LIVE STATS vs. Wichita State | LIVE STATS vs. New Mexico State | LIVE STATS vs. Texas A&M
After dropping three matches in the Dallas Metroplex last weekend, the Wildcats are on the road again this weekend as they head to College Station for games with Wichita State (2-1), New Mexico State (3-1), and Texas A&M (1-1). Each of the three teams are coming off impressive season debuts, as they all sit at a winning percentage of .500 or better.
Although ACU was winless in its first three matches, the team is coming off a good week of practice and is prepared for the matches that lie ahead.
“I think the two biggest things are cutting down our errors, like hitting errors and service errors, but still staying aggressive,” senior hitter Jennie Loerch said. “We don’t have trouble scoring this year, that’s not an issue, it’s like just keeping the ball in play.”
The Wildcats first match of the weekend against the Wichita State Shockers is set to get started at 11 a.m. Friday morning. The Shockers, who started their season 2-1 with wins over Oregon State and Idaho, and a loss to no. 18 Hawaii, recently received votes in the latest Div. I coaches poll.
Following their Friday morning matchup, the Wildcats will play again Saturday morning against New Mexico State, who missed a perfect start to its season when they lost in five sets to no. 16 Arizona State. However, New Mexico State not only picked up wins in it three other matches, but the team’s senior hitter was also honored with the National Player of the Week award.
We spent a lot of time this week trying to work on our hitting errors,” head coach Jason Bibler said. “It wasn’t something I was upset about really. We are going to have to take risks in order to score pints and win, and that’s what we were doing to get the 64 kills we had. ”
ACU will round out its second difficult weekend in a row when they take the court against tournament host Texas A&M. The Aggies are coming off a 1-1 start to their 2015 campaign, with their single loss coming against No. 2 Stanford. Texas A&M much like Wichita State earned votes in the latest DI coaches poll and will be looking to solidify a spot in next week’s poll. The game is set to air live on the SEC Network at 4:30 p.m. In regards to the televised match Loerch said she just hopes she doesn’t spit out her gum again.
Bibler and his team are confident, despite the tough competition they will continue to improve.
“We put the girls in certain situations so they would understand when to take certain risks and I think we improved a lot this week and got better on some things we need to improve on,” Bibler said.
