ACU Women's Volleyball First Practice Set For Monday
By: ACU Athletics
Updated: August 13, 2012
ABILENE -- The
ACU volleyball team reported for workouts Sunday and will begin
preparations for the 2012 season Monday morning with the summer's first
workout.
The Wildcats will
be on he Elmer Gray Stadium track at 9 a.m. Monday for a conditioning
run, followed by the summer's first practice at 10 a.m. at Moody
Coliseum. ACU was picked to finish third in the
Lone Star Conference last month in the annual pre-season poll.
Head coach Kellen
Mock begins her seventh season on Monday with a career record of 136-60
(.694 winning percentage), including a 64-19 LSC mark (.771 winning
percentage) and three trips to the NCAA Division
II South Central Region Tournament.
Last year's team
finished 21-14 overall (14-6 in the LSC) and reached the regional
tournament for the second straight season. ACU returns eight
letterwinners and five starters from that squad, although
a couple of those returning starters could be in new places in 2012.
All-conference
performer Neely Borger is trying to recover from an off-season knee
injury and subsequent surgery, and her availability for the season is
still a question mark. And Madelyn Robinett will
move from the outside to libero where she'll likely be the starter.
Borger injured
her right knee on March 24 at Texas Tech's spring tournament and later
underwent reconstructive knee surgery. Mock said Borger won't be fully
released to participate until September, and
that's when a decision will be made as to whether or not the junior
middle blocker will redshirt in 2012.
"She's obviously
not released, but she'll still be on the floor for some drills starting
Monday," Mock said. "She rehabbed really hard throughout the spring and
summer, and when she does come back she'll
be every bit the player she was before the injury. But I don't know
that we'll have her for this season. A lot of times the best thing for a
player with her type of injury is to sit out and redshirt for a season.
"But we'll
monitor her progress for the next few weeks and see how she does and go
from there," Mock said. "Obviously we'd like to have her because she
makes our team better. But we don't want to make
a decision that's not in her best interests."
The Wildcats
return reigning LSC Freshman of the Year Sara Oxford to the middle where
the 6-footer from Decatur dominated last season.
One of the
biggest battles to watch during fall camp will be at setter where
returning starter Haley Rhoads will try to fend off incoming freshman
Sarah Siemens for the starting spot. Rhoads had 1,132
assists last season (10.11 per set) and also had 349 digs.
"Haley played
well last fall and did well in the spring," Mock said. "She has the
mindset to push this team to be as good as it can be. Sarah is very
long and she's added a lot of strength since we signed
her. That will be an interesting battle to watch."
