By Brian Roe, Sports Writer
The Wildcat volleyball team opened Lone Star Conference play Friday with a victory over Eastern New Mexico before falling to rival West Texas A&M on Saturday.
ACU is now 17-7 overall with a 1-1 conference record in the LSC South Division. The Wildcats beat up on the Zias of ENM Friday winning in three straight games, 30-17, 30-24, 30-16.
“We dominated from the very beginning until the end,” head coach Brek Horn said.
However, ACU suffered a huge loss when sophomore setter Lindsey Martin landed on a teammate and sprained her right ankle midway through the final game of the match.
Martin did not play in Saturday’s match against West Texas A&M, which had its NCAA Division II record 77-match winning streak snapped the night before to Angelo State. She will miss a minimum of one or two games. Martin, who leads the entire LSC in assists, was replaced Saturday by freshman setter Malia Plumlee.
“I think Malia stepped into the hardest scenario possible,” Horn said. “It was a huge conference match at home against a good team, but she handled it very well.”
Plumlee handled the situation, posting 64 assists and 21 digs against West Texas A&M, but the team couldn’t handle the Lady Buffs, losing in four close games, 30-27, 30-28, 26-30, 30-27.
Senior outside hitter Haylee Hartline and sophomore outside hitter Michelle Bernhardt each had 23 kills in the match against the Lady Buffs, who have now won 21 straight matches against ACU dating back to October 1993.
“I’m disappointed that we lost, but I am still confident in my team’s playing ability,” Horn said. “We’ll have another opportunity to play them. Hopefully, we are all healthy and can prove ourselves on a level playing field.”
Horn said Martin’s injury was not the reason the Wildcats lost the match.
“I think when your setter is out, it causes some inconsistency and timing issues, but that wasn’t the only reason we lost,” Horn said. “We did not serve well at all, and we couldn’t close out game four, so I’m not going to blame the loss on the injury.”
Horn said she is excited that Plumlee will get a chance to work with the starters this week in practice and think she will be even more prepared for this week’s games.
“We had some small issues that were off because Malia hasn’t really worked with our starters at all,” Horn said. “It will be good for her to work with the starters and I think she will be fine.”
Horn said she is not focused on the re-match against the Lady Buffs on Oct. 31, but rather on the conference matches this week.
“Right now, that match isn’t important because if we care of these next few matches then that match won’t even matter,” Horn said.
