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MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - Behind a career day by junior Alyssa Cavanaugh, the WKU volleyball team won its seventh-consecutive match with a sweep of Middle Tennessee on Sunday. Cavanaugh turned in 15 kills on 19 attacks for a remarkable .789 hitting percentage while WKU hit .500 as a team in the win.
WKU improved to 16-2 overall and remained perfect in Conference USA play at 4-0 with the victory over the Blue Raiders. Middle Tennessee fell to 4-13 overall and 1-3 in league play with the loss.
"I'm really proud of our kids today; this is a long weekend from Ruston, Louisiana, to Murfreesboro on a Sunday morning," opened WKU head coach Travis Hudson. ", There were a lot of things that could have led to us coming out flat and I thought we respected the rivalry really, really well."
Action opened from the Alumni Memorial Gym with the only two ties of the set coming at the first two points before WKU worked to a 25-18 first-set victory. The Lady Toppers went on an early 6-1 run to open up an 8-3 lead over the Blue Raiders. After WKU worked ahead to a 15-10 lead on a Sydney Engle Ace, Middle Tennessee called a timeout but Engle struck again for back-to-back aces out of the stop. Middle Tennessee opted for its second timeout down 22-14 but WKU closed the opening set victory with a kill by Engle. Both Cavanaugh and Rachel Anderson hit 1.000% in the frame with four and seven kills, respectively.
Second-set action saw WKU surge out to a 7-3 lead to force a Middle Tennessee timeout. Alyssa Cavanaugh registered a kill out of the stoppage as the Lady Toppers worked out to an 18-10 advantage resulting in Middle Tennessee's second timeout of the set. WKU doubled the Blue Raiders' score at 20-10 before clinching the set at 25-14 on a Middle Tennessee attack error.
After falling behind 1-4 early in the third set, WKU powered its way back on a .571 team hitting percentage to win the frame 25-14 and sweep Middle Tennessee. The Lady Toppers took the lead for good at 8-7 and quickly jumped out to an 18-10 advantage. With a 23-14 lead, Cavanaugh registered kills on the final two points of the match to secure the victory for the Red and White.
Cavanaugh's hitting percentage of .789 landed the two-time All-American in the record book in a share for the fifth-best hitting rate by an individual in Lady Topper program history. Her efforts against Middle Tennessee matched Noelle Langenkamp's 15-kill outing at Georgia State in 2013.
"Alyssa didn't feel very good about how she played on Friday night," Coach Hudson opened regarding Cavanaugh. "I keep telling her that her expectations are a little unrealistic. If she has a match that's average, she's then determined to come out and rectify that in the next match and that's okay by me as long as she can do that."
As a team, WKU finished with a .500 hitting percentage for its second outing of the season with a rate of .500 or better. Four Lady Toppers with eight or more attacks hit .300 or better on the day led by Cavanaugh. Anderson finished with eight kills on 11 swings for a .545 attack percentage. Taylor Dellinger added six kills on 14 attacks for a rating of .429 while Engle worked to a .357 hitting clip with six kills on 14 attacks. WKU's four errors on the day replaced the squad's previous low of six on the season.
Engle closed out the day with five service aces for the second match of the season and now owns a team-high 29 aces on the season. The junior also contributed five assists, five digs and a block assist.
Jessica Lucas finished the afternoon with 34 assists to go along with seven digs, three kills and a solo block.
Georgia O'Connell was the lone Lady Topper with double digits in the dig category, as the senior registered 11.
WKU will conclude its stretch away from the E.A. Diddle Arena next week, as the Lady Toppers head to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, to take on the 13-5 Golden Eagle squad. First serve from the Reed Green Coliseum will take place at 6 p.m. CT.
"Southern Miss is playing as well as anybody in the league and they're a much-improved team this year and they were already really good," Hudson said of WKU's next opponent. "We know that we are going to walk into a really tough environment on Thursday. Hopefully we can go down there and play well and then rest and get ready for the stretch run."
