Box Score
HOUSTON, Texas -- No. 22 WKU volleyball fell to Rice (18-8, 8-4 C-USA) in a thrilling, five-set battle (23-25, 21-25, 25-22, 25-23, 14-16) Saturday afternoon. The setback to the Owls snaps a 17-match winning streak and is the Lady Toppers first defeat to a Conference USA opponent this season.
Trailing the match 2-0 heading into intermission, the Lady Toppers fought back and sent the match into a deciding fifth set with slim victories in both the third and fourth sets.
Riding a wave of momentum, WKU raced out to a 5-1 advantage in the fifth stanza but the Owls fought back as Rice tallied six consecutive points in order to take a 7-5 lead. Trailing 14-11, and with their backs firmly against the wall, WKU tallied three consecutive points in order stay alive as the Lady Toppers knotted the set at 14. A Rice kill and a WKU attack error followed as the Owls took the set, 16-14, and the match, 3-2.
WKU was led by sophomore Alyssa Cavanaugh who recorded a season-high 19 kills on the afternoon. Senior Noelle Langenkamp added 14 on team-high .419 hitting while sophomore Sydney Engle added a career-best 12 kills on a .300 hitting percentage. As a team, WKU hit .270 compared to Rice's .301 mark as five different players finished with double-digit kills for the Owls.
Setter Jessica Lucas had another tremendous outing as the sophomore once again flirted with a triple double, finishing with team-highs of 53 assists and 16 digs to go along with eight kills on .333 hitting.
Defensively, freshman Rachel Anderson recorded a career-high seven total blocks, including three solo attacks while Cavanaugh also added three solo stuffs for WKU.
WKU's loss to the Owls marks only the second defeat to a Conference USA opponent since the Lady Toppers joined the league in 2014. The other setback occurred last year when the Lady Toppers travelled to UTSA and dropped a four-set contest to the Roadrunners.
WKU (23-3, 10-1 C-USA) returns to action Sunday afternoon as the Lady Toppers complete their Lone Star State road trip by traveling to El Paso, Texas, for a 3 p.m. CT match with UTEP.
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