The Wildcats travel to Albuquerque, New Mexico on Friday to begin the 2016 season. ACU will be taking part in the New Mexico Tournament, and open up against the tournament-host Lobos. UNM finished 17-14 last year, but are better equipped this year with a deep and talented depth chart. The Wildcats will have a great first test to see how they stack up against some of the bigger schools in Div. 1.

Head coach Jason Bibler is excited for his team to compete against great talent and seeing all the hard work his team has put in.

“Really we are going to be looking at what from our training is carrying over to full-speed matches vs opponents and what we need to change or do different from there,” Bibler said.

After the first game there won’t be much of a break, because that afternoon the Wildcats take on the University of Idaho, who finished 14-16 last season. The Vandals have had several injuries this summer and are also a very young team as they welcome eight newcomers this year. Make no mistake this will be a good test for the Wildcats as their conditioning is with only a few hours of recovery.

Saturday, the Wildcats go up against Fairfield University. The stags are coming off a great 2015 season in which they won the MAAC Championship and have the majority of the team returning.

The last and final game of the round robin format tournament is against the Sun Devils from Arizona State University.  The Sun Devils have a new head coach, but bring back several key players and will be another tough team.

“We want to see everything transfer over and if we can do those things we feel like we can be successful this weekend,” Bibler said.

The New Mexico tournament is the first of four straight weekends where the Wildcats will hit the road against difficult Div. 1 competition.