After starting the season with a 14-game road trip, the Wildcats (0-1, 0-14) will play their first home game of the season. ACU will play Northwestern State (1-2, 3-13) Thursday night in Moody Coliseum.
When the Wildcats take the court Thursday night they will be representing the Love Your Melon Foundation. Junior outside hitter Dorothy Swanson is a member of the newly founded ACU-branch of the foundation.
“Love your melon is a new organization recently added to our campus as it focuses on helping pediatric oncology patients and the goal is to provide a hat to every child battling cancer in America,” Swanson said. “Playing for a cause like this is so humbling and I couldn’t be more honored to play for these tough kiddos.”
Swanson said there will be a table set up near the main entrance with instructions on how to support the foundation. There will also be wristbands handed out and a chance to follow the organization on Facebook and Twitter.
On the season, the Wildcats will still be looking for their first win against Northwestern State, who stole two five-set wins from ACU a year ago. However, the Wildcats will be playing for a lot more than themselves on Thursday night which will also kick off breast cancer awareness month for ACU sports.
“We want these kids to know they’re not alone, there are hundreds of campuses across the nation cheering on these kids,” Swanson said. “I couldn’t think of anything better than to be able to use our God given abilities and gifts to honor these children. They are the real superheroes.”
Northwestern State is coming off a three-match homestand in which they went 1-2 to start their Southland Conference season, with their lone win coming against Nicholls State.
The Wildcats will start their own five-match homestand when they take on Northwestern State, something the team is looking forward to.
“We are so excited to finally be home. We have the best fans in the Southland (Conference) and the best student section ever,” Swanson said. We can’t wait to represent our school and show everyone what we’re made of.”
This will be the fourth meeting all-time between the schools, a series Northwestern State has swept 3-0.
