 Rice Series  // November 10  // Diddle Arena  |
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| Match 28: No. 21 Rice (23-2) | Thurs., Nov. 10 | 6 p.m. CT | 102.7 ESPN // Listen Live | Livestats | ||||
| Promotions | Senior Night | Military and First Responders Night, first 200 fans recieve red cape giveaway | ||||
| Game Notes | WKU | Rice | ||||
| Series History | WKU leads all-time series, 9-3 | Full History | ||||
| Social Media | @WKUVolleyball  | @WKU Volleyball   | Facebook   | YouTube   | Tik Tok |
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BOWLING GREEN, Ky. -- The final regular match of the season for the No. 22 Hilltoppers, WKU plays host to No. 21 Rice for the second top-25 match up of the season Thursday. First serve set for 6 p.m., the evening will recognize five graduating seniors from the WKU squad, along with promoting military and first responders night and a red cape giveaway for the first 200 fans. Prior to first serve, WKU will honor our five outgoing seniors: Avri Davis, Ashley Hood, Katie Isenbarger, Lauren Matthews, and Jennifer Rush.
Both Rice and WKU holding steady with undefeated conference records, Thursday night's match in Diddle will crown the regular-season conference champion, a title the Hilltoppers have held the last seven out of eight seasons.
The match will be streamed for free on Facebook Live via the Hilltopper Sports Satellite Network (HSSN) Facebook page with Brad Klein on the call.
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, along with Ken Marshall as the color analyst. The evening's contest will be on ESPN Radio 102.7.
WKU Volleyball's 57-match conference winning streak is the longest of the sort in NCAA Division I. Only Creighton stands along WKU in owning at least 20-match conference winning streak. The Blue Jays hold 27 matches unbeated in a row in the Big East.
Same as the past two weeks, the Tops are steady in the the No. 22 spot in the AVCA rankings. With this week's ranking, WKU has now been ranked in the AVCA Top-25 Poll for the last 50 consecutive weeks, dating back to week six of the 2019 season.  On the road for the final time this season, the Hilltoppers swept both Florida Atlantic and FIU, accumulating perfect hitting games with no errors for Paige Briggs (.680) against FAU and Katie Isenbarger (.700) up at FIU, and recording the Tops sixth consecutive sweep.
Just below WKU in the rankings in C-USA, Rice matches the Hilltoppers with only two total losses on the year, only succumbing to No. 18 Oregon in week two and No. 18 Baylor in week eight. Standing perfect with no losses in the league, Rice wrapped up their home slate last weekend with sweeps over North Texas and LA Tech -- holding the Lady Techsters to a .114 hitting clip.
PARKING
Fans can park in Parking Structure 2 (located between the football stadium and E.A. Diddle Arena) and enter through the Gate 2 entrance.Â
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TICKETSÂ
All-session passes for the 2022 Conference USA Volleyball Tournament are now on sale. Passes and single-match tickets are available at WKUTickets.com, by calling 1-800-5-BIGRED or by coming to the WKU Ticket Office during regular business hours.
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Purchasing single-match tickets in advance online are $4 for adults, $3 for youth. Tickets at the door on game day, adults are $6 and youth are $3.
TOP STORYLINES
- These will be the 13th all-time meeting between WKU and Rice. WKU leads the series, 9-3, the last three meetings all occurring as the C-USA Tournament Championship.
- The Tops have won 57Â straight regular season Conference USA matches with their last loss dating back to October of 2018.
- WKU has held teams to an average of just .165 hitting clip. Rice is averaging .278 over the net this season.
- 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.
- Staying atop the stat line, Lauren Matthews is averaging 4.03 kills per set this season, totaling 359 and is in currently third all-time as a Hilltopper in career kills with 1,774.
- Fifth-year middle hitter Katie Isenbarger has stepped up on defense on the front line. The Zionsville, Ind. native leads the Red and White in total blocks on the year, tabbing 104 and averaging 1.14 blocks a set -- her career best.
- Friday and Sunday's matches will be the 14th home match of the season for the Tops, in which they are 11-2.
- 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.
