Volleyball Preview: 10/11/13 vs. ULM

The WKU Lady Toppers volleyball squad ends a short three-game home stand tonight as the Warhawks of Louisiana Monroe come to Diddle Arena on Dig4Pink night, and the return of the team’s little sister, Harlie Bryant (who is battling a horrific brain tumor) for the 7th SBC match on the season for Travis Hudson and company. Last weekend, the Lady Toppers swept both Texas State and UT-Arlington inside Diddle, and WKU defensive specialist Ashley Potts and setter Melanie Stutsman were honored by the Sun Belt for their efforts, as both received Player of the Week Honors (which, for Stutsman, was her fourth consecutive).

For those who aren’t familiar with the program or WKU in general, the volleyball team is one of, if not the, best team on campus. The team began the season ranked 21st, peaked at 16 early in the season, but a slew of tough non-conference losses forced the team out of the rankings. And although WKU will most likely sweep Sun Belt play (again), the SBC is a fairly weak volleyball conference, and the Lady Toppers most likely won’t be ranked again during the regular season. However, just like last season, it isn’t out of the realm of possibilities (especially if WKU qualifies and advances in the NCAA Tournament) for the team to finish in the top 25.

Coming into tonight’s match with the Warhawks, WKU ranks 6th nationally in team hitting percentage (.313), and the Lady Tops will be looking for their 38th consecutive SBC match victory, including regular season and conference tournaments, a streak that dates back to 10/7/11, when the Lady Tops beat Troy in straight sets. During that span, and again including the regular season and conference tournaments, WKU has only dropped 4 sets – 3 to now C-USA member Middle Tennessee State in 2011, and the other to FIU last season.

ULM comes into tonight’s game with a record of 5-16 and 1-4 in conference play. In their last match on Oct. 2nd against instate rival Louisiana, junior left-back Marcela Araya became the 5th Warhawk in program history to reach 1,000 digs in a career. Pretty impressive stuff. ULM’s lone conference win came this past week with a 3-2 victory over the South Alabama Jaguars.

Expect tonight’s match to be as about uneven as you can get. WKU comes into the game first in the Sun Belt in three team stats categories, and have at least one representative in all but one individual conference statistic. ULM ranks dead last in 6 of the 7 team conference stats and only has 2 players in the top 10 of individual stats (the afore mentioned Araya is 3rd in the SBC in digs, and redshirt-junior setter Katie Harrington is 9th in SBC assists).

All in all, I expect tonight’s match to be another Lady Topper sweep, and they’ll make little Harile Bryant a happy happy girl.
Prediction: WKU 3 – ULM 0

You can follow all the action tonight over on twitter at @WaveTheRedTowel, and @extrapointwku.

Stand up and cheers.