This week the ACU volleyball team has been preparing for the first tournament of the regular season starting today at 1 p.m. in San Antonio.
Their first game of four at the St. Mary’s tournament is against the University of Illinois at Springfield. The following three games are against Regis College, East Central University, and Pace University.
The Wildcats have never faced Illinois at Springfield or Pace. East Central, on the other hand, was previously a regular opponent for the ‘Cats as they were in the Lone Star Conference before joining the Great American Conference. ACU has beat ECU three times in three meetings.
Regis finished their 2010 campaign with a record of 17-12. They beat ACU early last season in one of its six losses and lead the all-time series 3-1. Illinois-Springfield was 10-20 last year while, East Central and Pace were 4-27 and 22-11 respectively.
When asked whether the Wildcats are looking for revenge against Regis, senior Kelsie Edwards said, “As a team, we are looking to beat Regis since they got us last year. There is always that competitive spirit we carry every season.”
Wildcat head coach Kellen Mock believes her young but extremely talented group of girls lead by the two captains; junior right-side Kalynne Allen and libero Kelsie Edwards along with LSC Freshman of the Year Neely Borger are capable of winning all four games.
“I think the girls will be fine. We should to go out there and plan to win four matches. It’s going to be a tough tournament. Regis is a good team. I expect us to start jelling as a team and working as a unit throughout the St. Mary’s Tournament. My goals are more for us to stay within the system and be able to pull out some wins.”
“It’s our first chance to compete for real and to see real competition”, said Edwards. “A lot of people know we are young so it’s important to go out and show everyone we’re a team to be feared.”
Mock has spent the last couple of weeks during practice attempting to figure out who will replace the holes left by Hines, Schilling and now assistant coach Ijeoma Moronu.
“Right now were still trying to iron out who is going to play and who’s not. I’m looking at what lineups we have that we can comfortably throw out there so, we’re still at a point of analyzing our players to get ready for this weekend.”
Mock said she expected the tournament to be tough, but believes the girls will be up for the challenge. “I expect us to start jelling as a team and working as a unit throughout the tournament,” Mock said. “My goals are more for us to stay within the system and be able to pull out with some wins.”
“It’s our first chance to compete for real and see competition,” said Edwards.
Although Mock is still deciding which girls will play, Edwards said this is a time for the girls to learn to work together as a team and rely on each other.
“This week was about bringing out the competitiveness among the team,” Edwards said.
