Watch (Southland Digital Network & Southland Apps)
Live Stats
Bracket (PDF)
NATCHITOCHES, Louisiana – No. 5 seed HBU will face No. 4 seed Abilene Christian in the first round of the Southland Conference Volleyball Tournament Friday at 1:30 p.m. in Prather Coliseum.
The Huskies (15-15, 8-8 SLC) finished the regular season in a four-way tie for fifth and emerged as the fifth seed after tiebreakers. HBU has earned a berth in the conference tournament each of its five years since joining the league in 2014, and made its best showing by advancing the championship match in 2015.
Sophomore outside hitter
Mikayla Vivens was a first-team all-conference selection, leading the league with 22 double-doubles and 412 total kills, ranking third with 3.55 kills per set and among the top 20 with 3.14 digs per set. Senior setter
Madison O'Brien earned second-team all-conference honors, ranking second in the SLC with 19 double-doubles and 9.80 assists per set, while adding 2.67 digs. Redshirt freshman outside hitter Kelly Kolwell averages 2.98 kills and sophomore right side
Ashtyn Richey 1.94 kills. In the middle, sophomore
Megan Patillo averages 2.08 kills and totaled 107 blocks, while senior
Kayla Davenport averaging 1.79 kills and posting 105 bocks. Defensively, junior libero
Hannah Lewis ranks seventh in the league with 4.04 digs, freshman defensive specialist
Cici Collins averages 2.55 digs and junior defensive specialist
Camie Copeland 2.11.
ACU (13-15, 10-6) is led by Jacey Smith, who averaged 2.89 kills and 2.33 digs, and Katelyn Mueller, who averaged 2.78 kills and 2.92 digs. Lauren Walker adds 2.26 kills and had a team-leading 101 total blocks, while Marybeth Sandercox averaged 1.86 kills and totaled 87 blocks. Kendall Bosse led the conference with 10.01 assists and averaged 2.14 digs. Lillian Drever ranked third in the conference with 4.79 digs.
HBU and ACU split the two meetings this season, with each team holding serve at home. The Wildcats pulled out a five-set victory over the Huskies on Oct. 9 in Abilene, while the Huskies claimed a 3-1 victory on Oct. 25 in Houston. O'Brien recorded her second career triple-double and Vivens had her first career 20-20 match with 24 kills and 24 digs in the first meeting. Four Huskes posted double-digit kills, led by Vivens with 18, and O'Brien was only three kills shy of another triple-double in the second matchup.
Action begins with No. 1 Stephen F. Austin facing No. 8 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 11 a.m. No. 3 Sam Houston State takes on No. 6 McNeese at 4 p.m., followed by No. 2 Central Arkansas matching up with the host school No. 7 Northwestern State.
