Wildcats riding hot streak into Wichita Falls

ACU has won 10 of its last 12 entering crossover tournament

WICHITA FALLS -- The ACU Wildcats will look to continue their recent hot stretch of play this weekend when they play in the Lone Star Conference Crossover Tournament on the campus of Midwestern State.

ACU, which has won nine of its last 10 matches and four straight heading into the tournament, will open the three-match format Friday at 1 p.m. Friday when it takes on Texas Woman's, followed by a 7 p.m. match against Midwestern State. The Wildcats will conclude their play in the tournament at 3 p.m. Saturday against Texas A&M-Commerce.

The Wildcats are 14-3 all-time in four LSC Crossover Tournaments (3-1 in 1999, 6-0 in 2000, 3-0 in 2001 and 2-2 in 2002). ACU already owns three-game victories over both Midwestern State (Sept. 9) and Texas Woman's (Sept. 12) this season.

ACU's only blemish since early September was last Friday's five-game loss to Harding (Ark.) in a five-game match at the Texas A&M-Commerce Invitational.  Since then, however, ACU has won four straight matches, each in three games.

"We've raised our level recently, but we're still not where I want us to be," said ACU head coach Brek Horn, who notched her 100th career victory with Tuesday night's win over Lubbock Christian. "I know that in conference we'll have to be more consistent than we've played the last week or so.

"The main thing we need to improve on is being solid mentally for an entire match," she said. "We've got to get rid of the mental lapses that we have that allow our opponents to score six, seven or eight points in a row to get themselves back in a match."

Horn's team has been led by the outstanding play of sophomore outside hitter Michelle Bernhardt, who was named the LSC South Division Hitter of the Week on Tuesday. Bernhardt has a team-leading 268 kills to go along with a team-best .306 hitting percentage this season.

She has three matches with at least 24 kills this season, the latest being Tuesday's match against LCU when she recorded 24 kills and hit .488. She had 31 kills on Sept. 6 against Colorado State-Pueblo, and then had another 29 kills against Harding.

Senior outside hitter Haylee Hartline has 184 kills, while sophomore middle blocker Amanda Slate has 170 kills and sophomore outside hitter Ashlee Motola has 107 kills. Sophomore setter Lindsey Martin has 668 assists, which puts her among the LSC leaders in that category, as well as assists per game (11.52).

Following the LSC Crossover Tournament, ACU wil hit the road for three matches (Sept. 30 at Cameron, Oct. 3 at Incarnate Word and Oct. 4 at St. Mary's) before opening LSC South Division play at home on Oct. 10 against Eastern New Mexico.