WKU Notes (PDF)
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. - WKU will close regular-season action from its own E.A. Diddle Arena with three matches remaining on the docket. This weekend, the Lady Toppers will host Rice Friday night at 6 p.m. CT and then turn around and host Middle Tennessee in a 2:30 p.m. CT contest on Saturday.
WEEKENED INFORMATION
Friday, Nov. 4 | 6 p.m. CT | vs. Rice | E.A. Diddle Arena
Saturday, Nov. 5 | 2:30 p.m. CT | vs. Middle Tennessee | E.A. Diddle Arena
Rice and WKU currently own the top two spots in the C-USA standings. The Lady Toppers are 11-0 in league play while Rice owns a 9-2 mark (17-9 overall).
On Saturday, the Lady Toppers will face the Blue Raiders of Middle Tennessee for the second time this season. In the first meeting in 2016 between the sides, WKU traveled to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and swept the hosts. Middle Tennessee is 5-21 overall and 2-9 in C-USA action.
PROMOTIONS
All HAF members will receive one free ticket with a valid ID to Friday evening's match against Rice. Saturday's match against Middle Tennessee has been declared a Red Out and admission to the event is free. The first 100 fans through the doors will receive free Red Out shirts.
At both matches, all fans will be able to register to win an autographed WKU Volleyball jersey.
RPI RANKINGS
As WKU Volleyball continues to climb the rankings, it has also climbed in the RPI ratings, up to No. 19. The Lady Toppers currently own 10 wins over top-100 ranked teams this season with their top three wins coming over No. 30 Pittsburgh, No. 42 Cincinnati and No. 56 Villanova. WKU's lone loss at full strength came to No. 12 Michigan State.
VOLLEYBALLMAG.COM MID-MAJOR POLL
For the first time in WKU Volleyball history, the Lady Toppers were voted into the top spot of VolleyballMag.com's Mid-Major Poll. WKU received four first-place votes from the panel of coaches representing 10 different conferences across the country.
WKU opened the season at No. 5 in the weekly Mid-Major poll back on August 23. For the next six weeks, the Lady Toppers remained at fourth or fifth in the VolleyballMag.com rankings before breaking into the top three on Oct. 11, following the squad's win at Southern Miss. The Red and White came in at No. 2 for the next two polls, which followed WKU victories over Lipscomb, UTSA and three other Conference USA squads.
Two days after WKU Volleyball won its 15th-consecutive match of the 2016 season, the Lady Toppers were voted No. 1, surpassing previously top-ranked San Diego, which fell to the third spot. Also ranking in the top five of the most recent Mid-Major Poll are BYU at No. 2, Creighton in fourth and Hawai'i in fifth.
LAST TIME OUT
WKU Volleyball closed its regular-season road slate with a pair of sweeps last weekend. The first stop was in Huntington, West Virginia, where the Lady Toppers swept Marshall, led by 17 Rachel Anderson kills and a .402 overall team hitting percentage.
Two days later, the Red and White went down to Birmingham, Alabama, and swept UAB. Jessica Lucas registered her 10th double-double performance of the season in the contest and Alyssa Cavanaugh led WKU with 17 kills.
The pair of victories propelled the Lady Toppers to a perfect 11-0 mark in road matches this season and the same record in C-USA matchups.
BACK IN THE POLLS
After a week out of the top-25 rankings, the Lady Toppers have been in the rankings the past two weeks. The Lday Toppers reentered at No. 23 for its highest rating since the Sept. 5 poll. The following poll, on Oct. 31, put WKU at No. 21, its best rating since the first week of voting.
20-WIN SEASON
For the 16th-consecutive season, WKU Volleyball has registered 20 wins in a season. Travis Hudson has led WKU to 17 20-win seasons during his 22 seasons at the helm of the program. With one more win on the 2016 campaign, WKU would extend its streak of 25-win seasons to 16 as well, which ranks as a tie for the second-best active streak in NCAA Volleyball.
LEADING THE LEAGUE
WKU sports three athletes leading C-USA volleyball in five statistical categories as Lucas leads the league in assists per set (11.42), Engle owns 0.42 aces per set and 39 total aces and Cavanaugh leads in both points (438.5) and total kills (403) entering the 11th weekend of play.
As a team, the Lady Toppers lead Conference USA in six categories including assists per set (13.49), hitting percentage (.304), winning percentage (.923), opponent hitting percentage (.173), total assists (1,255) and total kills (1,323). Many of those figures also rank in the top 20 across the nation.
FIRST SET DOMINANCE
With 26 matches of the 2016 season in the books, the Lady Toppers have lost just five times the first set of a match. WKU moved to an impressive mark of 21-5 in the opening frame following 11 matches of conference play.
CONFERENCE USA ACCOLADES
Through 10 weeks of Conference USA weekly awards, WKU has seen 12 accolades presented to a Lady Topper already. In the opening week of honors, Cavanaugh was named the league's Offensive Player of the Week while Lucas earned a Setter of the Week nod, the duo repeated the feat in the awards given on October 10.
In the five weeks in between, Lucas was tabbed the C-USA Setter of the Week four more times to up her career number to 11 weekly honors. Lucas is the first student-athlete in C-USA volleyball history to earn five weekly awards of any sort during the first six weeks of a season in conference history. The junior also now owns the single-season record across all four weekly honors with seven weekly awards following her most recent nod on Oct. 31.
Anderson and O'Connell have also been named Offensive and Defensive Player of the Week, respectively. Most recently Anderson picked up a second Offensive Player of the Week laurel, as Lucas earned an award the same week to mark four weeks that multiple Lady Toppers have been honored.
BIG WEEKEND IN THE LONESTAR STATE
Opening their four-match stretch on the road, the Lady Toppers extended their win streak to 13-straight matches with a sweep of UTEP and a four-set win over UTSA. WKU improved to 22-2 with the pair of wins and fended off the then second-ranked Roadrunners in San Antonio.
Rachel Anderson posted 10 kills over UTEP and a career-high 20 strikes in the 2015 C-USA Tournament Championship rematch at UTSA. In Friday's three-set match at UTEP, Jessica Lucas came just one kill and one dig shy of her first triple double performance. On Sunday, WKU held UTSA to its lowest offense efficiency rate of the season at .077. In the contest, Georgia O'Connell tied her season-best of 23 digs.
UAB & FIU
WKU's first meeting of the season with the UAB Blazers took four sets of action before the Lady Toppers came out victorious. Alyssa Cavanaugh led everyone with 17 kills while Anderson contributed 16 of her own. The Red and White tallied a season-high 13 service aces in the contest led by six from Emma Kowalkowski and four more from Sophia Cerino, WKU's pair of freshmen.
The Sunday sweep of FIU marked the 350th victory inside the E.A. Diddle Arena for the Volleyball program. The Lady Toppers threw a block party with the second-most blocks in a three-set match by a C-USA team this season at 14. Cavanaugh finished with 13 kills while Amara Listenbee tied a personal-best seven blocks in the outing.
HOME CONFERENCE WIN STREAK
Since joining C-USA, WKU has not lost a home match to a league opponent, improving to an 20-0 mark with its victory over FIU. The streak extends back to 2011 when counting both C-USA and Sun Belt opponents for 42-consecutive home conference wins. Of those victories, 33 have been straight-set sweeps while only two matches have last the full five sets.
BATTLE OF LIPSCOMB
Last Tuesday evening's non-conference matchup against Lipscomb proved to be a battle from beginning to end as the contest went five sets. Eventually, WKU pulled out its second five-set victory of the season. Cavanaugh produced 19 kills while Anderson contributed 15 to go along with six block assists. WKU finished 7-1 this season against teams that appeared in the 2015 NCAA Tournament.
AT SOUTHERN MISS
WKU improved to 17-2 on the season and extended its current win streak to eight-consecutive matches with its Thursday night victory in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, over the Golden Eagles. Cavanaugh led all hitters with 21 kills while Lucas put up 48 assists along with 12 digs for her eighth double double of the season. Including Lucas, four Lady Toppers registered 11 or more digs in the contest: Lucas (12), Kowalkowski (11), Sydney Engle (11) and O'Connell (11).
FIRST C-USA MATCHES ON THE ROAD
In WKU's first Conference USA road trip, the Lady Toppers visited Louisiana Tech and Middle Tennessee, sweeping both league foes. Listenbee hit a career-best 10 kills against the Lady Techsters while Cavanaugh registered a .789 hitting clip at Middle Tennessee.
CONFERENCE OPENING WEEKEND
WKU opened 2016 Conference USA play with a pair of wins over Florida Atlantic and Charlotte. WKU took down FAU in four sets while sweeping Charlotte. Cavanaugh registered a new career-high kill outing against FAU with 24 while Anderson upped her personal-best block outing to nine. Taylor Dellinger produced a career-high 15 kills in WKU's victory over Charlotte while Lucas added her seventh double double of the season.
1,000 CAREER KILLS
In WKU's five-set victory at Pitt, junior outside hitter Cavanaugh registered her 1,000th career kill. Entering the match, Cavanaugh needed 17 kills to achieve the feat, and she delivered, registering her 17th and 18th kills in the decisive fifth set.
