Volleyball team pursuing a decade of excellence in 2008

The Abilene Christian football team has a lot of great things around the bend this year with much to look forward to and many high expectations. However, the other fall sports programs are looking to make impressions of its own in 2008. The men’s cross country team will be looking to repeat as national champs while the women’s program is looking to improve on its eighth place finish.

The women’s soccer program is still in its infancy but was able to post three conference wins in the Wildcats’ inaugural season in 2007. In 2008, head coach Casey Wilson, his solid core of returnees and key new additions will look to make even more of an impression on the Lone Star Conference in ACU’s second season as a program.

This entry will feature thoughts on the Wildcat volleyball program as they gun for its 10th-straight winning season in 2008. Dating back to former head coach Brek Horn’s start in 1999, ACU has posted the longest consecutive streak of winning seasons at nine (previous long streak, seven from 1987-93).

However, first, I thought fans would enjoy this link to an article written by Steve Chavis, who contributes to the Promise Keepers Web Site. He wrote an article recently featuring ACU head football coach Chris Thomsen and the ACU football program. It’s always nice to have positive press like this especially when sports fans are often used to seeing stories in college about athletes in trouble with the law.

http://www.promisekeepers.org/news/072808/football-team-joins-pks-manhood-movement

On to volleyball, I had a chance to sit down with head coach Kellen Mock yesterday to talk about the upcoming season. Look for a season preview on http://www.acusports.com (ACU’s official athletics web site) Friday, but this article will cover a little more in depth the background of the team’s quest for a decade of winning seasons.

History & Background:

Horn immediately came in and made a swift impact on the volleyball program. Though the Wildcats were never in the volleyball cellar by any means. In the first 27 years of the program from 1971-1998, the Wildcats posted a 437-399-4 record (.520 winning percentage) under five different head coaches.

Enter Horn and Mock the past nine seasons, however, and a dramatic shift for the better has taken place. In Horn’s first season, she took a team that posted a 1-11 record in the Lone Star Conference in 1998, and tallied a 23-12 overall record and posted a 7-5 conference mark. Since then, the Wildcats have been no stranger to success. Horn delivered ACU’s only two conference titles in history in 2004 and 2005 (Mock was a player on the 2004 squad).

In fact, since the ’99 season, ACU ranks third among LSC teams in overall win percentage (206-94, .687) and fourth in conference win percentage with a .696 mark and a 64-28 record (Note that from 1999-2006 records only reflected in-division games [North & South] before 2007 when all teams combined for one division).
West Texas A&M ranks first on the conference win percentage list since ’99 with a .898 mark and an impressive 88-10 record against LSC opponents. However, four of the Lady Buffs losses came to ACU when the Wildcats won four-straight matches over WTAMU in 2004-05.



Central Oklahoma and Cameron finish above ACU in the conference win percentage category, however, the Wildcats have gotten the better of both series when facing either team since 1999. ACU carries an 8-5 record over Cameron and a 7-2 mark over UCO the past nine years.

Brief 2007 Recap:

ACU narrowly gained its ninth-consecutive winning season last year with a 15-14 record. This was partly due to the tough schedule that Mock purposefully sought after. The Wildcats played five teams that were ranked nationally in the top 25 to begin the season.

However, when conference play rolled around, the Wildcats were back to old form and went 8-4 to finish fourth in the conference. The team won its first-round game in the LSC postseason tournament before falling to WTAMU for the third time in 2007. The Lady Buffs went on to the national semi-finals after winning the NCAA II Southwest Region Championship.


Who’s Gone?



After the 2005 season, ACU had to replace three all-Americans (Amanda ‘Slate’ Farrell, Lindsey ‘Martin’ Campbell, Michelle Bernhardt), which by most regards is virtually impossible.

Though the losses aren’t as great after the 2007 season, Mock and crew will have trouble replacing all-American Abbie Lowry and defensive specialist Liz Snoddy.

Lowry was an a four-time all-LSC honoree (MVP in 2006) and a 2006 all-American; she finished her career with 1,513 kills good for fifth on ACU’s all-time chart. Snoddy, a two-time all-LSC honoree finished second on ACU’s all-time list for digs with 1,573 narrowly missing the all-time lead by six digs.

Who’s Back?



Nine letter winners. One medical red shirt that has a chance to make an impact. Two all-region honorees. Four all-conference honorees.

It’s a good carry over for any team to have nine players back with match experience. Obviously, ACU will lean on its two all-region sophomores in Shawna Hines (led LSC in blocks per game) and Ijeoma Moronu (third in LSC in assists), it’s lone senior and fourth-year player Lauren Leone (eighth all-time on ACU’s career block list) and versatile junior Erin Curry.

However, Amy Wilson is back and played her way on to the court last year as a defensive specialist even with Snoddy’s talent. Krystine Cethoute and Michelle Bacon return to provide valuable depth at middle blocker. Jordan Schilling moved from middle blocker to outside hitter in the spring and Ericka Dickinson will provide back up to Moronu at setter.

Who’s New?

Technically she’s not new, but after suffering an injury, local standout Britni Golden will look for her first opportunity as an outside hitter in 2008 as a redshirt freshman. Golden had a standout career at Abilene High School and graduated in 2007 after a successful senior season in 2006.

The four incoming freshman are Kelsie Edwards (5-4, Libero, Highlands Ranch, Colo.), Aubree Vick (5-9, OH, Georgetown HS), Keisha Collier (6-0, OH, Abilene Cooper HS) and Jennie Hutt (5-9, OH, Papillion, Neb.).

Hutt seems to be the most decorated of the incoming freshmen. She was a two-time all-state selection in Nebraska, helped her team to a 37-6 record as a senior, and posted over 400 kills and digs in her final season with the team.

Collier will be a two-sport athlete in the 2008-09 school year for ACU as she will play volleyball and participate in track. Mock said that Collier has scary athletic ability.

Mock said that Vick gives ACU an option to play at either outside hitter or a defensive specialist proving her versatility. Mock said that Vick is one of those players that is consistent in every aspect of the game.

Edwards joins Hutt & Hines as the only other non-Texas player on the roster. The Colorado native is a defensive specialist and Mock said that she is a tremendous back-row player who reads hitters well.

Other Notes:

In pursuit of that 10th consecutive winning season, Mock has decided to add more regular season matches in 2008. In 2007, ACU played just 27 matches before the LSC Tournament and this year, she’s added four matches to the schedule to get some of her younger players more match experience.

To accompany that, Mock said that in 2007, she felt that the team may have been surprised by the speed of the college game early in the season (ACU began 0-4) and that in the spring and the preseason, one of the team’s strongest priorities will be to improve the transition game and constantly have the team at game speed.

Note that ACU’s first 11 matches will be on the road. The Wildcats will play a four-match tournament in Canyon (they’ll not be facing WT, the hosts), a four-match tournament in Durango, Colo., and a three-match tourney in San Antonio before they play host to Texas-Permian Basin Sept. 16.