The Wildcats will take their their three-game winning streak to the road for a three-game road trip. ACU will head to Lake Charles, Louisiana, Thursday to take on McNeese St. before traveling to Thibodaux, Louisiana, for their game against Nicholls Saturday. The team will finish up a busy weekend back on Texas soil in Houston to play against Houston Baptist Monday night.
Head coach Jason Bibler said the team has been having good practices and is looking forward to the road trip.
“I think we have found our rhythm a little bit the last few matches,” Bibler said. “I think we understand and know what we need to do to be successful and we’ve seen success in those things, which helps a lot.”
McNeese St. is coming off of their first conference victory this year as it is 1-4 in Southland play and 5-15 overall on the season. The Cowgirls will be trying to win their first game at home this year as well as they are 0-2 at home court. McNeese has one of the top assisters with Alexandra Aguilera who is averaging 9.59 assists per set to place her second in the league. Rebecca Korenek has a .222 hitting percentage on the season for the Cowgirls, but hasn’t been playing as her usual self as of late because of an injury she sustained against UL-Lafayette.
Nicholls St. comes into the game after having snapped an 11-game losing streak after beating Mississippi Valley State on Tuesday. The Colonels have yet to win a game in conference this year going 0-4 so far, but did beat the Wildcats twice a year ago. This season, Kali Schwartz is the team’s leading scorer with 163.5 points and Emily Weimer leads her team with 48 blocks on the year. The Colonels are hitting .167 on the year.
Sophomores Jacey Smith and Lauren Walker go up for a block. ACU recorded 28 blocks in the two matches last weekend.
A trip to Houston Baptist will finish the Wildcats’ three-game road trip. HBU has a 11-8 overall record with a 2-1 conference record, but will play Northwestern St. and Central Arkansas before they take on ACU. The Huskies own the Southland’s third highest hitting percentage with a .225 overall as a team.
“We know what we need to do in order for us to be successful and compete the way that we want to, so I expect that we will do that in all three of our matches this weekend,” Bibler said. “All of our opponents give us different challenges and different match ups that we have to prepare for. We don’t focus on standings or records, only on what we need to do to put us in the best position possible to be successful.”
Abilene Christian is 4-15 on the season with a 3-1 conference record that is good enough to have the Wildcats in fourth place in the Southland. After last week’s two block parties, the Wildcats remain the league’s top blocking team and increased their average to 3.19 blocks on SLC matches.
