WKU Volleyball: Lady Tops Survive An Advance In CUSA Tournament With Four-Set Win Over Charlotte

Our Lady Topper volleyball recap was written by Leroy Kleimola, a contributor and co-host of the WKU Redzone Radio show.

Our Lady Topper volleyball recap was written by Leroy Kleimola, a contributor and co-host of the WKU Redzone Radio show.

The WKU volleyball opened up the Conference USA tournament with a huge aspirations, but opponent Charlotte, was not going to go down easy. Lady Tops defeated the 49ers in four sets (25–14, 25–27, 25–20, 25–6), and proved why they were co-champions of CUSA this year. But that’s not say it didn’t have it’s theatrics.

The game started off back and forth with both Charlotte and WKU swapping points, opening the first set knotted at 5–5. WKU would jump out to a 12–7 lead thanks to a couple kills by Rachel Anderson. After Charlotte battled back to a bring the game within three at 15–12 thanks to a kill from Tatyana Thomas, WKU would pull ahead and not look back. The Hilltoppers pulled out a 25–14 win taking set one.

The errors, though, were piling up for WKU. Charlotte played up to their potential and after falling down early in set two, 4–1, would battle back. Every time WKU would start to pull away, Charlotte would fight back. WKU would hold 10–6, 15–10, and 20–17 leads with the 9ers clawing their way back each time. Eventually it would be too much for WKU, as Charlotte rallied to take set two, 27–25, to tie up the match at one game a piece. It marked the first time Charlotte would win a set against the Toppers since 1988.

After the intermission, Coach Travis Hudson rallied the troops and the girls came out swinging. Both teams exchanged points to open the set, but WKU finally scored three points in a row to take a 12–9 lead early in the third set. WKU would continue to push their lead jumping up 18–13, but Charlotte wouldn’t go away, bringing the score within one for a 20–19 lead. The 49ers wouldn’t get any closer as WKU pulled away and win the third set, 25–21.

The big highlight of the third set was the injury to Charlotte’s Alex Boone, who went down toward the end of the set holding her knee and was helped off the court. She wouldn’t return to the game and Coach Hudson talked about it after the game, saying, “It’s a terrible thing for a student athlete who gets to the conference tournament and gets injured. Prayers go out to her from our locker room.”

The fourth set would be monstrous for the Hilltoppers, who fully played up to their ability in the fourth set. Jessica Lucas and Alyssa Cavanaugh took over, pulling out to a 14–3 lead. WKU scored seven points in a row to take a 22–5 lead and put the game away with nothing but a whimper from the 49ers, winning the set 25–6 and taking the match. It was the first time that WKU kept a team to single digits in a set all season.

For the Toppers, WKU had 55 Kills and 116 total attacks. WKU had nine team blocks and 55 digs. Rachel Anderson led the charge with 22 kills, followed by 13 from Alyssa Cavanaugh. Anderson also notched a .529 hitting percentage.

Jessica Lucas dished out 44 assists and three Lady Tops (Sydney Engle, Darby Music and Emma Kowalkowski) had double-digits in digs.

The Lady Toppers will face Southern Miss tomorrow at 1:30 p.m., after the Golden Eagles upset the Rice Owls in the tournament’s second match.