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Junior Kendall Bosse sets for one of her outside hitters. (Lauren Franco)

Wildcats finish 3-1 at Borderland Invitational

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The Wildcats are back on track after a 3-1 weekend at the Borderland Invitational, and now boast a 4-7 record on the year.

ACU lost its first match to New Mexico State in straight sets, but bounced back with a five-set victory over Samford and a three- game sweep of Delaware State.

Head coach Angela Mooney said the team got off to a slow start against New Mexico State, but responded well the rest of the way.

“New Mexico State is a quality team who finds success year in and year out. During that match, we weren’t controlling any aspects of the game until the third set and by then it was really hard to get the momentum,” Mooney said. “The team responded and started off strong right away against Samford. They were very similar to us physically and we knew we had to control the ball at a high level to beat them.”

Senior Corinne Grandcolas led the team with 15 kills against Samford. Grandcolas was one of a handful of players Mooney highlighted from the weekend’s success.

“Corinne Grandcolas had an excellent weekend on the right side for us,” Mooney said. “Typically, she has been playing on the left for us. This past weekend she hit for really great numbers and slowed a ton of balls down with her block.”

Mooney also said junior Lauren Walker was a steady force in the middle. Walker had 17 blocks and 35 kills over the weekend, and was named as a Southland Conference Defensive Player of the Week Honorable Mention.

ACU finished the tournament with a five-set battle against UTEP, where the Wildcats rattled off a 10-1 run in the final game to clinch the victory. The four wins in non-conference play this season are one more than the last three years combined and tied for the highest preseason win total since the program went Div. 1 in 2013.

The Wildcats will have a chance to best that when they take on North Texas Wednesday night. The match is the last one before the women start conference play Sept. 23.
UNT is 8-1 on the season, with its only loss coming in a four-game match against Texas Tech at home. ACU fell to the Red Raiders earlier this season in straight sets.
“North Texas will be a confident team coming into the match as they have only lost one match thus far,” Mooney said. “This match is one more opportunity for us to test ourselves against a quality team from a competitive conference before Southland play starts next week.”
The team will get 10 days to rest and refocus after it takes on the Mean Green on Wednesday, before hosting Sam Houston State in the home opener. Mooney said she is looking for complete effort in every match from here on out.
“Our team is maturing and starting to understand the level of focus, effort and play it takes to consistently beat the teams we want to beat,” Mooney said. “At the end of a match we should feel exhausted not only physically but mentally. When we feel this way we have found we ended the match with the results we wanted whether we won or not.”
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