With West Texas A&M’s volleyball program having what appears to be a down year with a lot of crucial non-conference losses, another program has a chance to step up and take control of the LSC. That team seems to be the Wildcats.
This year, both the Wildcats and Lady Buffs have identical 10-0 conference records, but the real difference is the overall record where the Cats are 22-3 and West Texas 18-8. Coach Kellen Mock seems to think that the changing of the guard is happening between the two teams.
“I would say that the power is shifting,” said undergraduate coach Daniel Graves. “They lost five starters and don’t have a lot of depth, while we have a balanced team from our seniors all the way down to the freshmen.”
This week, ACU took care of its business winning both of their matches handily. They beat East Central 3-0 on Thursday before crushing Southeastern Oklahoma State by the same score.
Thursday’s match against East Central was ACU’s annual “Dig Pink” match in support of breast cancer awareness. Sporting pink headbands and socks, the Wildcats took it to ECU in all three games by scores of 25-13, 25-14 and 25-10. Â Fans came out in support, also with many wearing pink. Even the officials got in the act with pink shirts.
The second game of the weekend looked a lot like the first. Southeastern came into the game only a little better than last place East Central. The scores weren’t much different as the Wildcats ran through the Savage Storm by scores of 25-14, 25-8 and 25-22.
“The match against Southeastern showed that we have a solid team of 14 deep,” said junior libero Kelsie Edwards. “It is going to take every single person on this team to accomplish the goals we have set for ourselves.”
The big performers on the weekend were the same as usual for the Wildcats. Senior Shawna Hines was all over the stat sheet against ECU with 11 kills and seven blocks. Freshman Neely Borger also sparkled in Thursday’s match hitting five kills with no errors for a perfect 1.000 hitting percentage. The ‘Cats were led on offense on Saturday by sophomore Kalynne Allen who had nine kills with only one error, while senior Ijeoma Moronu posted another double double with 29 assists and 17 digs.
Although ACU did more than enough to win both games the AVCA didn’t think the Wildcats were worthy of moving up in the top 25 poll. The ‘Cats actually fell one spot from 20th to 21st.
They will play again Thursday at Kingsville to take on Texas A&M Kingsville and on Saturday in San Antonio against Incarnate Word.
