By Joshua Parrott, Sports Writer
This weekend is now or never for the ACU volleyball team.
After falling to St. Edward’s Tuesday night, 3-1, and dropping matches to both Eastern New Mexico and West Texas A&M, the Wildcats stand at 7-7 overall, but more importantly 0-2 in Lone Star Conference South Division play, making this weekend’s home matches against Texas A&M-Kingsville and Tarlton State even more important.
Just ask head coach Brek Horn.
“They should both be tough opponents for us on our home court,” Horn said. “Beating the No. 7 in the country (Tarlton State) is never easy, but it will be a very tough match.”
The Wildcats play the Javelinas 7 p.m. Friday in Moody Coliseum and take on Tarlton State 2 p.m. the following day.
Texas A&M-Kingsville en-ters this weekend’s match at 7-8, 1-2 in LSC South play and are lead by Stephanie Briscoe, who has 127 kills, and Sara Streets, who has 304 assists thus far into the season.
Tarlton State is hot entering this weekend, winning four of the last five matches, and is lead by Lacey Adkisson, last week’s LSC South Division Hitter of the Week. The TexAnns are 7-7 overall and also features Lindsey Hillegass, who ranks second in the LSC South in assists with 564, an average of 12 per game.
Horn said last weekend’s match against Eastern New Mexico was the highlight of the season up to this point for both her team and junior outside hitter Haylee Hartline.
“It was a very close match, the best match we’ve played all year,” Horn said. “Haylee played her most complete match of the year, too.”
Hartline dominated the Greyhounds with 22 kills and 11 digs, while freshman outside hitter Michelle Bernhardt finished with 19 kills and 8 digs.
As of this week’s matches, sophomore Kellen Morrow leads the Wildcats in digs with 206, while Bernhardt leads in kills with 243 and Hartline follows with 227 kills.