By Daniel Johnson, Sports Editor
The No. 20 ACU volleyball team will return to Denver, Colo., this weekend to defend last season’s first place finish in the Colorado Premier Challenge.
The last time the Wildcats played in the tournament, ACU went on a stunning 4-0 run in 2005 to win the tournament title. ACU was the only team to make it through the tournament undefeated and did so at the expense of top ranked Concordia St. Paul and Central Missouri State. Former all-Americans Amanda Slate and Michelle Bernhardt both made the all-tournament team, and the tournament was the beginning of the Wildcats’ school record 31 game winning streak.
But this year’s team is not the same team that won in Denver last fall.
After graduating three all-Americans-Slate, Bernhardt and Lindsey Martin-and without the program’s most successful head coach Brek Horn, the Wildcats are a fresh-faced team with a large target on their backs.
“We are a very young team,” said junior libero Liz Snoddy. “We do have leadership and we do have veterans, but we need to include the freshmen and new girls so we can learn to play.”
Nine of the 14 players on this year’s roster are new to the LSC and only two of last year’s six starters are returning for the Wildcats. But regardless of the college experience of her team, new head coach Kellen Mock is optimistic about the benefits their preseason schedule will bring.
“I think we have some growing to do,” Mock said. “But we are preparing ourselves through these tournaments to face people that are bigger and possibly more talented than us to challenge us to play bigger, better and older than we are.”
The Wildcats began their preseason challenges last weekend in a loss to No. 5 Minnesota-Duluth at the Northern Michigan Invitational and may see similar competition this weekend. Duluth and ACU are two of the 11 teams in the Premier that are either ranked on the American Volleyball Coaches’ Association top 25 Division II pre-season poll or received votes.
The only unranked team is no stranger to ACU-conference rivals West Texas A&M.
Although WTAMU is not nationally ranked, they are picked to win the LSC conference in the 2006 pre-season poll. If both teams were to advance it could foreshadow a future showdown between the two teams.
But before anything else can happen, ACU must defeat their first two opponents Washburn and Metro State.
Both teams are ranked in the national top 30, and Metro State is co-host of the tournament. The last time the Wildcats faced Metro State was in 2005 when ACU knocked them out of the regional tournament.
Regardless of which team the Wildcats will face or what the end result will be, Mock is not affected by the hype.
“All that matters is can we pass the ball, can we block the ball, can we hit the ball, can we serve the ball and can we have less errors than the other team,” she said. “It doesn’t matter who’s on the other side or what they’re ranked-it’s who is going to make the less errors that day.”
