Friday's contest will be available on ESPN+. Sunday's match in El Paso will be available on CUSA.tv, Conference USA's home for live events, for fans who elect to subscribe.
As is the case for every Hilltopper match this season, all the action will also be available on the radio with Brad Klein on the play-by-play call. Friday evening's match-up in Denton will be available on 98.3 The Edge and Sunday's matinee will be broadcast on 102.7 ESPN.
WKU Volleyball's 49-match conference winning streak is the longest of the sort in NCAA Division I. Only Louisville (35) and BYU (33) are the only other programs with at least a 20-match conference winning streak. Creighton follows suit with a 19-game winning streak out in the Big East.
The program is currently ranked third in total offense, marking a collective .314 hitting clip just behind Texas and UCF. The Hilltoppers are also top in C-USA in blocks per set (2.66), while individually, setter Callie Bauer leads the conference in assists per set (10.78) and total assists on the year (679).
The Tops have claimed the No. 23 spot in this week's AVCA rankings, after a light week with playing host to UTSA on Sunday. The Tops swept the roadrunners in a 3-0 match, showcasing Lauren Matthews' season high .619 hitting clip over the afternoon.
North Texas is coming off of a week where it swept Louisiana Tech in Denton, after previously falling short in five sets to UTEP in early October. A heavy battle in El Paso, the Miners went to five sets against No. 22 Rice Sunday, falling short as they held the Owls under .300 in hitting and matched total blocks in the afternoon. UTEP is traveling to Ruston for a Friday evening contest with LA Tech, before heading home to see the Hilltoppers.
The Mean Green is off to a 9-11 start to the 2022 campaign. In the modified 2020-21 season, the Hilltoppers and North Texas squared off in the first round of the C-USA Tournament in Hattiesburg, Miss. where WKU took the match in a 3-0 sweep.
The Miners met the Tops during the semifinals of the C-USA Tournament last season, featuring a .600 hitting clip for outside hitter Avri Davis and 13 kills for Lauren Matthews that resulted in a Tops sweep. UTEP sits in third place, just below WKU in the conference standings and is currently 10-8 on the season.
TOP STORYLINES
- The Tops have won 49-straight regular season Conference USA contests with their last loss dating back to October of 2018 – the longest streak across all of Division I volleyball.
- WKU have held teams to an average of just .171 hitting clip. North Texas is averaging a hitting clip of .207 so far this season, while UTEP is at .218.
- WKU has been predicted to win the conference title in the Conference USA Preseason Poll voted by the league's coaches. Paige Briggs, Katie Isenbarger, and Lauren Matthews were all selected to the Preseason All-Conference Team. Matthews was tabbed Preseason Player of the Year. After meeting in last year's tournament championship, Rice was predicted to finish second.
- Paige Briggs leads the team in kills this season with 189. She marked her 1,000 career kill against Louisville on Aug 31.
- The Friday and Sunday's matches will be the sixth and seventh road matches of the season for the Tops, in which they are 5-0.
- WKU Volleyball is more accessible than ever with radio broadcasts for every match. The Tops are 1 of just 10 Division I Volleyball programs that currently have live radio for home and away matches.
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.
