Notes from around the Wildcat Den

Photo Galleries:

Football: ACU vs. ENMU (09.27.08)
Volleyball: ACU vs. ENMU (09.25.08)
Soccer: ACU vs. Angelo (09.26.08)

Three sports you haven’t heard much about on this blog since we started it in August is men’s basketball, women’s basketball and tennis.

However, all three made or will make news this weekend at ACU. Yesterday, we posted the preseason polls for men’s and women’s basketball after head coaches Jason Copeland and Shawna Lavender went to the Lone Star Conference media day Wednesday in Bartlesville, Okla.

Dejan Sencanski (pictured) returns for his senior year for Copeland and the men’s team in 2008-09. The native from Serbia, was named the LSC South Division Preseason Player of the Year and the Wildcats were picked to finish third in the South.

Copeland and the Wildcats will look to make the conference tournament for the second-straight season. In March of 2008, ACU made the LSC postseason tourney for the first time since the 1997-98 season.

Lavender’s squad was picked second in the south division for the second-straight time behind West Texas A&M. The Wildcats have 10 returning players and four starters from 2007-08 when ACU finished 18-11 and advanced to the LSC semi-finals. Seniors Audrey Maxwell-Lively and Kristee Davidson will look to provide veteran leadership.

This weekend, the women’s tennis team will play host to the ITA South Central Regional Tournament. This tournament is one of eight similar tournaments around the nation that holds flights of singles and doubles in order to advance to the ITA Small College National Championships.

These tournaments are not played in team form, although, doubles partners come from the same school. Last season, freshman Jaclyn Walker nearly advanced to nationals when she fell in the championship match. However, Irene Squillaci (pictured) and Aina Rafolo won the doubles regional last season to move to nationals. With Rafolo graudated, Squilliaci will be joined by Walker to try and repeat as champs.

The tournament starts Friday and goes through Sunday with matches at ACU, HSU and Rose Park.

The volleyball team will compete in the Pittsburg State Classic this weekend in Pittsburg, Kan. The soccer team faces Dallas Baptist in Dallas Thrusday evening before playing host to Midwestern State Sunday at the ACU Soccer Field. The Wildcats are looking for their first conference win Sunday against the Lady Mustangs after a tough 1-0 loss to Angelo State last season.

The cross country team is at the Jamboree Classic in Stillwater, Okla. Saturday morning hosted by Big XII school Oklahoma State. Last season, both ACU’s men and women won the Jamboree. This year, the women have a good chance to repeat, but they’ll need to defeat two nationally ranked NCAA Division I programs in No. 16 Northern Arizona and No. 21 Texas Tech. The men’s team at ACU is ranked No. 1 in NCAA Division II and will need to knock off the hosts, OSU, who are ranked No. 2 in the nation.

ACU returns home in football for the second home game of the season at 6 p.m. East Central comes to town and many Abilenians will keep their eye on this game as former Abilene High School quarterback and former Oklahoma Sooner Marcus Johnson comes to town under center for the Tigers.

The Tigers have shown flashes of offensive brilliance, however, the Tigers are 1-4 on the year after beating Northeastern State 55-49 Saturday.

Here are this week’s notes (does not include volleyball or soccer)

Week 5 Football Notes
Cross Country Notes
Tennis Notes