Wildcats dominate all-LSC South team

Four seniors named to team; Slate tabbed as MVP

ABILENE -- Four seniors who have led the ACU volleyball program to the top of the Lone Star Conference with back-to-back conference championships were each named first team all-LSC South Division on Monday.

Senior middle blocker Amanda Slate, senior outside hitter Michelle Bernhardt, senior setter Lindsey Martin and senior rightside hitter Ashlee Motola earned four of the seven spots on the first team as the Wildcats dominated the all-conference team.  Sophomore outside hitter Abbie Lowry was named to the second team after earning honorable mention honors last season.

Slate was named the league's MVP for the second straight season, the first LSC South Division player to earn back-to-back league MVP awards since Sarah Butler won three straight MVP awards from 1997-99 at West Texas A&M.  Butler is now Sarah Carthel and is the ACU assistant volleyball coach.

Bernhardt was the second-leading vote-getter in voting done by division coaches and Martin was the third-leading vote-getter as each was a repeat choice on the first team.  Bernhardt -- the LSC South Division Pre-Season Player of the Year -- is a three-time all-LSC South Division pick, while Martin is on the first team for the second time.  Motola, an honorable mention selection last year, is a first-timer on the first team.

The Wildcats took three of the four the post-season division awards as Slate was named the MVP, head coach Brek Horn the Coach of the Year and middle blocker Lauren Leone the Freshman of the Year.

Horn was also honored as the division's top coach in 2003, while Leone joins Sharyn Renner (1984), Cary Stengler (1988), Angela Cooper (1994) and Lindsay DeHoff (1998) as the only Wildcats to earn Freshman of the Year honors in the conference.

ACU's quartet of seniors won the 100th match of their career together (against just 36 losses) in last Saturday night's LSC Post-Season Tournament champion win over Central Oklahoma.  Over the last four years the Wildcats have won two conference championships (the first two in program history) and been invited to two NCAA Division II Southwest Region tournaments (the first two invitations in program history).

Slate, the 6-0 senior from Hallsville, is still the only Wildcat to ever earn LSC South Division MVP honors, and her play was again a major factor in the Wildcats' first-ever unbeaten conference season (10-0) and second straight conference title.  Her intimidating presence in the middle of the Wildcats' front line has helped lead the Wildcats to a school-record 29 straight victories and the29-3 record they will carry into this week's regional tournament.

Slate led the LSC in hitting percentage (.358) and her 451 kills were second on the team behind Bernhardt.  Slate also led the league in service aces with 71, she was third in blocks per game (1.20), and she was fifth in kills per game (4.06).  Slate enters the regional tournament fourth on ACU's all-time kills list with 1,508 and needing 53 more to move into second place behind Bernhardt.

Bernhardt, the senior hitter from Hereford, has had a record-setting career at ACU, and that continued Saturday night as she became just the second Wildcat (Slate in 2004) to be named the MVP of the LSC Post-Season Tournament.  Her
29 kills in two matches pushed her season total to 499 and sent her career total to 2,083 kills.

She is second all-time in the LSC in kills, trailing only former Central Oklahoma all-America hitter Alma Brahimaj, who totaled 2,404 kills.  Bernhardt is 20th on the all-time NCAA Division II kills list.  She was second in the LSC in kills per game (4.50) and she was ninth in hitting percentage (.264).  She is second on the team with 401 digs, and her career total of 1,464 ranks fifth on ACU's career digs list.  Bernhardt also ranks eighth all-time in NCAA Division II history in total attempts with 5,327  total attacks.

Martin has added her name to the NCAA Division II and LSC record books this year as well as earlier this season she became just the fourth player in LSC history to collect 5,000 career assists.  She has 5,663 career assists heading into the regional tournament, which is third all-time in LSC history and 19th all-time in NCAA Division II history.

Martin now has four of the top eight assist seasons in school history, including No. 2 (1,623 assists in 2004) and No. 3 (1,461 assists this season going into the regional tournament).  She and Bernhardt also made some history together this season as they became only the second hitter-setter duo at the NCAA Division II level to play their entire careers together and record 2,000 career kills and 5,000 career assists.

Motola is enjoying the finest season of her four-year stay with a career-best 308 kills heading into the regional tournament.  The senior from Austin needs just two more kills to give her 1,000 for her career, and might make ACU the only team in NCAA Division II history to have four players play their entire careers together and have a 5,000-assist setter, a 2,000-kill hitter, a 1,500-kill hitter and a 1,000-kill hitter.  Motola was third in the LSC in hitting percentage at .324 heading into the regional tournament.

Lowry earned all-conference accolades for the second straight season after posting 327 kills (3.11 per game) and 47 total blocks.  Still the only Wildcat to earn all-tournament honors at the regional tournament, Lowry was named to the LSC all-tournament team Saturday night, along with Bernhardt, Slate and Martin.

Leone has turned in a very nice freshman season with 142 kills and a .263 hitting percentage (10th in the LSC) into the regional tournament.  The heir apparent to Slate in the middle of the Wildcats' front line, Leone has 71 total blocks on the season, second on the team behind Slate.

In her seventh season as the ACU head coach, Horn has led the Wildcat volleyball program to unprecedented heights with consecutive conference titles, the first two championships in program history.  A candidate for regional coach of the year honors, Horn has compiled a 171-67 record heading into this week's regional tournament for a remarkable .718 winning percentage.

Horn's teams have posted five of the 10 best single-season win totals in school history, and with one more victory this year's team would join the 1981 team (34 wins) and the 1993 team (33 wins) as the only teams in school history to win 30 matches in a season.