AVCA Release
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Following a 2016 WKU Volleyball campaign for the record books, the awards continue to roll in for Lady Topper juniors Alyssa Cavanaugh and Jessica Lucas who were announced as AVCA All-America Honorable Mention selections on Wednesday. The accolades mark three of a kind for the Lady Topper duo after also earning honorable mention status following their freshman and sophomore seasons.
After collecting AVCA All-South Region awards earlier this month, Cavanaugh and Lucas mark the program's 16th and 17th AVCA All-America selections since 2005. The pair will have a chance to join Megan Argabright as the only WKU players to earn honors all four years of their careers next season. In Division I history, 28 players have collected four All-America nods during their careers.
Through three seasons on The Hill, Lucas and Cavanaugh have collected a plethora of honors including 18 combined All-America, All-South Region and First-Team All-Conference honors. Most recently, Cavanaugh collected the Conference USA Player of the Year laurel while Lucas was tabbed the league's Setter of the Year for the second-consecutive season. Additionally, Lucas was named the conference's Preseason Player of the Year and went on to collect a C-USA record seven Setter of the Week honors. In 2016, Cavanaugh also earned her second Conference USA All-Tournament Team selection after both players collected the honor during their debut season.
Cavanaugh put together arguably one of the best seasons by an outside hitter in the nation, finishing with a .343 hitting percentage on more than 1,100 swings. Cavanaugh also led C-USA with 516 kills on the season, a mark that ranks 17th across the country currently. The Louisville native led the Lady Toppers in 24 of the squad's 33 matches in kills including two career-best performances of 24 strikes.
Facilitating the offense to the second-best hitting percentage in the nation, Lucas was integral in WKU's success. The Lady Toppers closed the season with a team hitting clip of .310 behind only Florida (.338). Lucas led the league with 11.64 assists per set in 2016, a mark that currently ranks sixth across the nation as well. The Seymour, Indiana, native tallied 1,280 helpers during her junior campaign and achieved 4,000 career assists during WKU's final match of the season. Lucas is also nearing the 1,000 career dig mark and recorded 13 double-double performances in 2016.
In 2016, WKU Volleyball put together an impressive 30-3 record, which included the program's fifth-ever undefeated record in conference play. Additionally, three losses ties the fewest losses the Lady Toppers have ever suffered during a season (2005, 31-3). After compiling a clean slate through regular-season conference play, WKU continued its streak into the league tournament where it became just the second team to go undefeated and win the tournament championship as well. From September 16 until December 2, WKU did not lose a match, stringing together 21-consecutive victories for the second longest streak in the nation at that time.
