No. 15 Seed WKU Volleyball Set to Open NCAA Tournament Action

Match Notes: Kennesaw State | Louisville | Samford | WKU
Coach Hudson, Emma Kowalkowski & Kayland Jackson Interview: WKU

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – After earning Conference USA's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament, No. 19 WKU Volleyball has turned its focus to its First Round matchup with Kennesaw State. First serve from Diddle Arena will go up at 7 p.m. CT between the two automatic qualifiers, following a 5 p.m. tilt featuring Louisville and Samford. WKU earned the No. 15 overall seed in the 2019 NCAA Tournament – marking the first time in program history the Tops have hosted NCAA volleyball on The Hill.

"You know, I always say, when we get to the NCAA tournament that we're excited to be here, but we're really excited to be here in Bowling Green and Diddle Arena," head coach Travis Hudson shared. "It's a tremendous accomplishment for this group of kids and we're excited to have our fanbase behind us in the NCAA tournament and so we're looking forward to great competition. It's a great pod, four really good coaches, good teams that have had good years so we're just looking forward to getting started."

FOLLOWING INFORMATION
Thursday, Dec. 5 – 5 p.m. CT – Louisville (H) vs. Samford (A) | Livestats | Facebook Live
Thursday, Dec. 5 – 7 p.m. CT – Kennesaw State at No. 19 WKU | Livestats | Facebook Live
Friday, Dec. 6 – 7 p.m. CT – NCAA Tournament Second Round |Facebook Live

2019 NCAA TOURNAMENT TEAMS
No. 1 – No. 15 seed WKU (31-1; 14-0 C-USA)
No. 2 – Louisville (19-9; 12-6 ACC)
No. 3 – Samford (24-5; 15-1 SoCon)
No. 4 – Kennesaw State (22-8; 13-3 ASUN)

TICKETS – WKUTickets.com
All-session tickets are on sale now at $12 for adults, $6 for children and $10 for group sales. Individual session passes are available as well and are $7 for adults, $5 for children and $6 for group sales. Tickets will be available at the door as well. WKU students will receive free admission by showing their student ID at the student entrance. All doors will open one hour prior to the evening's first match.

PARKING
Fans are encouraged to park in Parking Structure 2 for Thursday and Friday's matches. Event parking for both days will be free.

MATCH PREVIEW
WKU Volleyball and Kennesaw State are set for the first-ever meeting between the programs Thursday night. Both the Lady Toppers and Owls earned their league's automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament. Kennesaw State is 22-8 on the season including a 13-3 record in the Atlantic Sun Conference. The Owls head to Bowling Green for their second NCAA Tournament appearance in the last three seasons and have already secured their third-straight 20-win season.

"Kennesaw State is a really good team," Hudson continued. "Keith Schunzel, their coach is someone I've known for a while. He was at Kentucky as part of their staff for a while and I got to know him really well there and he's a great competitor, a great coach and I admire what he's done at Kennesaw State. He's built that program from the ground up much like I did here all those years ago, I really respect what he's done and I respect how he's done it and when you watch them, they're winners, they're a winning program, they expect to win and play competitive volleyball and it's going to be a really tough challenge for us in here on Thursday night but we're looking forward to it."

Kennesaw State is 9-4 in away matches this season while Thursday night's tilt will be the squad's first time taking on a ranked opponent this season. The sides have not faced any common opponents this season.

The Owls' Lexi Broadwater was named the Atlantic Sun Conference's Setter of the Year while WKU's Nadia Dieudonne earned the same recognition from Conference USA.

From there service line, KSU's Lauren Chastang and WKU's Sophia Cerino will face off as two of the top servers in the nation. Cerino leads NCAA Volleyball in aces (81) and aces per set (0.74) while Chastang's 0.58 aces per set ranks fifth in the nation.

WKU is appearing in its eighth NCAA Tournament in the last 10 seasons and fifth in the last six years. All 12 of the program's NCAA Tournament berths have come under head coach Travis Hudson.

With a 31-1 overall record, WKU enters the postseason tied for the most wins across the country. The Lady Toppers achieved 30 wins for the seventh time in the last nine seasons with their C-USA Tournament Semifinal win over Florida Atlantic. WKU leads the nation in sweeps with 22 entering this week's matches. Hudson's crew has won a program-record 27-straight matches entering the NCAA Tournament.

"At this point in the season it's about us and it's about us executing our offense and our defense and serving and kind of every phase of the game," said senior Emma Kowalkowski. "Obviously we scout the other teams and we want to do what we can to win but at this point it's just focusing on what we need to be better at and what we can to do to win."

The Tops are 15-0 inside Diddle Arena this season with the last two wins coming in front of record crowds during the final week of the regular season. To date, the Diddle Arena attendance record is 1,385, which came on WKU's Senior Day against Louisiana Tech.

"I think it's definitely been a blessing, I mean traveling would have been just as great, but to stay at home and to have the fan base that can support us very easily is just great and it should be a great atmosphere Thursday night," Kayland Jackson added.

Should WKU win Thursday night, the team would advance to the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time in program history. The Tops would then take on a familiar opponent regardless of who they face between Louisville and Samford. WKU's lone loss on the season came against No. 24 at the time, Louisville, back on Sept. 6. Two weeks later, the Red and White hosted Samford and swept the Bulldogs. WKU is 6-0 all-time against Samford and 0-16 in the all-time series against Louisville.

No. 15 Seed WKU Volleyball Set to Open NCAA Tournament Action

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Players Mentioned

Sophia Cerino

Nadia Dieudonne

Kayland Jackson

Emma Kowalkowski