Lady Toppers Use All-Around Effort to Advance to Fourth-Straight C-USA Championship Match

Saturday, November 18

Bowling Green, Ky.

1:30 p.m. CT

Western Kentucky University

29-3

Southern Miss

20-12

Southern Miss

WKU

Photo by: Steve Roberts, WKU Athletics

Lady Toppers Use All-Around Effort to Advance to Fourth-Straight C-USA Championship Match

11/18/2017 5:29:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score WKU 3, Southern Miss 0 - Box Score (PDF)

Post-Match Interviews | Postseason Stats

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Behind 17 Alyssa Cavanaugh kills in combination with 56 collective digs, WKU Volleyball swept No. 6-seed Southern Miss to advance to its fourth-straight league championship match on Saturday. While the Golden Eagles struck first in all three sets, the Lady Toppers got the final say en route to the first sweep of the 2017 Conference USA Volleyball Championship.

"I can't say enough about the people who have turned out for the Conference USA [Championship]," head coach Travis Hudson said. "This isn't part of the season ticket package, these are people who have come to support these kids in this moment. Yesterday on a Friday afternoon, to see the crowd that was in Diddle Arena, and then followed up on a rainy ole' Saturday afternoon. I need everybody that comes here to watch them play to know that it means the world to these kids and it means the world to me, who as a coach 23 years ago, we had 15 people in the stands and 14 of them were parents of our players. It means the world to me that Hilltopper nation has come out and shown appreciation for these kids throughout this tournament."

The Lady Toppers enter Sunday's championship with a 29-3 record while Southern Miss will wrap up the season at a 20-12 reading. WKU has extended its win streak when playing at home against a conference foe to 54-straight matches, dating back to 2011. The Red and White have still never dropped a decision to a C-USA opponent inside Diddle Arena.

Southern Miss tallied Saturday's first point and three of the match's first four points but WKU pushed ahead to claim the opening frame 25-21. The Lady Toppers used a six-point run in the heart of the frame to create separation at 14-10 and led the rest of the way. The Golden Eagles called their final stoppage trailing 20-16 but the Lady Toppers put things away as Alyssa Cavanaugh notched her sixth kill of the frame for set point. Hudson's unit worked at a .270 offensive clip in the opening set, racking up 17 kills. The Red and White held Southern Miss to a .111 hitting percentage.

Set two opened with back-and-forth action again with neither side posting more than a pair of points at a time until WKU put together another six-point run to take a 14-6 lead. From that point, the Red and White cruised to the 25-18 set two win. WKU notched 15 more kills in the set, working at a .342 clip with just two errors. Emma Kowalkowski and Darby Music both registered aces in the frame as well.

Following the break, the Golden Eagles worked out to a 13-10 lead over WKU to for a Lady Topper timeout. Out of the stoppage, Southern Miss pushed its lead to four before WKU began its comeback. Scoring the next eight points, WKU took the lead for good for the first sweep of the Conference USA Volleyball Championship with the 25-20 set three victory. Despite being held to a collective .161 hitting clip in the final set, WKU saw six different players notch kills in the frame but defense was what ultimately led to the victory. WKU limited the Golden Eagle attack to a .054 rate with 11 attack errors as the Lady Toppers' block denied seven attempts and dug 13 shots.

Sydney Engle shared, "Travis called that timeout, we just talked about this, whenever we were down 13-10 and he said 'I think we're good. I think we're all comfortable. It's fine. We've just got to make a couple stops, get a couple side outs, and then we're back in it.' I never had any doubt that we were going to lose our energy or our focus or our competitiveness because it's tournament time. I think we were all still engaged, it's just some things weren't falling our way. We just had to keep doing what we normally do all the time and then it just kind of goes to our favor."

WKU Volleyball outlasted the visitors, finishing with a .264 hitting clip in addition to a 20-dig differential (58-38) by the time the final point was scored. Engle finished with a match-high 14 digs to go along with four kills, four assists and three blocks.

Hallie Shelton also added nine digs while Kowalkowski chipped in seven and Music posted six.

Jessica Lucas was the second Lady Topper in double-digit kills with 10 for her ninth double-double showing of the season. The senior offense facilitator collected 38 assists in addition to three kills and a pair of blocks.

Cavanaugh and Lucas were on the same page as the outside hitter led the match with her 17 kills. She also added five digs and two of WKU's three solo blocks, both in the third set.

"When the lights come on, I'm always trying to be ready," Cavanaugh shared. "There are, of course, things that I need to improve on, I'm going to try to lower my errors to kind of raise my hitting percentage. It goes with my team, we have defense and Jessica Lucas puts out the ball wherever it needs to be. Just to be able to have the opportunity to do that in this tournament is awesome."

Also adding to WKU's count of 44 kills on the day were Taylor Dellinger (8) and Rachel Anderson (7). Anderson accounted for the Lady Toppers' third solo stop of the day – in the third set – and added a trio of block assists as well.

Despite the sweep, the match saw 15 tied scores and seven lead changes, including five in the third set alone.

With the victory, WKU advances to its fourth-straight Conference USA Championship match since joining the league as many seasons ago. First serve is slated for noon CT, from E.A. Diddle Arena on Sunday. The Lady Toppers will take on the winner of No. 1-seeded North Texas and No. 4 UTSA. WKU has met UTSA once in the finals – in 2015 – but has not crossed paths with the Mean Green in the championship since joining the league.

"These kids are like my family to me," Hudson added when asked about the final match in Diddle Arena for the seniors. "I've watched them grow up from high school kids into young women that are ready to go out and excel in this world. This late in [the season] it gets emotional in our program, it's different in our program. Our kids are a part of my family and I love them like my own children. I want to see everything happen right for them. In this time of year I have so much trust in them. I said at the beginning of the tournament, we'll go where they take us in this senior year. At this point, I'm along for the ride, I'm like a proud dad when I watch them play."