WKU Weekly Wrapup – 9/29-10/5
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With the dawn of a new week, let us look back and recap what the week of WKU athletics was.
Last weekend alone, with football, volleyball and soccer combined to go 5-0, and this week was more of the same story. This past week saw another undefeated week on the Hill, but how exactly did it all go down?
Football: WKU 31 – ULM 10 (Oct. 3)
In the marquee event athletically on the hill this week, the Hilltoppers traveled to Monroe to battle the Warhawks in front of a national audience (well, the national audience that wasn’t watching Atlanta-Los Angeles in game 1 of the NLDS, or the Browns/Bills on Thursday Night Football). After a sloppy 1st half, the Tops came out firing in the second half, en route to shutting out the ULM in the final two quarters and picking up WKU’s first Sun Belt win of the year. Antonio Andrews, the nation’s leading rusher, ran for 155 yards on 27 carries, and picked up his rushing TD’s number 8 and 9, which also lead the nation. The Tops are off this week before hosting the other team from Louisiana, the Ragin Cajuins, on Oct. 15th (yes, that is a Tuesday) on the four-letter-2 in L.T. Smith Stadium.
Soccer: WKU 2 – Louisiana 0 (Sept. 29)
Head Coach Jason Neidell’s soccer squad opened up Sun Belt play last Friday in a 2-0 shutout over ULM, and hosted UL on Sunday, on a rainy south-central Kentucky day. It didn’t take long for WKU to get going, as freshman Iris Dunn scored the first goal of the game in the 5th minute, and Caitlin Hesse all but sealed the deal with a goal in the 78th minute to sweep the weekend, the state of Louisiana, and start conference play undefeated. WKU keeper Nora Abolins recorded her 4th season shutout, and the 28th of her career, and also saved UL’s 3 shots on goal. Following the weekend effort, Abolins and Dunn were recognized and rewarded by the Sun Belt Conference by naming the pair SBC Defensive Player of the Week and SBC Offensive Player of the Week, respectively.
Volleyball: WKU 3 – Georgia St. 0 (Oct. 2), WKU 3 – Texas St. 0 (Oct. 4), WKU 3 – UT-Arlington 0 (Oct. 5)
While most students on campus either climbed into their beds following class on Wednesday to embrace fall break, or got in their cars and drove home or to their long-weekend destination, Travis Hudson and his two-time SBC defending champion volleyball team headed to Atlanta to face the Georgia St. Crimson Panthers in the Lady Tops 3rd conference match of the season. Not only did WKU win in straight sets (25-19, 25-18,25-12), but sophomore middlehitter Noel Langenkamp had a night for the record books. Langenkamp posted her 8th double-digit kill match of the year, and tied a career high, with 15. She also posted the 5th best single-match hitting percentange in WKU volleyball history, hitting .789.
The Lady Tops returned home for the first time since the WKU invitational in mid-September, and opened up their home conference schedule with a weekend doubleheader against two SBC newcomers (and two lone-star state squads); Texas St. and UT-Arlington. Both matches, as every SBC match so far this weekend, were straight set victories, and WKU has not dropped a set in 18 sets.
The new week of WKU athletics kicks-off today in San Marco, Texas where WKU soccer takes on the Texas St. Wildcats.
Stand up and cheers.