BOWLING GREEN, Ky. - Following a perfect weekend in the WKU Tournament that included sweeps over Tennessee State, Northern Illinois and Memphis, the Lady Toppers (7-3) will travel to Cincinnati tonight to take on the Bearcats. The Lady Toppers will be looking for their first win over Cincinnati since they last defeated the Bearcats on September 10, 2002. The match is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. CT.
NOTING THE LADY TOPPERS
• The Lady Toppers head to Cincinnati to take on the Bearcats on Tuesday and the Lady Toppers are 3-13 all-time against Cincinnati. WKU fell to the Bearcats in both meetings between the two teams last season falling 3-0 in the first meeting and 3-2 in the NCAA Tournament. The last time the Lady Toppers were able to defeat Cincinnati was on September 10, 2002. Cincinnati has won the last seven meetings between the two teams and hold a 1-7 record on their home court.
• WKU will welcome back four seniors this season. The senior class of Brittany Bowen, Lindsey Gould, Aquila Orr and Abbie
Siljendahl will lead a team that finished the 2008 season with a 26-10 overall record and a 12-5 record in the Sun Belt Conference.
Also returning in 2009 are juniors Kelly Potts and Emily Teegarden and sophomores Tiffany Elmore, Lauren Stuckel and Lindsay
Williams.
• In addition to the nine returning Lady Toppers, WKU will welcome four newcomers to the 2009 team. Freshmen Kacy Moran,
Sarah Rogers, Jordyn Skinner and Paige Wessel will begin their careers at WKU in the Tennessee Tournament.
• WKU was picked to finish third in the East by the league’s head coaches. The Lady Toppers picked up 56 points in the poll and
finished behind Middle Tennessee, who racked up 67 points, and Florida International, who collected 72 points. In the West
division, New Orleans was selected as the favorite and finished the poll with 87 points. WKU defeated Middle Tennessee in the
second round of the 2008 Sun Belt Conference Tournament and advanced to face New Orleans in the championship match. In the
match, the Lady Topper swept the Privateers to claim the school’s third Sun Belt Conference Tournament title.
• Last season, head coach Travis Hudson picked up his 300th career victory when the Lady Toppers defeated Iowa 3-1 on Aug. 30,
2008. Hudson, who has a career record of 325-156 (.676), is currently ranked second in the country and first in Division I in the
category of coaches under 40 with at least 300 wins. In addition, he is also ranked fourth in the category of Division I coaches under
the age of 40 with at least 200 wins and 22nd in the the nation.
• Following the Lady Toppers’ meeting with Cincinnati, they will finish up tournament play in the DePaul Tournament in Chicago,
Ill. with contests against Sacramento State, DePaul and Eastern Michigan. Then, the Lady Toppers will open up SBC competition
at Middle Tennessee on September 25 at 7 p.m. CT.
Tennessee Tournament Recap
• The Lady Toppers opened up the 2009 season by competing in the Tennessee Tournament in Knoxville, Tenn. Last Saturday, the
Lady Toppers fell to Lipscomb in the opening game of the 2009 season 3-0 before falling to Tennessee 3-2. However, on Sunday, the
Lady Toppers picked up their first win defeating Tennessee Tech 3-0. During the weekend, WKU collected 142 kills, 132 assists,
14 aces, 150 digs and 24.5 total blocks. Against Lipscomb, the Lady Toppers recorded 39 kills but also recorded 12 errors in 100
attempts to finish the match with a .270 hitting percentage. In the second match of the season against Tennessee, the Lady Toppers
fought until the very end falling in the fifth set after posting 59 kills but finishing with just a .194 hitting percentage after committing
27 attack errors. However, against Tennessee Tech, the Lady Toppers posted a .308 hitting percentage after 44 kills, 40 assists,
six aces, 28 digs and 9.5 team blocks.
• During her first weekend as a Lady Topper, freshman Sarah Rogers was named to the Tennessee Tournament All-Tournament
Team after finishing the weekend with a team-high 47 digs (4.27 per set) while also helping the Lady Toppers in aces and assists.
Against Lipscomb, she finished with a match high 21 digs, eight more digs than the leader for Lipscomb. She followed up that
performance against Tennessee by adding another 21 digs to her season total and finished against Tennessee Tech racking up five
more in the three set match. Rogers became first Lady Topper to post two matches with 20 or more digs during the season since
former Lady Topper Kelly Hofmeyer did it in 2006 against Appalachian State and Arkansas State.
• In the Tennessee Tournament, the Lady Toppers had three athletes finish with a .300 hitting percentage or better. Sophomore
Lauren Stuckel finished the weekend with a team-high .395 hitting percentage after recording 23 kills, 96 assists (8.73 per set), four
aces, 17 digs and three blocks. Senior Brittany Bowen also had a great weekend finishing the tournament with 27 kills (2.45 per
set), a .358 hitting percentage and a team-high 12 total blocks. Sophomore Tiffany Elmore led the team in kills with 29 (2.64 per set), a .351 hitting percentage and posting nine blocks.
Belmont Recap
• The Lady Toppers defeated Belmont on September 1st 3-2 and handed the Bruins their first loss at home since the 2007 season.
WKU posted just a .200 hitting percentage after recording 54kills but committing 23 errors. In the match, three Lady Toppers
posted double-digit kills. Seniors Brittany Bowen and Aquila Orr each posted 11 kills in the match and freshman Jordyn Skinner
led the team with 12 kills. Sophomore Tiffany Elmore also had an efficient night finishing with a .381 hitting percentage after
recording eight kills and zero errors in 21 total attacks. Sophomore Lauren Stuckel continued to led the Lady Toppers in assists
with 41 while freshman Sarah Rogers posted 18 digs in the match.
IUPUI Tournament Recap
• The Lady Toppers defeated Miami (Ohio) and Northwestern 3-1 after falling to host IUPUI 2-3 in the opening match of the
weekend. Against IUPUI, the Lady Toppers finished with a .290 hitting percentage after recording 49 kills and 18 errors. The
Lady Toppers followed up that performance against the Redhawks by posting their highest hitting percentage of the weekend, a
.318 hitting percentage, after recording 48 kills and only 14 errors in four sets. Finally against Northwestern, the Lady Toppers
posted another .290 hitting percentage and 49 kills. Overall, the Lady Toppers posted a .293 hitting percentage, 172 kills, 161
assists, 166 digs and 22 total blocks. In addition, WKU held their opponents to a .166 hitting percentage.
• Following the IUPUI Tournament, freshman Jordyn Skinner and junior Emily Teegarden were named to the All-Tournament
team. Skinner was fantastic during the weekend racking up a team-high 47 kills (3.62 per set) and finishing with a .306 hitting
percentage. She led the team in kills in two of WKU’s three matches and even posted 20 kills against IUPUI. She was also a force
on defense picking up 37 digs during the weekend, which was second best on the team. She tallied six aces, a team-high, during the tournament and also recorded four blocks and five assists. Teegarden also had a big weekend posting a .301 hitting percentage after recording 39 kills in the three matches. She posted double-digit kills in all three matches and finished with a team-high 16 kills
against Northwestern. In that match, she committed just six errors and finished with a .357 hitting percentage.
WKU Tournament Recap
• The Lady Toppers picked up three wins in the WKU Tournament sweeping Tennessee State, Northern Illinois and Memphis.
During the weekend, During the weekend, the Lady Toppers recorded 121 kills (13.44 per set), 109 assists (12.11 assists per set), 21 aces, 93 digs, and 24 blocks and finished with a .320 overall hitting percentage. In addition, the Lady Toppers held their opponents to just a .093 hitting percentage. The team’s best match of the weekend was against Northern Illinois when they finished with a .389 hitting percentage after racking up 44 kills and committing just nine attack errors in 90 attempts. Against Tennessee State, the Lady Toppers recorded 36 kills and finished with a .244 hitting percentage while also recording 34 assists, six aces, 28 digs and 11 team blocks. Then, against Northern Illinois, the Lady Toppers posted a .389 hitting percentage after racking up 44 kills, 43 assists, five aces, 35 digs and eight team blocks. Finally, against Memphis, WKU finished with 41 kills, a .321 hitting percentage, 32 assists, ten aces, 30 digs and five team blocks.
• WKU was led by senior Abbie Siljendahl who was named the tournament MVP at the conclusion of the weekend. She finished the
weekend with a team-high 30 kills and a .531 hitting percentage. Her best match of the weekend came against Northern Illinois
where she posted 13 kills and just one hitting error for a .706 hitting percentage. She also recorded three aces and seven blocks
during the weekend. Joining Siljendahl on the All-Tournament Team was sophomore Lauren Stuckel who continued to lead the team
in assists with 89 during the weekend. She also added 12 digs, two blocks, eight kills and four aces to the Lady Toppers’ totals.
