The Wildcats finished 1-2 in the Rice Tournament this past weekend.
ACU went up against Loyola Marymount Friday, which is currently 3-3 on the season. It was a rough start for the Wildcats, as they lost the first set, 13-25. The next two sets the Wildcats came up shy by two points losing the 3rd and 4th set, 23-25.
The next matchup in the tournament for the Wildcats was against the Rice Owls. The Owls are picked to finish first in conference play and are currently 6-0 in the season.
The first two sets the Wildcats lost 12-25 and came up short on the 3rd set losing 23-25. The Wildcats lost 0-3 to the Owls on Saturday.
The last game was the best for the Wildcats. They played Prairie View A&M and won the matchup, their first of the season, 3-1.
Sophomore setter Madison Rohre said despite the score in the first two games, they did really well and wanted to bring those positive things into the last game against Prairie View.
“We came into this game with a fire,” Rohre said. “We really wanted to end on a good note this weekend because we played really well and had really good sets against LMU and Rice, so we wanted to continue that through Prairie View.”
The first set, the Wildcats lost 22-25 but quickly turned it around winning the second set, 26-24, the third set, 25-19, and winning the fourth, 25-14. Sophomore outside hitter and right side hitter Lindsey Toney had a career-high of 23 kills along with sophomore libero Makenzie Harris’s 24 digs.
Toney said the things they got from this tournament were encouraging and will propel them into further games.
“I think some key takeaways were just our ability to keep working even though we lost to LMU and Rice,” Toney said. “They were really tough teams and are both ranked really high and were really good. So just our ability to compete and to keep up with them was something that we really needed to keep our mindsets on like we can to this and be one of the top teams and the mindset of just continuing to encourage each other and keep a positive attitude on the court no matter what is going on.”
The Wildcats will host Fullerton, North Texas and Prairie View A&M in the Wildcat Classic this weekend. Their first game will be at 6 p.m Thursday vs. Fullerton.
