DALLAS – Following a 2-0 weekend at home against Middle Tennessee, WKU Volleyball saw a pair of Hilltoppers recognized by Conference USA for the second straight week. Nadia Dieudonne earned her fifth Setter of the Week honor of the season while Lauren Matthews collected the first Defensive Player of the Week of her career.
Dieudonne racked up 60 total assists to average 10.0 assists per set over the weekend while facilitating the Hilltopper offense to a collective .439 hitting clip. Dieudonne's connection with her offense improved from game one to game two as her hitters connected for kills on 48.4 percent of her sets across the weekend.
The Hilltopper offense had their best showing of the season this weekend against the Blue Raiders, enabled by Dieudonne, who had back-to-back outings of 30 assists, while also adding hitting clip of .333 herself, hitting four kills, to go along with seven digs, four blocks and two aces.
Matthews racked up 31 total kills, hitting at a .725 clip, averaging 5.17 kills per set, while only committing two errors over the weekend. The middle hitter also averaged 2.50 blocks per set to help hold the Middle Tennessee offense to a combined .122 clip on the series.
On Saturday, Matthews struck for her second career double-double with 18 kills, hitting at .773 percent and 10 blocks. She is the only person to record a kills-blocks double-double in WKU program history, doing it for her second time. Matthews would turn in 39.5 points across the six weekend sets for an average of 6.58 points per set.
Monday's award marks the 16th for Dieudonne across her three seasons at WKU. Additionally, this is Matthews first Defensive Player of the Week Award of her career and eighth weekly award overall.
2021 C-USA Offensive Players of the Week
A30 Lauren Matthews, WKU
S6 Anota Adekunle, Rice
S13 Fernanda Maida, UAB
S20 Rhett Robinson, North Texas
S27 Paige Briggs, WKU
O4 Fernanda Maida, UAB
O11 Lauren Matthews, WKU
O18 Rhett Robinson, North Texas
2021 C-USA Defensive Players of the Week
A30 Destiny Leon, Marshall
S6 Amani McArthur, Charlotte
S13 Henrianna Ibarra, North Texas
S20 McKenzie Johnson, Louisiana Tech
S27 Marley Banton, Middle Tennessee
O4 Olivia De Jesus, Old Dominion
O11 Essence Clerkley, Marshall
O18 Lauren Matthews, WKU
2021 C-USA Setters of the Week
A30 Nadia Dieudonne, WKU
Kristen Fritsche, UTEP
S6 Nadia Dieudonne, WKU
S13 Carly Graham, Rice
S20 Teresa Atilano, Old Dominion
S27 Nadia Dieudonne, WKU
O4 Carly Graham, Rice
O11 Nadia Dieudonne, WKU
O18 Nadia Dieudonne, WKU
2021 C-USA Freshmen of the Week
A30 Klara Zarnovicka, Florida Atlantic
S6 Ema Uskokovic, UTEP
S13 Ema Uskokovic, UTEP
S20 Myah Conway, Old Dominion
S27 Shaylee Shore, Rice
O4 Andrea Owens, North Texas
O11 Kira Smith, Old Dominion
O18 Andrea Owens, North Texas
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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