SAN ANGELO – The No. 9 Angelo State volleyball team opens a four-match home stand at 7 p.m. on Friday against upset minded Abilene Christian at the Junell Center.

“We are 7-0 at home at home and we want to finish the regular season at 11-0 here at home,” ASU head coach Chuck Waddington said. “But you can't get to 11-0 without first getting that eighth win. This match on Friday against Abilene is tremendously important for us. Abilene is a team that is good enough to beat us if we are not ready.”

The match is Military Appreciation Day with the ASU volleyball team welcoming Goodfellow Airforce Base and the Angelo State ROTC.

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The Belles (18-3, 11-1 Lone Star Conference) come into Friday's match on a five match winning streak and have won 13 of their last 14. ACU (9-12, 5-6 LSC) comes into San Angelo on a four-match conference winning streak, including knocking off West Texas A&M last Saturday in a sweep at Moody Coliseum. Angelo State swept the Wildcats on Sept. 22 but know enough about their rivals to look past them this time around.

“Abilene is consistently, year in and year out, finishing the year at an incredibly higher level at the end of the year than where they were at the start of the season,” Waddington said. “They drastically improve and are coming off a huge win over West Texas A&M last week. It was an eye opener for us to see that they beat WT because got through them pretty fast in our first match against them. We know that anything can happen in this league and they're going to come in here and try to beat us too.”

While ACU is getting better as the season goes along, so are the Belles. ASU is hitting at a .241 percentage this season and is limiting opponents to a .119 percentage. The Belles have dropped only two sets in their last four matches and enter this home stand having dropped only two sets at home all season. ASU leads the conference in assists (13.88 per set), kills (14.56 per set) and digs (20.12 per).

Alex Woolsey continues to lead the ASU offense and the LSC at the setter position and comes into Friday's match with 834 assists and has added 207 digs on the defensive side. Shelbi Goode tops the Belles and the conference in kills with 273 kills, while Maddie Huth has added 180 kills, Kaelen Valdez 178 and Chelsea Gibson 157. Shelby Wilt leads ASU with 356 digs with Huth leading with 64 blocks.

“We are working hard to serve tougher and work on our blocking,” Waddington said. “We've been able to commit some significant time to those skill areas to try and make our job easier on the court.”

ASU beat Abilene Christian 3-0 (25-13, 25-13, 25-17) in the first meeting with Goode leading the Belles with 14 kills and nine digs, while Woolsey had 35 assists and Valdez added 12 kills. ACU comes into the match with a .158 team hitting percentage with opponents at a .201 percentage. Sara Oxford leads Abilene Christian with 237 kills this season with Jennie Loerch adding 191. Sarah Siemens is averaging 10.32 assists per set with Madison Hoover leading with 325 digs.

ASU holds a 57-30 all-time advantage over Abilene Christian.

Milestone watch: Woolsey has 4,525 assists in her career and is only 261 assists away from Amber Nelson's career record at ASU… With eight regular season matches remaining, Woolsey needs to average 32.6 assists per match to break the record before the postseason… Woolsey also has 299 kill entering her 123rd match as a Belle… Katie Coleman comes into Friday's match needing only one kill for 400 kills in her career…Wilt is at 941 digs for her career through her first 58 matches… The sophomore averages 4.52 digs per set in her career and has three matches this season where she has had 30 digs or more.