The Wildcats aim to pay off a months of preseason practice and preparations on Nov. 9 as they face off against Howard Payne in Moody Coliseum.

Leading ACU for the 11th straight season is head coach Julie Goodenough, which the experienced head coach said her and her team already have big aspirations on their mind.

“I’m a firm believer in you have to begin with the end in mind,” Goodenough said. “We want to win the championship and the tournament championship. Do we talk about it every day? No, we do not. But we do have practice, emphasis, things that we are trying to be consistently good at.”

As for the Wildcats last season, the team finished with a 17-13 overall record, and finished their first year in the Western Athletic Conference with a 9-9 record. The team hoped to make a deep run in the conference tournament, but instead saw a season cut suddenly short in a heartbreaking first round loss to the University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros, 73-70.

Western Athletic Conference preseason rankings and honors

Heading into the season, Goodenough and her Wildcats were predicted to finish fifth in the WAC in both the preseason coaches and media polls. Along with being predicted to be in the top five in the conference, two Wildcats were given preseason honors.

One of those players is sophomore guard Bella Earle, who was named to the coaches preseason all-second team. Earle averaged 7.3 points and 21.7 minutes last season and earned multiple WAC Freshman of the Week honors. This year, Earle hopes to strengthen her game, as well as stay consistent for her team.

“One thing that’s a non-negotiable is just going out and being scrappy and working hard,” Earle said. “Shots will fall, will come and go, but I think effort is always consistent with me. I know if you’re playing 10 minutes or 40 minutes, I know people get tired in the game and I know that I’m always going to work hard and my teammates can can expect that from this season.”

The other Wildcat given preseason honors is graduate guard Madi Miller, named to the media’s All-WAC team. After dealing with a season cut short and a chaotic collegiate career due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was a obvious choice for Miller to return for her extra of eligibility.

“All of a sudden, it was my senior year after my sophomore year was cut short,” Miller said. “When I got the extra COVID year, it just felt it made sense because it felt like I wasn’t done. I didn’t feel completed. So when coach called and told me that she would like to have me on our roster another year, it just kind of was a no brainer for me to want to stay in this place that I love.”

Players returning for the Wildcats

Alongside Earle and Miller, the Wildcats only have three other players returning from last year’s roster. Those players include junior guard Taylor Morgan, who played a crucial role off the bench for the Wildcats last year, and sophomore center Alexis Babineaux.

Another returning for ACU, but may be unfamiliar to most fans, is sophomore forward Addison Martin. She received a medical redshirt last year after a knee injury suffered during preseason practices last August. But Goodenough said,

“She is a mystery to our fans because she got hurt, but she’s back,” Goodenough said. “She’s probably at about 80 percent of where she was before her injury, but she has been playing some minutes and she’s felt fine, she didn’t think about her knee. I’m excited for her, and she’s going to play a lot of minutes for us as well.”

Though ACU has five returners, the Wildcats lost several key pieces to transferring and graduation. Some of those players lost were graduates Jamie Bonnarens and Tatum Barber, who led the Wildcats in scoring last year averaging 15.1 and 9.5 points, respectively.

New, young and fresh faces 

Yet, head coach Julie Goodenough and her staff has made several additions to make up for the losses from last year’s roster. Out of the 14 players on the Wildcat’s roster, nine players are either true freshman or transferred to ACU from across the country.

With all of the new additions, only one is a upperclassman, with the remainder being freshman and sophomores:

• Maleeah Langstaff, graduate forward from Asheville, North Carolina, transferring from Northeastern State, averaged 30.1 minutes, 17.3 points per game and 8.8 rebounds per game last season
• Aspen Thornton, sophomore guard from Hot Springs, Arkansas, transferring from Div. II Ouachita Baptist, led all of Div. II with scoring 23.4 points per game
• Zoe Jackson, sophomore guard from McKinney, transferring from Butler, made 20 start for the Bulldogs as a freshman
• Brooke Jessen, sophomore forward from Spirit Lake, Idaho, transferring from WAC school UTRGV, scored a career-high 14 points in a win over ACU in the WAC Tournament
• Raychael Harjo, sophomore forward from Moore, Oklahoma, transferring from the University of Central Florida, had 1,000-point scoring career, and averaged 16.8 points and 8.5 rebounds in high school
• Reagan Fox, freshman from Blanchard, Oklahoma, member of 1,000-point club, made three state tournament appearances and named to all-conference team at Blanchard high school
• Hampton Williams, freshman forward from Salina, Kansas, at Salina Central High School, finished second and third at state, going 48-5 in two seasons, named to All-Kansas and SIT All-Tournament Teams
• Tristin Keller, freshman guard from Mason, named all-state three times, and lettered in basketball, football, softball, track, tennis and golf in high school
• Claire Graham, freshman guard from Tuscola, two-time Big Country MVP and finished high school with 125-15 record

While ACU lost the majority of the experience on their roster last season, they add a lot of athleticism, which is something Goodenough is looking forward to having this season.

“We graduated a ton of experience, but we also graduated some players whose bodies were pretty broken down from four and five years of playing college basketball,” Goodenough said. “So we have a lot of fresh bodies, young bodies, added athleticism and speed, which I think we’re going to really enjoy that this year.”

Preseason trip to Portugal 

Before preseason practices started, the Wildcats had the unique opportunity to travel to Portugal and play two exhibition games. Goodenough said that the players took the experience in, and gave them a good start before preseason practices even started.

“They just kind of took in the whole experience,” Goodenough said. “Half the team had passports before we started getting ready for the trip and the other half got a passport and traveled internationally for the first time. It was a really fun group to do that with very a respectable group of young women. They represented Abilene Christian very well in Europe and that experience has jump started our season.”

Earle said she enjoyed how her team bonded, from the team earning a win while in Portugal, along with all the off-court memories they made together.

“I love getting to play against people in Portugal and playing some 30 year olds, which is really weird,” Earle said. “I had a lot of things off where we got to win and that was fun. We jumped into some ocean water and it was just freezing cold, colder than the ice baths that we take. We got to see some really neat places and eat some really good food.”

Grand return to Moody Coliseum 

Along with the new players, the Wildcats see the return to the newly renovated Moody Coliseum after spending two straight seasons in the Teague Center. For Miller, it is exciting but also bittersweet, as she aims to honor all the former player she has played with.

“It’s just kind of bittersweet to be able to see what we worked for the last four years and be able to just enjoy it,” Miller said. “That is kind of what I’m going into this year thinking. Playing for all those people that I got to play with a long time ago, that don’t get to enjoy these facilities everyday like I do.”

Goodenough said the renovated coliseum will offer a first class experience for both her team and their opponents, and is eager to get games underway.

“It will be phenomenal,” Goodenough said. “It’s going to be packed and just so much energy, and it’s exceeded our expectations. It’ll be exciting to host, especially our WAC opponents, to host them in beauty. From our locker room to the visitors locker room, everything is first class. We’re just excited about starting the season we’re playing, including this year, will be really special.”

The Wildcats make their season and Moody Coliseum debut on Nov. 9 at 6 p.m., with the game streaming live on ESPN+ and the ACU Sports Network.