Once walking to the local gas station minutes away from Peaster High School to buy her favorite snacks on game day, a former Lady Greyhound is now leading the Abilene Christian Ladycats to new heights in 2025.
Payton Hull was a tri-athlete in her time at Peaster, juggling golf, volleyball and basketball. Ultimately, the latter became Hull’s sole focus once she signed with ACU in mid-2023.
Transitioning from a small town to a Div. I program may seem like a dramatic change; however, Hull felt right at home when she made the jump.
“To be honest, Abilene is a smaller Div. I school and it kind of feels like Peaster,” said Hull. “Just how everybody supports us here, they did that at Peaster. That’s something I’m really grateful for.”
Along with the comfortability of the atmosphere, Hull had the opportunity to be a key contributor for the Ladycats from the beginning of the season and took full advantage of it.
Appearing in all 30 games for ACU, the freshman guard started in all but three and averaged a team-high 14.9 points in 28 minutes played per game.
Hull’s 3.4 rebounds, two asists, 1.7 steals, 42.7 field goal and 35.3 3-point percentage earned her multiple Western Athletic Conference honors such as Player of the Week, All-WAC second-team and WAC Freshman of the Year.
She even tied the program’s record for the most points scored (34) and 3-pointers made (9) in a single game in the Nov. 26 game versus Navy.
Sophomore year was more of the same through the first two months of the season before Hull broke the scaphoid bone in her shooting hand during the Jan. 16 game versus Grand Canyon.
Needing surgery to insert a screw into her wrist, Hull missed the next 13 games for ACU.
“It was fun cheering on my teammates but it was so hard,” Hull admits. “Not being out there with my teammates, helping them score, was really difficult.”
Hull also struggled with mental recovery from her injury, worrying about whether she would shoot the ball as well as before or be the same player.
Determined to come back and play later in the season, Hull rehabed, continued to be supportive to her teammates and learned the game from the coaches point of view.
She made her return in the first round of the WAC tournament, where ACU lost to Utah Valley, 75-65.
Disappointed that she didn’t get to play more games with the “amazing team,” Hull got the surprising news from head coach Julie Goodenough that the Ladycats were bound for the WNIT tournament.
Playing in the first playoff game of her college career and still not being able to bend her wrist all the way back, Hull dropped 15 points, five rebounds and four assists in ACU’s 86-59 win over Northwestern State.
Hull took over in the team’s second-round contest against Central Arkansas with 28 points on 11-of-18 shooting from the field and 5-of-10 from 3-point range. The Ladycats won 75-53.
“It was awesome,” said Hull. “I was so excited to play with this team one more time because the seniors were amazing. I was super excited to keep going.”
ACU’s run came to an end in the third round with a 78-68 loss to Illinois State where Hull dropped 25 points.
Despite her hand injury, the former Lady Greyhound improved in nearly every statistical category in her sophomore year.
With two years in the books, Hull is focused on making a full recovery during the offseason and potentially preparing for the program’s final season in the WAC.
“We want to win a WAC tournament,” said Hull. That’s a big one on our list.”
Hull, who’s majoring in liberal studies and minoring in psychology, sociology and communications, is not certain on what she wants to do after college but is ready to call it a career after her senior year.
As for her connection to Peaster past high school, it’s been difficult ...
