BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Awards continue to roll in following WKU Volleyball's historic 2020-21 campaign as Lauren Matthews (Second Team), Paige Briggs (Fourth Team) and Nadia Dieudonne (Honorable Mention) each earned their second All-American honors of the season, this time by VolleyballMag.com.
From VolleyballMag.com, "Our panelists voted for no less than 21 first-teamers. But each of our teams has 14 players with the only mandate to the voters was that the first and second teams had to have both a setter and a libero. We chose not to have an all-freshman team for this season that was split in two by the pandemic, but continue our tradition of breaking the traditional all-sports All-American mold and honoring a fourth team for the third consecutive year. And, as in those previous two years, we easily could have had a fifth."
Matthews – an AVCA Second Team All-American – earned the same distinction from VolleyballMag.com following a junior season that saw the Indianapolis, Ind., native average 3.96 kills per set and 1.22 blocks per set. Matthews closed the season with a .444 hitting percentage (8th in NCAA) with 309 kills (36th in NCAA) and 3.96 kills per set (67th in NCAA).
After earning the AVCA South Region Player of the Year accolade, Briggs earned a spot on the AVCA's Honorable Mention All-American list and the VolleyballMag.com Fourth Team List. A six-rotation outside hitter for the Hilltoppers, Briggs averaged 3.68 kills per set while hitting .329 all while leading the team in digs at 3.41 digs per set. The Ortonville, Mich., native also added 21 aces (0.27 per set) and 34 blocks (0.44 per set) to her stellar numbers. Her 287 total kills ranked 54th in all of NCAA Volleyball this season.
Facilitating the WKU offense to the second-best hitting percentage in the country, setter Dieudonne earned VolleyballMag.com Honorable Mention All-American status to go along with Senior CLASS Award First Team and AVCA Honorable Mention All-American honors. The Louisville, Ky., native led WKU to a .344 team hitting percentage while averaging 11.68 assists per set – which ranks fourth in the NCAA. Despite the Hilltoppers' sweeping a 75 percent of their matches and playing a shorter schedule, Dieudonne's total assist number of 911 still ranked sixth in the country. Dieudonne added 130 digs (1.67/set) and 34 blocks (0.44/set) in addition to 35 kills and 12 aces across her second season at WKU after transferring in.
Together, Briggs, Dieudonne and Matthews helped the Red and White continue to rewrite the record book. The squad's 2020-21 record of 23-1 will go down as the best season win percentage (.958), the fewest losses, and the best undefeated start to a season (23-0) – just to name a few. The Hilltoppers also swept 18 matches across the season.
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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