BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – For the fourth time in the last five seasons, WKU Volleyball will be represented at the U.S. Women's Volleyball National Team Open Tryouts in Colorado Springs, Colo., as Paige Briggs and Lauren Matthews will vie for a chance to wear the red, white and blue. Tryouts are slated to take place at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center from Friday-Sunday, Feb. 21-23.
The tryout will evaluate athletes from 95 colleges from across the country for spots on the U.S. Women's National Team and the U.S. Collegiate National Team (CNT) program. Plus, four athletes will also be trying out for the 2020 U.S. Women's Junior National Team. The breakdown for the tryout includes 67 outside hitters, 48 liberos, 37 middles, 37 setters and 25 opposites.
The tryout will involve four sessions with three waves per session. Friday's first session goes from 3-9 p.m. CT, while Saturday's two sessions are at 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. The final session on Sunday begins at 8:30 a.m. with tournament style play, along with 16-18 athletes selected by the U.S. Women's National Team staff to participate in a "USA" training session. The Sunday session wraps up at 11:30 a.m.
All sessions minus the USA training session on Sunday morning will be streamed live by clicking here. USA Volleyball will use #USAVtryout as the event hashtag for photos, notes, quotes and stories posted to its social media platforms Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter and Instagram under the handle @usavolleyball.
In just her second season on The Hill, Matthews was selected as both the AVCA South Region Player of the Year and Conference USA Player of the Year prior to landing AVCA Honorable Mention All-American honors. The Indianapolis, Ind., native spent more than two months leading all of NCAA Volleyball in hitting percentage and ranks first with a .448 clip, which sits second on WKUs' single-season list. Throughout the course of the season, Matthews earned four of the league's Offensive Player of the Week honors in addition to setting WKU's single-match hitting percentage record at .882.
In league matches, Matthews worked at a scorching .483 mark. The sophomore finished with 470 kills with 205 coming in C-USA matches. Matthews has also been a force to be reckoned with at the net defensively, tallying 139 blocks for a 1.18 blocks per set average this season. She owns 36 solo blocks (fifth on WKU's single season list) and 103 block assists (eighth on WKU's single season list).
After earning C-USA's Player of the Year honor, Matthews also collected C-USA Tournament MVP recognition after an outstanding showing in Houston.
An Ortonville, Mich., native, Briggs made an immediate impact for the Lady Toppers and made her presence felt on the conference scene as well, claiming three of the first four Freshman of the Week accolades. She went on to finish the season even stronger, winning four of the final five honors. The Ortonville, Mich., native posted 14 double-double performances across the season, including one at both No. 17 Rice and No. 24 Louisville. Briggs started all 118 sets for the Tops this season as a six-rotation player and racked up 388 kills and 344 digs across the season while working at a .281 hitting clip. WKU's third-ever AVCA South Region Freshman of the Year, Briggs also earned a spot on C-USA's All-Tournament Team.
In addition to collecting AVCA South Region Freshman of the Year nod, Briggs was also named Conference USA's Freshman of the Year.
This past season, Matthews and Briggs helped the Lady Toppers post an overall record of 32-2 to earn the program's best-ever winning percentage at .941. The Tops ran the table in league play with a perfect 14-0 record after being picked third in the preseason and ultimately claiming both the regular season and tournament championships. WKU has now won 10 of the possible 12 championships since joining Conference USA prior to the 2014 campaign.
Briggs and Matthews are looking to join a special group of Lady Topper greats who have been a part of USA Volleyball. In 2007, Megan Argabright (2005-08) was named to the USA Developmental team that travelled to Buenos Aires to compete against the Argentina National Team. Aquila Orr (2006-09) was a member of the USA Third Degree Team that traveled to Italy to compete during the summer of 2007. Ashley Potts (2010-13) was named an alternate for the USA Volleyball A2 National Team in 2013. Prior to her junior season on The Hill in 2017, Rachel Anderson earned a spot on the U.S. Collegiate National Team – Minneapolis Program.
How to Follow WKU Volleyball: For complete information on WKU Volleyball, follow the team on Twitter at @WKUVolleyball and head coach Travis Hudson at @TravisHudsonWKU. The team is also on Instagram and Facebook
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