoming six new conference opponents along with Tarleton State and UT Arlington in the rebranding of the WAC. Austin Peay, Central Arkansas, Eastern Kentucky, North Alabama and West Georgia join from the Atlantic Sun, while Little Rock makes the move from the Ohio Valley. The inaugural UAC Tournament is set for the Credit Union of Texas Event Center in Allen, Texas on March 10-14, 2027. The venue in the DFW Metroplex will serve as the championship site for the next three seasons.
WORLDWIDE WILDCATS – ACU was propelled into the 2026-27 season with a summer international tour to Greece and Rwanda across two weeks in August. The Wildcats took part in numerous unforgettable experiences through international competition, service work and cultural immersion activities. ACU played two games versus semi-pro teams in Athens, Greece before hosting basketball clinics at Rwanda Children, a faith-based nonprofit founded by ACU track and field alum Serge Gasore ('09) outside of Kigali, Rwanda.
COACH GOODENOUGH'S MILESTONES – With a .643 winning percentage in 15 seasons at ACU (277-154), head coach Julie Goodenough is second in program history in winning percentage behind Suzanne Fox (117-33, .780) and second in wins behind Burl McCoy (299-174). Goodenough is 566-374 (.602 winning percentage) in her career spanning 33 seasons between Hardin-Simmons, Oklahoma State, Charleston Southern and ACU. She will coach in her 941st game on Sunday.
Sunday's matchup will be streamed on ESPN+ with John Liddle (play-by-play) and Jada Curtis (analyst) calling the action.
ACU (3-0) is looking for its third triumph over a power conference opponent and its first since taking down Oklahoma State 66-56 in the WNIT on March 16, 2017. The Wildcats picked up their first power conference victory in their debut Division I season in a 58-57 thriller versus Texas Tech on Dec. 22, 2013.
A win over the Horned Frogs would elevate the Wildcats to 4-0, their best start since 2020-21. ACU is 8-2 in its last 10 games versus nonconference foes and has won seven of its last 10 matchups on the road.
ACU leads its series versus TCU, 7-4, but is seeking its first victory over the Horned Frogs since 1982, when the programs competed in the Texas Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women. The teams have met twice as Division I programs, with TCU picking up wins in Fort Worth in 2013 and 2023.
The Wildcats suffered a 77-60 loss at Schollmaier Arena in the programs' last meeting in 2023. Payton Hull, then in the early going of her WAC Freshman of the Year campaign, scored 12 points and brought down five rebounds in 34 minutes. Emma Troxell dished out three assists and Meredith Mayes collected a couple of boards.
ACU is one of only three teams to play TCU in Fort Worth in its four seasons under head coach Mark Campbell and not suffer a loss of 20 points or more.
The Wildcats have fired on all cylinders to begin a 2026-27 season in which they were picked to win the United Athletic Conference. ACU has averaged 89.3 points in its first three games while surrendering just 44.7 points per contest. The Wildcats lead the UAC in field goal percentage at .518, including a conference-best .327 mark from beyond the arc.
Mayes leads the nation in field goal percentage, connecting on 15 of 16 field goal tries for a .938 clip. She's averaging 11.3 points per game. Before suffering a season-ending injury 16 games into the 2025-26 campaign, Mayes ranked third in the country with a .682 field goal percentage.
Hull is the conference's leading scorer with 18.7 points per game and ranks first with both a .348 three-point field goal percentage. Her 4.3 steals per game are tops in the UAC and rank 11th nationally. Hull scored 20 points in ACU's 76-59 win over UT Rio Grande Valley on Wednesday. She became the Wildcats' Division I leader in career field goals with 542 after connecting on eight shots.
ALL EYES ON ABILENE – ACU kicks off the 2026-27 campaign with plenty of preseason hardware. The Wildcats were tabbed the UAC preseason favorites with eight of nine first-place votes atop the Preseason UAC Coaches Poll. Payton Hull was named the 2026-27 United Athletic Conference Preseason Player of the Year and landed on the Preseason All-UAC Team alongside Meredith Mayes and Erin Woodson. The Wildcats' three honorees on the 11-member Preseason All-UAC Team are the most in the conference. Experience is a strength of the 2026-27 Wildcats, with five members of the roster owning 50 or more career starts entering the season in Hull, Mayes, Woodson, Emma Troxell and Raimi McCrary.
Hull, the reigning Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year, and Mayes were also named to the Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Award preseason watch list. The seniors join a team of 25 student-athletes from across the nation to land on the preseason watch list representing the best players at the mid-major level. The Wildcats are one of three programs to tout at least two selections and are the only United Athletic Conference program featured.
REWRITING THE RECORD BOOK – Hull has made a name for herself as one of the most consistent players in the nation. The Peaster, Texas product has scored 10 points or more in 84 of 90 career games and has notched a steal in 77 games. Hull rattled off an ACU DI-record 36 points at Tarleton State on Feb. 14, 2026. With four career 30-point performances, she is tied with Breanna Wright for the most in the program's Division I era. Hull's 14 20-point performances led the WAC last season, and she has 31 20-point games in her career.
Hull was the fastest of the nine Wildcats in the DI era to reach the 1,000-point milestone, doing so in 60 games. She ranks third in the Wildcats' DI record book with 1,559 career points and is 107 points shy of breaking Alexis Mason's program record of 1,666 points. Hull is ACU's DI leader in career field goals with 542, reaching the milestone at UTRGV on Nov. 11. She was named the UAC Player of the Week on Nov. 9, the program-record sixth weekly honor of her career.
IN THE REARVIEW MIRROR – The Wildcats launched back-to-back 20-win campaigns with a 24-11 showing in 2025-26. ACU placed second in the final season of the Western Athletic Conference with a 13-5 mark in conference action. It picked up its most conference victories since 2019-20 and its first back-to-back 20-win seasons since 2018-20. ACU built Moody Coliseum into one of the conference's top home-court advantages with a 14-2 record at home. It marked its most home victories since 2019-20. The Wildcats returned to the Women's National Invitation Tournament's Super 16 with an automatic berth, matching the program's deepest postseason run.
NEW YEAR, NEW CONFERENCE – ACU makes its debut in the United Athletic Conference in 2026, welcoming six new conference opponents along with Tarleton State and UT Arlington in the rebranding of the WAC. Austin Peay, Central Arkansas, Eastern Kentucky, North Alabama and West Georgia join from the Atlantic Sun, while Little Rock makes the move from the Ohio Valley. The inaugural UAC Tournament is set for the Credit Union of Texas Event Center in Allen, Texas on March 10-14, 2027. The venue in the DFW Metroplex will serve as the championship site for the next three seasons.
WORLDWIDE WILDCATS – ACU was propelled into the 2026-27 season with a summer international tour to Greece and Rwanda across two weeks in August. The Wildcats took part in numerous unforgettable experiences through international competition, service work and cultural immersion activities. ACU played two games versus semi-pro teams in Athens, Greece before hosting basketball clinics at Rwanda Children, a faith-based nonprofit founded by ACU track and field alum Serge Gasore ('09) outside of Kigali, Rwanda.
COACH GOODENOUGH'S MILESTONES – With a .643 winning percentage in 15 seasons at ACU (277-154), head coach Julie Goodenough is second in program history in winning percentage behind Suzanne Fox (117-33, .780) and second in wins behind Burl McCoy (299-174). Goodenough is 566-374 (.602 winning percentage) in her career spanning 33 seasons between Hardin-Simmons, Oklahoma State, Charleston Southern and ACU. She will coach in her 941st game on Sunday.
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